Originally Posted by
nypunkgrl511
I am from Long Island, New York. I was at the time attending my second year of college in the Bronx, NY. I will never forget every detail of that day.
I lived in a dorm on campus, and had overslept for class (not unusual
). I literally got ready and ran down the hill to the business building where my class was being held. When i sat down the professor was telling everyone to calm down and that class was being cancelled and that we should all call our families and make sure everyone was ok. I had no idea what was going on! The administration building was right across from the building that i was in, and the student lounge was right on the bottom floor. Walking up to the lounge there had to be at least 100 people inside and out, watching the tv's in there, crying, talking on their cell phones, etc. I couldnt find any of my friends and still had no idea what was going on. I pushed my way through everyone and approached one of the television's and watched as the second plane hit.
I was immediately freaking out...my father was a NYC Police Officer and my uncle is a microsoft engineer who frequently was in the towers fixing computer systems. Besides the other various people that i knew that worked around that area. I tried calling my house, my grandparents house, my dad's cell phone. Nothing. So many people were using their cell phones that it was impossible to get through to anyone. It was also my cousins first birthday and i was planning on calling my aunt after i got out of class to wish the little one a happy. Yea, what a happy day this was going to be.
After finally being able to get in touch with my mother, she told me that my dad was on a golf outing in Pennsylvania with a few other police officers. She had also gotten in touch with my uncle, her brother, and thankfully he was working in jersey city that day. He said that they all went up on the roof of his building and could actually see the towers falling.
The scariest thing was being so close. My college was right on the Hudson River. You could walk down the hill and literally stare at the George Washington Bridge. It was so pretty all lit up at night. But they had started to shut down all of the bridges after a while, and there were checkpoints all over. A day or so later, there was a bomb scare for the G.W. Bridge, and seriously if something like that would've happened, my school wouldve been gone. That is how close we were. All i could think was that if something more happened, i wouldnt be with my family.
Besides all the people that were lost on that day, i think the worst thing for me was the smell. Being that close, driving on the Henry Hudson Pkwy, if anyone knows where that is, you could smell fire/smoke for days. Knowing where it was coming from was awful.
I just have to say that the way that everyone responded and banded together during/after this tragedy was amazing. My father was in the middle of Pennsylvania and after hearing what had happened, got in touch with the Pennsylvania state troopers who then picked him up and had him back to long island within 2 hours. My dad then worked 10-14 hour shifts at ground zero. He retired 6 months later from the police force after that. He said that in all his years as a cop he had never seen such horrifying things. He also lost at least a dozen friends. Me and my friends also walked around our little area of the Bronx with donation cans for the red cross and people were just so friendly and generous. I also cannot believe how many people you dont even realize you are connected to. I need more than two hands to count the people i know that lost someone on Sept. 11th.
Sorry that this post was ridiculously long, but i just kept typing.
Excellent post Punkgrl! THanks for sharing!