9/11 New York

This is the first time I am ever writing about this-I was not there, but I saw it all in real time –the horrific images which are hard to describe for even now some 15 later  it seems so unreal, yet it is so vivid I actually remember every moment in detail.-where I was, what I was doing; the was with the assassination of John Kennedy. Strange. Hard to put the events into perspective in a few paragraphs.

I remember rather vividly- 9/11/2001 –it was around 9.00am my TV was open, on CNN- as generally it is, but it was on mute as I was  getting dressed to go to the office. The phone rang-it was my daughter telling me to  quickly open the TV-and see what was happening. I put the sound on-and just then I saw the first tower with a huge, gaping smoking dark hole-, the other one next to it was shaking as if from an earthquake. It looked so unreal, that one thought it was just a stunt. Smoke, fire, dust, mayhem was  in the streets below. People were running away from this huge dark, grey rolling cloud that was spreading  behind them in the streets very fast- as they tried to find shelter. Then within some minute-there was a  plane seen in the distance,  coming from the right of the screen,  it looked like a movie scene- and it  kept coming and coming and crashed  into the  middle section of the second building-it seemed to go right through, then  it suddenly burst into  a huge fireball.

By this time other news were coming in-I don`t know what the lapse of time was, but it came on screen-as the Pentagon got hit by an other plane. Everything was on fire-you could see part of the plane in the building itself. They did not say much about this as they kept cutting back to New York- as that seemed to be a larger incident.

There were hundreds of images of New York-people running, screaming looking unreal-like ashen grey figure that had emerged from the dust. It looked like very heavy rain- but it was ash raining-it was like twilight, no sun.Then there were –these bizarre, unreal images of people in the tower waving all kinds of material, people jumping –falling like rag dolls from the buildings- one could not  comprehend the gravity of the situation as it seemed so utterly surreal. 

News was coming in every minute-it was like a movie-it was so fast that one`s mind could not wrap around it. Soon unreal  numbers were coming in-200  fire fighters missing, structures collapsing, people missing-at this point nobody had an idea how many. Within 8 hours more than 450 fire-fighters were missing.  A number of  buildings-skyscrapers,  around the World Trade center were wobbling, shaking, swinging from side to side-you could actually see it-everybody thought many others would topple-some did. The people interviewed  were in total shock. Nobody knew what was happening, nobody knew anything- and all was broadcast live on CNN as things were unfolding. many people thought it was the beginning of World War lll.

The news came in about a 4^th plane-that  had crashed in the fields in Pennsylvania. No one knew how many other planes  there were coming. Everyone was very scared-reporters, journalists and people interview were totally disoriented. One had the idea that this was the beginning some major event- for nobody knew who the perpetrators were. 

There was tremendous anguish among everyone , even the reporters-nobody knew what was coming next. Panic, fear and uncertainty was everywhere. Immediately people were looking for their loved ones-within hours hundreds of sign went  up all over New York-close to the towers, about  missing loved ones. Yet-still a many hours later-all was still burning, and people were still jumping form the building- until suddenly the 2^nd tower collapsed.  It looked like it all imploded inwards in slow motion, took all but 15 second, that was all and so many people dying. It all looked like when they demolish a building-it looked like a movie scene-while you could still see people waving, screaming, jumping as they were being pulled to their deaths. Death and destruction reigned. And nobody knew if there were going to be more attacks or not. 

I watched it all unfold live on CNN for the rest of the day-it took me many weeks to realize  and to comprehend the enormity of this incident-and  that it was not a movie, but reality-where people were killed in front of our eyes, on live TV. That is what instant, live news is-you see all the terrible gore in real time. But when it is like that the human mind cannot follow it , as it is far too fast to follow, the mind just caves in. All chanaged that way-the world changed that way.