9/11 or September-11, 2001: One of the worst terror attacks of the world that destroyed the Twin Towers in New York and along with it thousands of people, property and economy. I was actually getting ready for my first ever travel to the US on 17-Sep., 2001 and this preceded incident made my planning quite painful. (Finally though I did manage to travel on that day).
But more than those, a friend of mine happened to have been inside the WTC at the time of the crash, yes, and when I came to know the details of his narrow escape from there - it was terrific, rattling, and spine-chilling.
I quote below, verbatim, the text from the email that he sent to me on the very next day of the devastating incident in which he had narrated his experience. Read on...
===================================QUOTE======================================
Thursday, September 12, 2001, 10:33 PM, New Jersey, USA
Dear all,
I want to share my narrow escape experience from the World Trade Center (WTC) crash yesterday.
My client's office JPMorgan Chase Manhattan Bank is located at 55, Water St., just 10 blocks away from the WTC. It takes 20 minutes by walk to reach my office from WTC.
Yesterday (11th Sep.), I reached the WTC basement at 8:45 A.M. by the path train. When I was on the escalator inside the WTC, I saw everybody suddenly running towards the nearest Exit. I started to run too, without knowing the reason. When I reached the Exit door of the WTC, I saw smoke and dust spreading. I ran out of the building and looked up. I saw around 20 floors of the tower from which I came out were on fire. I ran very fast (that was the fastest speed ever in which I ran in my lifetime) away from the building. I reached one block and I saw people taking videos and photos. I decided to be as far as possible from the building and I started to walk towards my office. I walked for about 15 minutes and I was 2 blocks before my office building. Suddenly I heard a blast sound and I saw more smoke from the WTC area. I ran to my office building. I reached my desk and checked the internet and found that the second tower was also attacked by a passenger flight. Me and my colleagues made phone calls to our home and friends. We got the message from the Police to evacuate our building around 9:45 A.M. . We came out of the building and found smoke and dust coming towards our building. We started running towards the back of our building, towards the bank of the river and smoke was chasing us. All policemen shouted 'Run' and huge crowd was running away from the smoke zone. After about 1 mile of running we crossed the smoke zone. We started to walk on the bank of river. The situation was panicky. Everybody was scared to go near tall buildings in New York city. All bridges and tunnels were closed for security purposes. So all people were walking towards Queens and Brooklyn (basically away from Manhattan) as per police instructions. We felt safe after crossing Queensbridge which is about 20 miles (we walked for 5 hours [from 9:45 A.M to 2:45 P.M] non stop to reach Queens). From Queens I reached one of my friend's home at Flushing at 3:15 P.M.
It was like a Nightmare. When I watched the TV I saw I had escaped from the location stage by stage only in a few minutes by God's Grace.
I was able to communicate with my wife time to time from my cell and told her I am safe. All the cellphone networks were busy due to the volume of calls made. I was trying my home # continuously to get the line.
These are the good points I noticed during the crash:
1. The policemen and firefighters were so brave that they were sincerely going towards fire for rescue.
2. The public maintained a discipline even when running for lives (Not running over people).
3. I found people standing in queue on the pay phone booths patiently to make phone calls even in such a tough situation.
4. All policemen and media were telling the same statements.
5. The most important one was the speech of the President to cheer up the Americans.
With warm regards,
Pictures courtesy: The internet.
But more than those, a friend of mine happened to have been inside the WTC at the time of the crash, yes, and when I came to know the details of his narrow escape from there - it was terrific, rattling, and spine-chilling.
I quote below, verbatim, the text from the email that he sent to me on the very next day of the devastating incident in which he had narrated his experience. Read on...
===================================QUOTE======================================
Thursday, September 12, 2001, 10:33 PM, New Jersey, USA
Dear all,
I want to share my narrow escape experience from the World Trade Center (WTC) crash yesterday.
Unfortunately I was inside the building when the first plane attacked the building.
My client's office JPMorgan Chase Manhattan Bank is located at 55, Water St., just 10 blocks away from the WTC. It takes 20 minutes by walk to reach my office from WTC.
Yesterday (11th Sep.), I reached the WTC basement at 8:45 A.M. by the path train. When I was on the escalator inside the WTC, I saw everybody suddenly running towards the nearest Exit. I started to run too, without knowing the reason. When I reached the Exit door of the WTC, I saw smoke and dust spreading. I ran out of the building and looked up. I saw around 20 floors of the tower from which I came out were on fire. I ran very fast (that was the fastest speed ever in which I ran in my lifetime) away from the building. I reached one block and I saw people taking videos and photos. I decided to be as far as possible from the building and I started to walk towards my office. I walked for about 15 minutes and I was 2 blocks before my office building. Suddenly I heard a blast sound and I saw more smoke from the WTC area. I ran to my office building. I reached my desk and checked the internet and found that the second tower was also attacked by a passenger flight. Me and my colleagues made phone calls to our home and friends. We got the message from the Police to evacuate our building around 9:45 A.M. . We came out of the building and found smoke and dust coming towards our building. We started running towards the back of our building, towards the bank of the river and smoke was chasing us. All policemen shouted 'Run' and huge crowd was running away from the smoke zone. After about 1 mile of running we crossed the smoke zone. We started to walk on the bank of river. The situation was panicky. Everybody was scared to go near tall buildings in New York city. All bridges and tunnels were closed for security purposes. So all people were walking towards Queens and Brooklyn (basically away from Manhattan) as per police instructions. We felt safe after crossing Queensbridge which is about 20 miles (we walked for 5 hours [from 9:45 A.M to 2:45 P.M] non stop to reach Queens). From Queens I reached one of my friend's home at Flushing at 3:15 P.M.
It was like a Nightmare. When I watched the TV I saw I had escaped from the location stage by stage only in a few minutes by God's Grace.
I was able to communicate with my wife time to time from my cell and told her I am safe. All the cellphone networks were busy due to the volume of calls made. I was trying my home # continuously to get the line.
My wife got phone calls from all friends and relatives in the US. I felt so happy and I thank them all for their concern.
These are the good points I noticed during the crash:
1. The policemen and firefighters were so brave that they were sincerely going towards fire for rescue.
2. The public maintained a discipline even when running for lives (Not running over people).
3. I found people standing in queue on the pay phone booths patiently to make phone calls even in such a tough situation.
4. All policemen and media were telling the same statements.
5. The most important one was the speech of the President to cheer up the Americans.
6. There was full security for people of all religions and foreigners.
With warm regards,
=================================UNQUOTE======================================
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