This is a strange question that I feel sort of bad about asking, but does anyone in this thread know if any Dopers were killed in the 9/11 attacks? I obviously wasn’t around on the boards back then but I’ve read through the old threads and it’s chilling to read the panicked conversations people were having, posting updates as things were happening.
I don’t have a specific question for you, OP, and I don’t know you at all but I’m glad that you made it out OK.
Is it true that had the planes hit an hour or two later, many more would have died? Would you?
Not meaning to be malicious or snarky by saying this. The attacks on the WTC are abstract to me, because I’ve never been there. Real to me is the Pentagon attack, because I’ve been there several times, as well as the potential targets in DC.
The whole day left me bothered, because I was working for a defense contractor, making us real targets. The day after, that fear had morphed into a very pissed-off attitude which I carry to this day.
I’m not aiming this response to MMM. He is the inspiration for my comments.
I read these threads every year, and every year I tear up a little.
Glad you’re still here to read this.
When the Freedom Tower opens, would you go work there if you had the chance?
At the time, I hadn’t been to New York since 1980. (Been there twice this year and loved it.) I have never felt like a New Yorker and likely never will. But I kind of have the same sentiment. I felt a little bad about not being there and sharing the burden.
Do you consider all of the “Salute to 9/11 <whatevers>”-type memorials to be in bad taste? Aside from the SDMB, how do people treat you when they find out you are a survivor?
Thanks for posting about this, vix. I wasn’t a member here in 2001 and it’s very interesting to get your take on this moment in time and your responses to what you went through.
Just for the record, this lame-ass name was abandoned a few years ago. The building’s formal name will be One World Trade Center. The original twin towers were 1 and 2 World Trade Center.
They quickly rebuilt the pentagon.
Wow, Vix, glad you were (are) okay. My brother-in-law’s brother worked in 2WTC above where the second plane hit. However, after the first plane hit the first tower, he started to evacuate and was in the lower floors by the time the second plane hit his tower. He made it out but quit his job and started working from home in Connecticut.
My brother lived 5 blocks away and said the smell of burning flesh was unmistakable. He had plenty of respiratory problems before 911, more afterwards.
This is pretty interesting. I was also wondering how did people at your firm find out what their work arrangements would be. Obviously they couldn’t pass a memo around the office. Did you just receive an e-mail or phone call from your boss? Was word just passed around among co-workers? Or did you yourself just call someone at the corporate office to figure what to do?
Thanks. I don’t believe any Dopers were killed. None that I know of, anyway.
It’s likely true. The work day at the WTC really started around 9:30, so had the planes hit around 10, more people would probably have been caught above where the planes hit the buildings. Plus, it probably would have been impossible for as many to evacuate.
As for me, hard to say. We were in the second building hit. When the first plane hit, WTC staff were telling people not to panic, to stay put. Morgan Stanley’s security chief, Rick Rescorla, ignored that advice and got everyone out. He refused to leave the building until he knew everyone was out, and he died that day.
VunderBob, I know what you mean. It didn’t come across at malicious or snarky.
BMalion: thanks, me too!
Annie-Xmas: Hard for me to easily assess whether I’d work there, since I now live in South Florida. But it wouldn’t be my first choice.
Did you or any of your co-workers have any long-term health problems, for example respiratory ailments, related to 9/11?
I ask because one of my co-workers was a volunteer at Ground Zero and soon afterward was diagnosed with respiratory problems related to breathing in dust from the site. She came back to work here but was never exactly healthy again, and sadly she passed away about a month ago due to a related lung infection.
No, I don’t feel guilty. As I mentioned above, I didn’t even feel guilty, on 9/11, about running right by someone who had fallen while trying to flee the attacks. I do feel good about having helped one of my coworkers to get away from the site. She was staring up at the buildings, paralyzed with fear. I saw her as I was walking away, and went up to her. Made sure she’d called her family, got her to walk away with me. She later told me that she thinks if she’d stayed in the the spot where I’d found her, she’d have been killed. I don’t know if that’s true, but I am glad I helped her. Guilt, though? No.
I haven’t really had to avoid memorials, but I haven’t sought any out, either.
Heh, no. That would be hilarious, though. And I didn’t actually see either plane hit. But believe me, it was still PLENTY FUCKING SCARY.
Ooh, it took quite a while. Several hours. Let’s see… my parents were both in RI and both were working. One of my sisters lived in NYC and was teaching in… the Bronx, maybe it was? I think my other sister was still living in Vegas at the time. But I had an aunt who lived (still lives) in Tribeca, just a few blocks from the WTC. I didn’t have a cell phone, so I walked with the crowd headed away from the site and found a line at a payphone. Waited a while. Tried to call my mother’s school but couldn’t get through. The phone lines were all tied up. Finally got through at my father’s office. I was surprised that someone picked up the phone there, as they usually had an automated answer. Even more surprised that my father was standing right by the person who picked up, but obviously, they were waiting for my call. I asked my father to start calling around to the family. I started walking uptown and stopped in a random store to use the phone. When I eventually got in touch with my sister who was in New York, she was in hysterics. I’m not sure she even remembers that conversation.
As to your second question, no.
How far away were you when the second plane hit? Was the sound deafening?
When you were running was there debris falling? How far away did you get before the collapse?