Where were you for 9/11

[Chickenkeev]

I was in France, i hadn't a clue what was happening. Didn't fully have the language, it was like a film. Watching a doc now, bringing it all back.

At university, met my sister in the afternoon abs she said the world reside centre had fallen down. I didn't have a clue what the WTC actually was. I thought it was those twin towers in ?Korea.

I was living in Saudi Arabia. My H was not in the country. Locals were cheering in the offices when the planes hit the towers. We were put on immediate evacuation out of the country as no one knew what was going to happen eg if war was going to break out immediately. We were advised to add head wraps /coverings to our abayas so that people would not know we were Western. It was a scary time- the beginning of a new era of evil.

I was in first year Geography

My teacher wheeled in the television and we sat there like 😮 while he cried. Mum collected me in abject shock. Spent the evening glued to the television.

I was at home with my children. My mum phoned me to tell me to turn on the news.

On an internal flight across Brazil. The flight attendant told me the basics because he thought I was American, but I didn't believe him because he was kind of laughing (I assume through shock, with hindsight) and didn't speak the best English. Found out everything when I landed.

I was meant to be getting a flight home via NYC the next day, but it was cancelled of course and was stranded in Rio for a week.

At work in a TV newsroom. One by one the whole team turned to look at the screens, watching thing unfold, trying to take it it but completely confused. Total silence for a good few minutes (very unusual for a newsroom) then a roar of activity as we set about working out what we needed to do next.

At home ironing watching in horror

On holiday in Florida. Nobody knew what was happening, all we were told was America is being bombed and we don’t know where’s next. We were evacuated from the theme park and although I was terrified it was very calm and organised.
I remember getting back to the hotel and being horrified at what we were watching.

I was in work. My sister had a smear test.

I was working in a bookmakers at the time and it came on the TV behind the counter. We turned all the tvs in the shop to the news channels and just remember all the customers watching in silence.

On maternity leave, travelling to see my DSis when my DH called me tell me. I asked my DSis to put the TV on and we watched the second plane crash 😞 At that point, we knew it wasn't a terrible accident.

In the student union bar drinking £1 pints. Sae a bunch of people gathered round a little TV just after the first plane hit. They pulled the big projector screen down and we watched the second one hit. Sat there for hours and hours in shock.

Corfu.
Me and my friend had gone for a potter around the shops while our husbands sat in a bar and watched football on TV We arrived at the bar and DH said that something had happened in America, I didn’t pay much attention really and said that we were going for a walk because I didn’t want to just sit in a bar all day. Then I heard a huge gasp as the TV showed the towers coming down but I left because I didn’t want to watch (still haven’t seen the footage to this day).

Taking school pupils to a debating competition in Inverness. No radio the whole way and we found out when we went into Tesco to buy food. It was full of shocked people watching in the TV section.

At home, with an engineer fixing my cooker. He spent more time in my lounge with me, both open mouthed, and staring at the TV, not quite believing what we were seeing.

DH was at work. The internet crashed, so they had little idea of what was going on, apart from my phone calls, updating each time another disaster occurred.

My brother worked in the high rise next to the twin towers and watched the second plane hit. 5/7 of his 7 groomsmen worked in those towers and they all lost their lives, leaving wives with young children behind. He ran out of hi building in terror and didn't stop until he had walked for nearly 4 hours home.

My son had just started school and I literally grabbed him and ran back home to try and make contact with my brother. All lines of communication were down. I was beside myself with fear as I knew where he worked. Eventually, at 2ish in the morning he managed to get a call through to me to tell me he was ok. I remember I just sat in a chair and cried as I listened to his tears for his friends. It was horrific and something I never want to experience again.

Too many of my brother's associates lost their lives that day and he has never been the same since. He has spent his life ensuring his friends widows and children are taken care of and have everything they need.

In the school playground waiting on the buses (high school serving a rural area).

Some kids had teachers who had heard and had put a TV on and were talking about it.

The rest of us thought they were making it up and had simply seen a film.

I was at school, primary. In a portacabin because they were extending the actual school building to allow for a third class (tiny village school!). For some unknown reason, the headteacher put the rolling news coverage on the big tv for us to watch.

Home with my 16 month old daughter I was glued to the television in horror I refused to watch the news again I kept getting stupid panic attacks if I did my Dr was supportive he said its natural you realised you were watching people die right in front of you and your brain can't cope right now the news is sensational nonsense your life won't end because you don't watch it

To this day I don't watch the news I can read it but not watch 😕

Just arrived in Kathmandu for a trekking holiday. Taxi driver dropped us downtown after the airport, went into a hotel to change some money and there it was, all unfolding on the tv in the hotel lobby.

At first thought it was some sort of freak accident, then we watched the second plane hit. It was a surreal few weeks being out there whilst everyone was trying to figure out who was behind it.

I had just bought a tv from argos and was setting it up. Those were the first pictures that it broadcast. I remember them saying initially that it was a small light aircraft which had been first to hit the towers. Wasn’t that long after a helicopter crash in Glasgow, so thought it was of a similar size. How wrong we were!

In the scbu with dd who was premature

I didn't get it at the time, at all. I grew up with bombs etc but i couldn't comprehend it at all. And i was old enough that i should have gotten it. But it was so massive and devastating. It was so shocking and awful. I went to NY years later and saw ground zero. The feelings were so strange. It was something like visiting Auschwitz. But not quite the same as it's just there in the middle of town, you're shopping etc and it's just there.

At work in Dublin. I worked for a US company (Pfizer) with quiet a few American colleagues with family in NYC so there was complete panic.
We had the TV on in the boardroom and watched the second plane crash. Just awful.

I had a summer job at a company who was hosting a conference in one of the towers. I remember one really annoying woman coming in and saying something had happened and a guy who I worked with muttering under his breath for her to shut up as she was always so dramatic. Turned out she had reason to be this time. We all watched the events unfold on the one Tv that they had in the office. They lost a lot of staff that day.