Serial Game Movie

9 11

9 11

Since everyone is telling their 9/11 stories today, I guess Ill share mine. Having experienced the terrorist attacks on 9/11 up close, this day always bring back terrible memories.

My wife and I were both working in the Financial District, and my wifes office was very, very close to the Twin Towers. I had walked over to my wifes office to drop something off that she had forgotten at home, and I was standing in her office waiting for her to finish a call when we heard the first plane hit the North Tower. Most people on her floor went outside to see what was going on / get a better look, because none of us had any idea what had happened. We were standing outside when the second plane hit the South Tower, although I didnt actually see the impact; it was, however, the loudest noise Ive heard in my life. I thought there had been a massive explosion in the North Tower at first. Even at that point, we werent really sure it was an attack, because we still didnt know for sure what had happened to the North Tower. People had been speculating that a plane had hit the North Tower, but no one we talked to had actually seen the plane go into the tower. All you could see was a giant hole in the side of the building with smoke pouring out.

After the second plane hit, people naturally started to panic. My wife always kept a near-lifetime-supply of bottled water in her office, so we went back inside to get them to hand out to people who were coming down the street from the WTC. Handing out bottled water seemed like a very good idea at the time; we hadnt yet realized how dangerous it was to be so close to the WTC. Partly thats because, despite what everyone says in hindsight, a lot of people still werent sure that we were under attack even after the second plane hit, and so were just standing around staring at the towers rather than fleeing. I wasnt 100% convinced myself, because some people were still claiming that the explosion in the North Tower had been a massive pipe explosion. Anyway, after we handed out the bottled waters and made a few calls on our cell phones to check on friends who worked in the WTC, police officers started telling everyone to clear the entire area immediately. So we started moving down Liberty Street (toward the bridge).

We had only been walking away for about 60 seconds when the South Tower collapsed. I had my back turned initially, but I remember turning around when the rumbling started and seeing the massive cloud of dust and debris rushing toward us. Everyone turned and ran, and I was shocked at how quickly the cloud of dust/debris was on top of us. We barely made it half a block before the cloud effectively engulfed us. (It was very hot.) Once the dust/debris started to clear, it was just pure chaos. Theres no other way to describe it. We moved as fast as we could toward the bridge, but everyone seemed to be running in different directions. (No one really knew where we were supposed to run to; "away from here" was the only real consensus.) Eventually we made it to the bridge, where, like everyone else, we remained for basically the rest of the day.

It was, obviously, the most harrowing experience of my life.

Available link for download