Comment A terrible way to wake up (Score 2, Insightful) 1084
A friend called this morning to tell me that a plane had just crashed into one of the World Trade Center Towers in New York, and like so many other people, I watched in horror as the second plane hit. My first thought was for my youngest sister who had just moved to New Jersey and was within 20 minutes of New York. I was imagining her visiting the World Trade Center or checking out New York or any number of senarios that could have her near those towers, telling myself that the odds of that being true were probably nill even as I dialed her number. I was only mildly worried and irritated when all I could get was a busy signal, and I'm hitting redial when news coverage switched to the Pentagon and word came that a third plane had crashed in DC.
My father works in the Pentagon and my other sister works just across the river from the Pentagon. I freaked. My entire family was next door to or inside this entire disaster, and every fsking phone line and cell circuit seemed to be busy or down. I dialed my mother, my father's office, both sister's apartments, their cell phones. ...It took me 2 hours to get ahold of my sister in New Jersey, and she was heading out the door to donate blood and try to help at the blood donor centers (She's a nurse.) She told me the local news was showing people falling from the building because they couldn't see through all the smoke that there was no longer a floor in front of their feet. Her neighbor had a son who worked in the WTC on the 88th floor, but because he was 10 minutes late, he was only on the bottom floor when the disaster occurred and he escaped before the buildings collapsed.
My father works for the DIA and ABC had been reporting that the side of the building hit had been where the DIA offices were. But I finally got a hold of my mother to learn that my father had been in the basement of the Pentagon watching the WTC coverage on TV, and idly speculating about the odds of them surviving a hit if they were next, casually figuring their odds were pretty good since they were 4 levels of walls and security inside. My dad didn't even know they'd been hit until my mother called and told him to get his ass out of there because another plane had crashed into them. When he told her he'd go check and see if it was true, my mother ordered him to get home or else, and to get my sister out of there.
He and a coworker walked to my sister's office across the way because there was no way to get to the cars in the wreck of a parking lot. By the time he got there my sister's company had already been evacuated so he walked to her apartment in downtown DC to make sure she was ok. I finally got through to them on the phone as they were heading south in my sister's car.
While I'm incredibly thankful that my family is safe, I'm also aware that so many other families are not, and this a nightmare we won't be waking up from anytime soon.
Sedai
My father works in the Pentagon and my other sister works just across the river from the Pentagon. I freaked. My entire family was next door to or inside this entire disaster, and every fsking phone line and cell circuit seemed to be busy or down. I dialed my mother, my father's office, both sister's apartments, their cell phones.
My father works for the DIA and ABC had been reporting that the side of the building hit had been where the DIA offices were. But I finally got a hold of my mother to learn that my father had been in the basement of the Pentagon watching the WTC coverage on TV, and idly speculating about the odds of them surviving a hit if they were next, casually figuring their odds were pretty good since they were 4 levels of walls and security inside. My dad didn't even know they'd been hit until my mother called and told him to get his ass out of there because another plane had crashed into them. When he told her he'd go check and see if it was true, my mother ordered him to get home or else, and to get my sister out of there.
He and a coworker walked to my sister's office across the way because there was no way to get to the cars in the wreck of a parking lot. By the time he got there my sister's company had already been evacuated so he walked to her apartment in downtown DC to make sure she was ok. I finally got through to them on the phone as they were heading south in my sister's car.
While I'm incredibly thankful that my family is safe, I'm also aware that so many other families are not, and this a nightmare we won't be waking up from anytime soon.
Sedai
