I was there yesterday when the World Trade Center was attacked. I saw it all with my own 2 eyes, I will never forget the people jumping from the burning tower as long as I live. Nor will I ever forget the screams as the towers fell. (I saw it from the same view point as the animation above)
I heard the 1st plane hit as I was walking into my office 8:40AM I thought it was construction and didn't think much of it. When I got upstairs to my office (BR Guest on Spring St.) turned on the radio (The Howard Stern show (92.3 KROCK)) and began reading my email. I heard about the 1st crash on the Stern show so I ran down the hall to a window and then, I saw the tower in flames. I was about 10 blocks away, and had a good view of the towers. The flames got hotter and higher, I saw a bunch of people jumping out of the windows so they would not get burnt, I'm talking from the 89-90th floors. When the second plane hit I wasn't sure if the plane was a jet liner or a fighter plane, so I thought it was a military attack and I would not get home at all. I could swear I saw a demonic face in the smoke! Prayers were going from every mouth I seen. No one could believe their eyes. The first tower fell like a ton of bricks giving us all a sick feeling in our stomachs. No way could all the people get out alive. People were running up 6th ave at that point and all cars coming from there were covered in white powder. When the second tower fell I was speachless, they then came in the office and said everyone go home, get out of the city. I could not get a phone line out to tell people I was ok. When the 2nd tower fell then internet crashed in the office and MSN was out. I called my father at that point and Ernie (my cousin) answered the phone, He told me they commendered the ferry to bring wounded to the hospitals. (Ernie thought I was working in the WTC)
I called friends from a previous job I had(theknot) and we were going to meet up to find a way off the Island (time 11:30 AM), I never met him there was so much confusion in the streets. I got to Canal and Broadway and thought I would hug the coast away from the blast area and get to the Ferry.
I got just south of canal and something must have fell (maybe part of the tower), a big swurl of thick white smoke coming up Broadway. It totally filled up the street as it hit me it was thick and felt like warm snow, You know that feeling you get during the first snow fall. It smelt like smoke smoke from a fireplace or something. I can see in the thick smoke small burning embers. The police moved the baricade up to Canal st. Then a cop told me the ferry was closed to passengers and for me to go up to the pier on 34th street to get home. I met an older man (Nicky) trying to get home to SI and he came with me. It was then I realised that all the shops were closed, and there was a silence all over the Island. We had to walk from Canal to 34th, no buses were running and there was few cars and cabs. It took an hour but we made it, when we got there we found no boats were going to SI only to Long Island and NJ. At that point a bus pulled up and told us the trains on the west side were running, so I thought we would try to get the 1- 9 and take it as far south as we could then go along the coast to the ferry. We got to the station (10 blocks west from where we were) and the trains were not running downtown. The 2 people in working in the station wern't making it easy for the people they had attitudes. The way they spoke to the people was a discrace. Nothing else to do we took to the streets, and went south.
We got a cab at Madison sq garden and told him to take us as far south as he could. The driver said "I won't charge you, just give me a good tip. He got us as far as Houston st and Broadway by this time everything was blocked from houston to the ferry (I gave him a $20 by the way). We had to walk toward South St, We cut down getting as close as 3 or 4 blocks from the WTC (ground zero). Puddles of puke all over the street from people seeing the towers fall. There was a strong smell of burning plastic all over the place, along with a white misty dust. As we got closer to "Ground Zero" it became dark, Black from all the thick smoke. At this point I can smell something burning which I attributed to being bodies. We got to the waterside by the seaport when the 3rd building fell. I was showered in debree fine building dust and shit. It was like a blizzard police all over the place covering there eyes. I had no protection so all that fine duse got into my eyes and mouth. When we got even with the seaport clouds of thick smoke were all over the place people couldn't breath. I saw these guys grabbing people in the street wrapping towels on their heads and taking them into a Moran tug boat and in the seaport. Then I saw a guy in a SI Ferry uniform telling people take the tug to Staten Island. I said my god I'm saved. I had to climb down a ladder onto the Tug, but I just wanted to get out of there. I refused a towel because I had my shirt over my nose and mouth (they were in limited supply). I was showered in debree again, while I was on the tug, another wall of debree headed toward us on the boat. The Tug got as much people as they could onboard then the tug pulled out and I saw the debree cloud went over Manhattan over to Brooklyn and was streatching to Long Island. The boat went to Brooklyn then stopped in the middle of the water and unloaded the people going to NJ to a NY Waterway ferry. Then we went off to Staten Island I got home a around 7pm.
The boat docked away from the terminal so I had to walk to get to the pickup area. I called my father to pick me up. As I was walking to the pick up area I saw they set up a MASH unit under the terminal. So I walked through and saw the wounded and the dead being loaded on trucks. I got to passenger pick up area and it was empty, there was no cars. I walked to the street and saw big sanitation salt trucks blocking the terminal. They were afraid the ferry would be bombed also. All streets were blocked in a 1 mile radus around the Ferry. So I saw the #44 Bus and jumped on it, no fair the ride was free. I got home my father(John SR) was sent home by the police. We met up and it was over for me.
I took some pictures while I was in the thick of it so I'll post them when I can. In the meantime I'm using the pictures I found on the web. I'll keep them up while I can, I had to put this story up so the people of the world would know what happened to me. I will add updates later.
I saw the good in New Yorkers with lines around the block of people giving blood. People giving water to people on the street. People helping people.
Please join me in praying for those in the World Trade Center and their family's.
God Bless America!!!
"Near the harbor and in two cities will be two scourges the like of which the world has never seen. Hunger devistation and pestulance within, people thrown out by the sword will cry for help from the great immortal God" ---Nostradamus
