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9/11 Travel Memories?


prescottbob

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I was sitting in my hotel in mid-town Manhattan working on a presentation and watching the morning news. I saw a clip about a plane flying into one of the Twin Towers and thought it was a movie promotion. Turned up the volume and learned it was real. Called my husband in Texas and told him to turn on the news. Felt like a sitting duck.

 

Stood on sidewalk outside hotel watching people walk up-town--some covered in dust--all looking up. Went to hospital to donate blood--they only wanted O+. Sirens constant. (Still freeze up everytime I hear sirens.) Called my husband again and told him to call the kids schools and tell them I was OK since they both knew I was in NYC. My daughter's class cheered when they brought her the news.

 

I was traveling with 5 other people and by pure luck one of us had a rent car. The five us drove out at 5am the morning of the 12th. The city that morning was like nothing you've ever seen. No newspapers, no traffic...a very scary ride across the George Washington Bridge.

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We were at work that day.....unfortunately work then was the Pentagon. Obviously and luckily my wife and I made it out safely that day. Seven of our friends were not as fortunate and were lost that day. In 2003 we moved to San Antonio, largely due to the lingering memories of September 11, 2001.

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We were going to leave on a trip to the Pacific North East on the 13th. Well, that got canceled. Everyone was fine with the cancellations: hotels, airline, rental car, National Parks - except for the lady at Crystal Lake who was going to charge us a cancellation fee. I said: "Lady, we have been attacked and cannot get out of the city and you are going to charge a cancellation fee"? She relented.

 

It is a day that those of us in the city will never forget.

 

Well, we are off to the Pacific North East again this September....

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We were at work that day.....unfortunately work then was the Pentagon. Obviously and luckily my wife and I made it out safely that day. Seven of our friends were not as fortunate and were lost that day. In 2003 we moved to San Antonio, largely due to the lingering memories of September 11, 2001.

 

Similar story on this end. We left NY in 2002. I took a peek at your pictures. We have too many Christmas trees, too. :)

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On 9/11 my husband left our house north of Dallas for an early morning AA flight to Newark NJ for a sales meeting for the company he worked for at the time. Flight was scheduled to leave at 8:30 so he left home about 6:00. I had to be at work at 8:00 and was just leaving home when I saw the film of the first crash into the WTC. I was watching when the second plane hit but in my mind something was wrong with the Air Traffic Control or something. I left for work and got there a few minutes late and listened to the talk of terrorism and the additional planes that were crashing. When I got to work I was shaking and immediately tried to call his cell. Nothing. We did not have a TV but did listen to the radio news. I tried calling every few minutes but could not get the phone to ring--just dead air. Finally, about 11:30, he called my office to let me know he was OK. He was at the gate but not boarded when the flight was cancelled. It took 2 1/2 hours for him to get out of the airport. I was so thankful that he was OK and like the rest of America we spent the next few days glued to the couch praying for survivors.

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I was assigned to Emergency Management at the time - in fact working on WMD training and threat assessment. I heard it on the radio as I was getting ready for work. I scooped up clothes and makeup in case I had to stay at work for several days. As I was driving up to the Emergency Operations Center, the first tower collapsed. The rest of the day was a blur, gathering information for briefings and doing liaison with the cities, other counties, and the state. I got home at 10:30 that night and had to be back at work at 6:00 for the beginning of a week 12-hour activation shifts. After pulling into the garage, I got out all my Fourth of July decorations and put them in my front yard.

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DH and I were at Walt Disney World at a character breakfast when the first plane hit. We went over to EPCOT and rode a few rides. We were waiting to go into the World Showcase and, when it didn't open at 11a.m., DH asked if it was going to open. He came back and told me that they were closing the park because of what happened in New York. Of course, he didn't ask what had happened, so we didn't find out until we were standing in line to get a bus back to our hotel and talked to some people who had seen the events on TV.

 

That night, the hotel was very crowded as everyone was eating in the hotel restaurants. Disney did send characters to the hotels to entertain the kids.

 

When we to the airport the following Monday, our shuttle driver told us that this was his first day back to work. There were hardly any people in the Orlando airport and it was eerie to see the uniformed people with guns and dogs walking in the corridors.

 

Our flight back to Detroit had 30 people (at the most). When they started boarding, the gate agent asked for first class passengers, etc., and then said, "You can all just come on up."

 

When we landed in Detroit, it was strange to see all the Northwest planes parked everywhere, and there were no lines at the gates or ticket counters.

 

Needless to say, we were very glad to get home.

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We watched it at home on TV. We had a cruise coming up on Sept. 22 and I remember thinking, well, everything will be back to normal by then. :o Little did I realize our lives would never be the same.

 

I'm originally from NJ and called my son in Secaucus. They could see the NY skyline from their office windows. I was on the phone with him when the second tower fell. I could hear the crying in the background, and the shaking in my son's voice. After that, they all just left work and went home.

 

My DIL was a manager at a day care center in Morristown, NJ. Many of the parents were single parents. If you recall, it was terrible trying to get out of the city that day. The day care stayed open until 11 pm until the final parent (thank God), made it. She had no way of knowing if all of the parents were OK, since many of them worked at the Trade Center.

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Just the night before, my husband and I had started packing for our long-awaited trip to Washington, DC to visit our son who was in the Army, stationed at Arlington National Cemetary as part of the Old Guard.

 

As soon as I heard the news, I started calling him but didn't get an answer but wasn't especially worried because the Pentagon hadn't yet been hit. I left for work and had just pulled into the parking lot when I heard the news about the Pentagon. I still couldn't reach my son and within minutes the circuits were overloaded and no calls were going through. Needless to say, I was a basket case. It wasn't until 6 hours later that we got a collect call from him that he was OK. By then he was already at the Pentagon performing "rescue and recovery" where he remained for the next two weeks. Not knowing if he was OK for those 6 hours was the worst thing I had ever experienced to that point in my life until he deployed to Iraq for what started as a year and ended up being 15 months - that was worse!

 

We cancelled our trip because we knew our son would be unable to leave his post and because all the monuments would be closed. We took a quick trip to Las Vegas instead where it was one of the stranger experiences of my life to be on the Strip and not see another car anywhere. It was just as unreal as not seeing Southwest jets flying over every few minutes. The mood was subdued, the casinos eerily quiet and we should have stayed home because if just felt wrong to be in a place where people go to have a good time in the face of such incredible tragedy.

 

Thanks to all who've posted. I'm reading them with tears in my eyes.

 

Katink

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I cannot let the comment about the passengers being unfortunate to be stranded in Gander, Newfoundland pass without speaking out.

Seven thousand unexpected people landed without warning in a very small town that was ill equipped to deal with such an influx. After the passengers were allowed to leave the planes, which was a slow process due to security concerns, ordinary citizens within a fifty mile radius sprang into action.

Striking school bus drivers threw down their picket signs to man the busses to ferry people to church halls, gymnasia, hockey rinks---whatever was available. Local people turned up with blankets and pillows from their homes. Volunteers from the towns gathered to cook food which was donated by local businesses. Local stores donated emergency comfort supplies as baggage remained on the planes. Local people invited complete strangers into their homes for showers and meals. They worked tirelessly to help them contact their families. Local schools offered internet services.

A book was written about this heartwarming side story to 9/11 and it is called "The Day the World Came to Town---9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim Defede--an American journalist.

I would suggest that the people who came to be stranded in Newfoundland were very lucky to have experienced old fashioned care and concern for one's fellow human beings. If the wonderful people of Gander and environs had not risen to the occasion the result would have been very unfortunate indeed.

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I have read many accounts of the wonderful help given by the good citizens of Newfoundland on that dreadful day. For me it is a classic example of the goodness of ordinary people.

 

Thank you, Gander.

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I cannot let the comment about the passengers being unfortunate to be stranded in Gander, Newfoundland pass without speaking out.

Seven thousand unexpected people landed without warning in a very small town that was ill equipped to deal with such an influx. After the passengers were allowed to leave the planes, which was a slow process due to security concerns, ordinary citizens within a fifty mile radius sprang into action.

Striking school bus drivers threw down their picket signs to man the busses to ferry people to church halls, gymnasia, hockey rinks---whatever was available. Local people turned up with blankets and pillows from their homes. Volunteers from the towns gathered to cook food which was donated by local businesses. Local stores donated emergency comfort supplies as baggage remained on the planes. Local people invited complete strangers into their homes for showers and meals. They worked tirelessly to help them contact their families. Local schools offered internet services.

A book was written about this heartwarming side story to 9/11 and it is called "The Day the World Came to Town---9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim Defede--an American journalist.

I would suggest that the people who came to be stranded in Newfoundland were very lucky to have experienced old fashioned care and concern for one's fellow human beings. If the wonderful people of Gander and environs had not risen to the occasion the result would have been very unfortunate indeed.

 

Thanks sapper1 for expressing exactly what I was thinking. What came to mind in regards to Gander was last year on the fifth anniversary of 9/11. CBC radio had a special on live from Gander with passengers who had been stranded there that day and local residents and they related their memories from those solemn days. From stories about residents who, when it was discovered that there were animals in the cargo area of the planes that had been sitting on the tarmac for hours, sprung into action and managed to get to the animals and provide food, water and a calming influence....to stories of passengers who, while on flights home to the US, collected thousands of dollars between themselves to start up a scholarship fund for students back in Lewisporte. Newfoundlanders may be the butt of many a joke here in Canada, but they are, without a doubt, the most generous and heartwarming people in the country.

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On September 11, 2001 we were on the CRYSTAL SERENITY traveling from Hvar, Croatia to Catania (Sicily), Italy.

 

I had been sitting out on deck all afternoon and decided to go to the cabin for a little rest before dinner. My husband was going to a meeting so I know it was approximately around 4:00 pm (ship time). I turned on the television flipping the channels to see what was on. CNN was broadcasting and I saw only one of the towers left with smoke coming out and within a few minutes it crumbled to the ground. I couldn’t believe it and really started to shake. Shortly afterwards the captain made the announcement that there seem to have been a deliberate attack on the twin towers in NYC, the Pentagon and a plane crash in Pennsylvania.

 

All remaining activities for the day were suspended. The captain and cruise director conducted a memorial service that evening and it was quite touching with beautiful patriotic music and songs sung by the ships talented singer/dancers. Tears were flowing from everyone. It is something I will never forget!

 

Other than this service people remained glued to their televisions the rest of the evening watching the disasters aftermath.

 

We finally went to bed around midnight. Soon after the main desk called and told us someone had been trying to contact us by e-mail from NY. (We live in a suburb just north of the city.) We never register for on-line service when we are cruising. The computer room was closed and would not open again until 7:00 the next morning. Since our daughter-in-law travels quite a bit and also goes into the city quite often for work, I really started to panic thinking that maybe she had been in the city at that time and something might have happened to her. We implored the main desk to notify the computer class teachers to open for us. Regretfully, the computer instructors would not open the room. We didn’t sleep all night and were at the door of the computer room before 7:00 am waiting for the instructors. We told them how disappointed we were that they would not open for us during the night under the circumstances. No apologies were given. They logged us in. The message turned out to be from our Cruise Agent telling us about his experience of walking in to work and seeing the 1st plane go over his head and then crash into the first tower. We were relieved that our family was safe.

 

The cruise went on as planned. It was ending in Athens, Greece on September 19th. CRYSTAL Line always has great security at all the ports they go to so nothing seemed different. Our flight home to NYC was scheduled on OLYMPIC AIRLINES (Greek airlines). A majority of our fellow passengers did not feel safe in going with Olympic Airlines and cancelled their flight plans with them. Many of them booked AMERICAN AIRLINES and DELTA. When we got to the airport, security was very tight. I believe we went through 4 different security areas before we were allowed to proceed to our gate. Most other airlines out of Athens that day had cancelled their flights to NYC. Our fellow passengers were stuck in Greece for at least a couple of days. OLYMPIC took off without any glitches and we landed at home at the scheduled time. It was so sad when we landed and we were taxiing to the gate and saw the smoke where the towers stood.

 

A dear friend of ours worked in the towers and was able to get out without any injury. He said he just ran and ran and ran to get as far away from the area as possible. He saw terrible burn victims though. ---- My nephew lost one of his best friends and the best friends father who both worked for the same company in one of the towers. His friend’s wife was one of the wives who was pregnant at the time. She had a beautiful baby girl a few months later. ----- Another acquaintance of our lost her 21 year old daughter.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Ahoy!

 

Just thought I bring some earlier memories and thoughts back from an earlier thread. I recall being paniced (my daughter lived close to the Pentagon at the time) and pissed (for obvious reasons) that day. I'm just one of those 'oddballs' that still observe such events like 9/11 and those that occurred 7 December, 1941 (and I wasn't even born yet).

 

God Bless America and thank you for such wonderful posts.

 

Bon Voyage and Good Health!

Bob:)

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I was on the Statendam in Ketchikan. I had just boarded the ship in YVR as an officer and had to go through immigration in KTN. The first thing I heard at about 6am was that all flight seeing tours had been cancelled. I turned on the tv and saw a little bit of what was going on; I knew it was bad, so I ran off the ship and called my dad. I told him to turn on the tv, that something major was happening. I then returned to the ship and we were not allowed ashore for a week. It was a very somber time onboard. We made ribbons for all of the passengers, had church services and sang patriotic songs.

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I work in the airline industry and 9/11 was a day none of us would never forget. Everything was going along like a normal morning when control call and told us to start parking anything that arrived at your gate (at that time we were working mainly Saabs,33 seater aircrafts) and to park them tight to allow additional aircraft. When the leads try to question this, we were told just do it. Planes were landing back to back,including some that never fly out of Memphis.

We were hearing comments from the gate supervisors that something big was going on,but didin't know what. When it was announced about the plane crashes,everyone was in shock and ran upstairs.

I wasn't up there watching when the second aircraft crashed into the WTC, but one of the gate agents stated that a hush and a gasp occurred when it happen.

It was ironic that on Friday I was heading out for my first cruise. My friends and I got together the next day to decide if we wanted to go. Our TA had contacted us and told us that we could go at a later date. But we decided to drive from Memphis to Miami instead.

That was the first time that I ever been on a cruiseship with only half the cruisers. Due to the small number of people, everyone had one dinner time. I recalled during the captain's cocktail hour that we expressed on behalf of his multi national crew that they joined the U.S. in morning for what happen and pray for strenght in the days ahead. It was very touching.

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My in-laws were in Mexico City when it happened. My mother-in-law is a nervous flyer to begin with, so after hearing about that, she wanted to drive home to Toronto instead of flying.

 

My husband and I had booked a trip to London that morning, so we were afraid that it was a bad omen, but our trip went off without a hitch. However, the hotel we stayed at was the same one where the double decker bus was bombed right outside two years ago.

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I didn't have any travel experience during that time ... but I had to deal with it. On that Monday morning I had just begun a meeting in Las Vegas of office managers from our newspapers across the country. We had our 4-day meeting, and some of them got to spend another week in Las Vegas. One manager rented a car and drove to Tennessee. Others tried, but every agency's inventory was stripped!

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I cannot let the comment about the passengers being unfortunate to be stranded in Gander, Newfoundland pass without speaking out.

Seven thousand unexpected people landed without warning in a very small town that was ill equipped to deal with such an influx. After the passengers were allowed to leave the planes, which was a slow process due to security concerns, ordinary citizens within a fifty mile radius sprang into action.

Striking school bus drivers threw down their picket signs to man the busses to ferry people to church halls, gymnasia, hockey rinks---whatever was available. Local people turned up with blankets and pillows from their homes. Volunteers from the towns gathered to cook food which was donated by local businesses. Local stores donated emergency comfort supplies as baggage remained on the planes. Local people invited complete strangers into their homes for showers and meals. They worked tirelessly to help them contact their families. Local schools offered internet services.

A book was written about this heartwarming side story to 9/11 and it is called "The Day the World Came to Town---9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim Defede--an American journalist.

I would suggest that the people who came to be stranded in Newfoundland were very lucky to have experienced old fashioned care and concern for one's fellow human beings. If the wonderful people of Gander and environs had not risen to the occasion the result would have been very unfortunate indeed.

 

Which planes were diverted here? I never heard this story.

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I had to do a little bit of "googling" to verify my memory but there were over 50 planes diverted to Gander, just about doubling it's population in one day. Here's a link to a story recounted by one of the cockpit crew of a Delta flight that was diverted that day:

 

http://www.butlerwebs.com/tragedy/default.htm

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We were supose to go to a wedding in Ireland on 9/17. A lot of planes cancelled their flights to europe. In order to get the couple home to Ireland we gave them our tickets because Aer Lingus still had flights. We felt it was a lot more important for them to fly then us.

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I flew in to LaGuardia on the night of 9/10 about 9pm. It had stormed earlier in NY, so my plane had been delayed about 4 hours. It was then crystal clear and we flew around lower Manhattan, with a fabulous view of the WTC. 12 hours later, they were struck. DD was on a business trip in Dallas, fortunately with colleagues, and they rented a car and drove back to Boston together.

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Ahoy!

 

Thanks again. Time for this thread to near it's end till next year.

 

For those who perished, the relatives and the friends of the aforementioned and 'all of us' as a nation that mourn and observe that terrible day I offer the following: (For those whose 'wounds' have yet to begin healing please skip this link)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8adcnJSH-I

 

We will endure. God bless us all.

 

Bob:o

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I can't belive it has been six years!

 

We were in Texas. Amarillo. James and I were driving coast to coast. We were woken up by the chamber maid and we asked her to wait a minute whilst we got ready. James turned on CNN and then woke me "the twin towers are on fire!"

 

WHAT?!?

 

I knew my parents were due to be in New York about that time on the SS Norway, as it happens they had been there a few days before and were safe in mid-Atlantic.

 

We watched the whole thing unfold in the hotels lobby with staff, train drivers from the local train depot and some construction workers. I vividly remember making lots of coffee for everyone, because that was something normal. Something real. Whilst what we were watching was like a movie.

 

I remember we tried and tried to get a phone line home (to the UK) to tell our families we were safe and well, but we couldn't. We later learned that most of the transatlantic lines were routed through the WTC. So we decided to send a telegram. Off we went to the supermarket, which had the nearest western union. The peoples faces were just blank, unable to comprehend what they had seen. We weren't able to send a telegram, I forget now why, but were told to go the library instead. So we did and managed to send a group email.

 

We spent another night in Amarillo where the hotel fed and watered us for free! Amazing. We thought our options through and finally managed to talk to friends and family back home. We decided we wanted to come home, be with our loved ones. Then we called American and couldn't get our flights changed or book new tickets until who knew when. Same story again and again. So we thought we would check ships crossing. We came across the QE2. Leaving on Sunday from New York. That would later change to Boston as her normal pier was set up as a temporary morgue.

 

We booked on that the next day. Then dorve hell for leather across the US. We passed so many longdistance plates. People just couldn't get a flight anywhere, we had to renew our hire in Oklahoma city anyway and the day we did that was the day the first flight arrived after 9/11. 8 people were on it. 8! The car hire people were dreadful. Tried to take our car away even though it was booked for another month. Even though the renewal was a formality check in with the rental people.

 

We arrived in Boston late on the evening on the 15th. Found a motel and slept. The next day we packed all of our stuff up and headed to the dock. We sat outside opposite Boston Logan Airport for about 10 hours as there was a bomb scare and the ships were held offshore. We finally made it onto the QE2 and the horror stories we heard will stay with me forever. We honsetly drank the ship dry, but there was never any trouble. It was just people sat talking into the early hours. Trying to comprehend what had just happened. Trying to figure it out.

 

My industry collegues have their own tales to tell about that horiffic day. Too many to write here, but each poignant and heartbreaking.

 

About a month after we attended a memorial service in the UK with New York's finest. Heroes to a man.

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