I was going to create this thread but MT beat me to it
I have to say a couple of things. I live in NYC, I came from Italy like 6 + years ago so I had been living here for a year when the attacks happened.
I met a lot of special people, specially around the downtown area. I remember knowing a hot-dog guy who used to sell them just outside of tower 1, he sold the best ones in NYC, and almost everytime I came back from school, I'd visit him and chat with him for a little while.
On September 11, I was in school going to my second period class, when suddenly a girl ran across the hallway crying helplessly. A teacher stopped her and asked her what happened, and that's when I heard the most horrible words I had ever heard..."they've hit the twin towers! my parents are working there!!!!"...those words were so powerful, but so powerful, that made me think a thousand things at once. After 1 minute or so, I heard a fire alarm in the school, we all started evacuating the building, but I was still lost...I couldn't talk to anybody and I wanted to, eventhough I knew that nobody would give me a right answer. Every body was desperate....crying, some girls were sitting down on the floor crouched up so nobody could see them cry, some were praying.
By the time I got to the main exit, I heard a teacher who cried "Oohh my GoooD! this can't happen!!! I got off the line and went to the side hallway, in there was the security room with a small TV...I wish I had never been so curious, I witnessed live horror, the second tower had been struck by another airplane. I've always been a man of strenght; my father raised me with this "macho" carisma and always thought that men were not allowed to cry; but when I saw this:
Tears ran down my face....a security guard then pulled me out the room.
At that moment I thought of my uncle, who worked nearby the towers.
Teachers and security was gathering all the students, me and a couple of buddies decide to climb the fence and run home. We did.
As I was on my way home, which is pretty far from school (I always took the school bus) I saw people running to all directions, I saw firetrucks, police cars, SUVs, storming towards downtonw Manhattan.
Then, all of a sudden I heard an old lady saying "they've hit the pentagon".
I gotta tell ya, it's a feeling that you get in your heart when you know that something really bad to your family has happened...or when you've done something wrong and you're about to get caught...it went to the point that It hurt a little bit, but physically I mean.
I couldn't stop to see what the lady was about, all I wanted to see was If my uncle was ok. He had been like a second father to me. I kept running and I crashed with a guy who looked homeless, he had terror on his face...and It was contagious. I ran in between some buildings canal street and 2nd Ave when I could see the towers burning like hell.
I stopped and stared at them with disbelief, confussion, desperation, anger, fear and any bad feeling you can imagine. I kept
walking until I remembered my uncle again and I started running. I had ran a block and a half when a cop stopped me and told me to go the other way; I refused and told him that my uncle worked near WTC, he didn't listen to me and started walking towards me...call me stupid but I ran back the way I came just go aroud the block and keep running on a diferent street. It took me 2 minutes to do so, once I was on third Ave. It was closed. Full of police cars and wooden barriers. I didn't know what to do, all I did was to stare at the towers...burning and people crying. It was like a very bad nightmare.
I went into a Delicatessen near where I was, they had a tv there. You could easily take anything you want since the owners were busy with their eyes stuck on the TV...I asked them why don;t you go outside? they didn't respond. Maybe they were too afraid, or maybe they didn't want to believe it, just like me.
I didn't have a cell phone because my mom wouldn't allow me to. So I just asked for theirs...one looked at me and pointed at the counter where he had it. I grabbed it and call my mom, but it was worthless, the signal was down, I tried 9/11, nothing.
I looked at my watch, it was around 9:45 AM, I walked out of the deli, hoping for the fire to be gone somehow. 5 of the 8 cops were gone, but they were still on guard. Right then I had this crazy idea, I said, what if I go into the subway and I just go through the other exit of the station. I ran back and I found the number 5, I went down and came out right at across the block that the cops were guarding.
I came out..........just to see how the first tower collapsed.
I started crying guys, I was thinking of all the people who were trapped inside....all the innocent brave firemen, policemen, and other people who went inside to help others ecape.
I started running as hard as I could, but with fear at the same time.
I was getting closer to Ground Zero, people were running on the opposite direction as I was...I guess they were being smart, but me, all I thought was of my uncle.
I got closer and closer and noticed a huge cloud of dust and smoke, I started coughing but I didn't care. I encountered another officer, though this time it was a woman...she grabbed me by my wrist and the pulled me into an alley...she yelled at me : WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!!!????. I was crying for my uncle and she said, you're gonna get killed!! she took me into her car but she stayed outside. I sat and looked down to my legs and asked God to keep my uncle alive...just then, I felt the car shaking, It was the second tower collapsing.
I got out and cried more...damned, I've never cried like I did that day.
The woman told me to get back in the car, but I started running not towards the towers..but back home.
I had learned that whatever happend to my uncle, it was on God hands now and that I had nothing else to do but to run and seek for my mom. Whom I knew she was safe.
I looked back and saw a horrible grey, beige cloud of dust. It must have been half a mile away. I just kept running but at one point I judt decided to get into the subway station once again.
To my surprise, I found dozens of people hidding there too...I could contemplate the horror on the people's faces. Some looked at me like If I had an answer for them, I just looked up and asked..why?
Later on I got home and my mother wasn't there...I could call her becasue the lines were down, but I just turned on the TV and watched news...eventhogh I had experienced it, I wanted to see more. And that's when I realized what had happened at the Pentagon and at Pennsylvania.
I asked to myself, is there another target? and where? I turned off the TV and layed down on my bed and I heard my mother coming in, I went to hug her and I wet her shoulder with my tears. We asked eachother where we had been at the same time. I asked her for my uncle and she was clueless about him.
I looked down again. After hours of hearing sirens and alarms, someone knocked the door, I thought it was out next door neighbor who came every second just to see if uncle was here, but it was my uncle who was standing right in front of me. He looked shaken and sweaty, I hugged him and told him that I was looking for him. He told me that he hid on another building nearby the place but that he was safer there.
I went out to look for my school friends and I found many of them outside their homes. But some were missing...maybe looking for their parents just like I did.
It has been 5 years since terrorism struck the heart of America. But I'll remember like if it was yesterday when I had my very worst live nightmare....
Let's dedicate this thread to all of those who Died for others...the heart of so many heroes who fought for freedom and for those who are still in the war against terrorism. Even if you're in Europe, Australia, Asia or any place...leave your thoughts of 9/11 and to all the american people in this forum...we know that these colors don't run and that freedom is much bigger than the WTC.
We will never forget.....
PS: ohh and about the hot dog guy....I never saw him again......
Ciao!