zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

I arrived at the World Trade Center on the PATH train a few minutes after 9 AM. The first plane had already hit the North Tower. I evacuated to the street with everyone else. I looked up and saw flames engulfing the mid section of the North Tower.

I walked up to Broadway, around 250 yards. At the point the second plane hit the South Tower. Debris was raining everwhere. We all (and I mean thousands of we's) ran for our lives.

Around an 1 hour later I watched in horror from the 37th floor of 60 Wall Street (JPMorgan Chase) as the top 40 or so stories of the South Tower collapsed. Even though I was several blocks away, the air was so thick with soot it became midnight outside.

We evacuated our building and made our way to the East River the opposite direction of the Trade Center. The soot was 2 or 3 inches deep in some places on the street. Everyone held damp clothes over their faces because of the soot concentration.

I walked uptown and was able to get a train back to New Jersey at Penn Station.

There were probably 50,000 people in the Trade Center. Judging by what I saw there, I expect that over 10,000 died in front of my eyes this morning. I don't know how many of my friends and co-workers were among them.

I wasn't injured, at least not physically. But I saw many many who were. It was not a good day.