I’ve been pretty shaken up today and just haven’t been able to come up with any words to post. I still can’t. All I can do is offer my deepest condolences to everyone affected by this tragedy.
This just in…
Weather forcast for Kabul, Afghanastan tomorrow:
Cloudy and 3000°
Keep the news coming, the boards have been my best source for news from these horrible events
Also, what has come of the situation in Whitehorse? And what was the deal with the plane that landed in Cleveland?
MSNBC reports the attack on Kabul isn’t a US action. Cruise missles would have had to gone over Pakistan.
CNN is getting some amateur video of the second plane hitting the south tower. They’ve showed two different clips so far. I’m chilled to the bone. I still can’t believe this.
Has anybody heard any solid estimates of how many have died? I’m afraid the total may be horrendeous. The towers normally housed how many thousands of people during a normal day?
Jesus, this doesn’t seem real to me. I keep seeing images from the days attacks and the more I see the less I feel normal. It’s fucking madness. I’ve never felt so angry and sad over something that happened thousands of miles from me. This isn’t blind patriotism, but … I don’t know what.
It’s not America I’m sad for (yet) it’s the people. What the fuck - thousands of people!
I’m sorry this is just too weird. Unreal.
Just noticed the flags here (Ottawa) are flying at half mast, as I suspect is the case in lots of other countries right now.
The best guesses right now are that the explosions in Kabul are caused by a rebel group in the north (“the Northern Alliance”) whose leader was killed yesterday in strikes by the Kabul government. White House has now officially denied being involved with what’s happening in Kabul right now.
Just got this on the Canadian Govt system (time of origin 3:15 PST)
“The Canadian Government has issued instructions that all Canadian Federal buildings and institutions across Canada and overseas will fly the Canadian flag at half-mast until further notice to honour the memory of those who died in today’s attacks in the USA.”
Of course there are no numbers being reported yet, but I was on the phone with my father a little while ago and he said there was a man on the news who’d been on the 92nd floor of WTC Tower 2. He said that his entire department got all the way down and out of the building to safety from that high up, using the stairwells, before the 2nd plane hit their building. That’s pretty good news and somehow gives me hope that a lot more people got out (at least in that building) than we’ve been thinking up to now. I mean, unless they were all dilly-dallying (which I find hard to believe), if people had enough time to get down from as high as the 92nd floor, shouldn’t all the people on all the lower floors have been able to get out, too, given that they had even fewer flights to get down? Let’s hope and pray.
That’s the best news (relative term) that I’ve heard all day, Shayna. The only thing I could think of everytime they’d show images of the towers collapsing is how many people might have been inside.
As it stands the most “sensational” shot they keep showing is the second plane hitting the south tower. It was such a tremendous impact with such a huge fireball – Jesus I can only hope everyone was gone. Anyone within in 10 floors of that impact must have been killed instantly.
I just realized something sad. You’d think that this would have a calming effect on people in areas that aren’t affected. Maybe after the initial shock wears off it will. But now people are very tense. I’ll spare you the details, but Mr. Rilch got testy with his dad on the phone. Then I panicked and begged the payroll company when my check didn’t arrive. Then Mr. Rilch and I had a few words.
It’s all ironed out now. Mr. Rilch and his dad ended on fairly good terms, as did he and I, and I didn’t completely lose it or threaten the payroll company. In fact, the second person I talked to even said, “Take it easy…I know this is a rough day. For everyone.”
So people are tense, and it’s coming out this way. But the payroll worker had an attitude that I hope others have: Let us not tear each other apart, because if we do, the beasts will win.
Rilch, I understand the phenomenon. I just yelled at my dog for scratching herself. I’m very tense.
Latest sad headlines from CNN: 200 NYC Firefighters Presumed Dead - 78 NYC Police Officers Missing.
What’s also sad is with each shocking headline, I’m less and less shocked. I’m expecting the worse.
You’d think, huh?
I’m in Phoenix with no one that I know of personally* involved in any way and yet I sat in my office crying for the majority of the day. I’m edgy and, quite frankly, frightened. I’m still crying off on and on. I don’t think I’ve been snippy with anyone, but I think that’s only because I did my very best to avoid everyone.
I can’t think enough to be able to put words down here so I’m going to stop, please forgive any misspellings, typos, or generally poor structure.
*excluding my fellow dopers who my heart and good thoughts go out to.
Oddly enough the x-10 spy camera popup ad also now contains a plea for the Red Cross.
-Myron
They’ve been showing a clip in the last hour or so showing the second crash from the ground, on the side it hit. The plane went completely inside the building before it exploded. :eek:
I noticed that earlier myself, I had the first good thought about the X-10 and pop-up ads ever.
They just reported that as many as 200 New York firefighters may have been killed when the second WTC tower collapsed as they were responding to the fire in the first.
“One woe doth tread upon another’s heel, so fast they follow…”
*Rilch, I know how it feels, sister.
I got a bit testy with my kids today. They’re toddlers (age 4 & 2), and were being their normal, rowdy selves. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t bother me. But today, it did.
I don’t have TV right now. So I’m trying to read the news on the computer, and listen to the radio. The kids normal loudness just seemed to be so much louder, and I snapped at them.
Of course, I apologized and gave them extra cookies. But I’ve never experienced anything like this, and it shook me badly.
One thing I’m glad of, though, is that my kids aren’t old enough to comprehend. How could I explain? How could I even begin to try and tell them something like this? Especially after I got the news from my own mother, who called me because she “wanted to hear her children’s voices.”
Reuters and ABC have reported that an anonymous official inside the White House has said that they are now 90% sure that Bin-Laden is responsible. They are 100% sure that knives or knife-like weapons were used instead of guns.
"Bin Laden is wanted in the United States for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people and injured more than 4,000.
Atwan said anti-American sentiment in the Middle East was at its peak and moderate Arab governments had been ‘‘embarrassed’’ by what they saw as Bush’s reluctance to lead peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
``The more moderate Arab governments were pleading with the American administration to intervene and to resume its sponsorship to the peace talks and put an end to the Israeli aggression. The Bush administration let them down,’’ Atwan said.
He said the United States, if convinced that bin Laden was behind the attacks, would probably retaliate in Afghanistan (news - web sites) where bin Laden is thought to be in hiding.
``I will not surprised that the Americans will send their cruise missiles to Afghanistan. There is no other country because bin Laden is in Afghanistan.’’