9/11 Stories
Craig
I was working as a foot messenger at 130 Cedar Street on the 11th floor, just the other side of the parking lot from 2WTC. I walked through the concourse of the WTC at 8:30 that morning, thinking nothing of it, like I did every morning.
I got in to work and went to the bathroom. When I came out one of my coworkers told me that 1WTC had been hit. I didn’t believe him at first, but I turned on my radio and heard the news. I then opened the window to look out and saw someone’s guts on the sill.
I went into the break room to try to get a handle on the situation. I sat down and leaned on a wall. Suddenly the wall shook. The second tower had been hit. I grabbed my messenger bag and ran down the stairs with everybody else.
Body parts littered the street. the first thing I saw was a hand (I don’t know when, if ever, that image will leave my mind). I ran to the corner of Washington and Rector to call my wife and let her know I was okay..
I then headed to 20 Exchange Place, where the agency that had given me the assignment was and let my counselor know I was okay. From there I went to the corner of Maiden Lane and William Street to call my mother. I was on line for the phone when I heard a rumble and we all began to run. I turned to someone next to me and asked what was happening. “The towers falling!” he said. I didn’t look back, I just ran.
Somehow I got to the lobby of 100 John Street and a guard ushered us into a lounge in the back where I watched the second tower fall on T.V. I hung out there for a while and called my wife and mother again on borrowed cell phones. At 12:00 someone went out and got us some fruits for lunch. I was grateful because in my haste to get out I had left the lunch that my wife had made me in the fridge back at the office.
At 2:00 I realized that things had calmed down enough and started home following the crowd over the Brooklyn Bridge. I then took 4 trains to get from Downtown Brooklyn to Ridgewood, Queens where I live. My church was holding and early prayer meeting so after dropping my stuff off at my house I went to church and poured out my anguish to the only ONE who could understand this tragedy.
Craig