I blogged this on 9/10/2003

Tomorrow is the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks...

I remember being in third period, Mr. Ahlsen's Chemistry class in room 203. It was a few minutes before 9:40 when Mr. Touretz announced that a "national tragedy" had taken place that morning. Everyone in my class immediately became quiet. Then he said what had happened, that two airplanes had hit the twin towers. I don't think he initially used the word "terrorism" or "terrorists," so I couldn't put two and two together and realize that it was intentional. He said that third period would be extended through fourth, and students were to remain in their classrooms unless they wanted to attempt to contact their family members. After Mr. Ahlsen said something (which included the word "terrorism"), I started shaking as if I was freezing, yet I was not cold at all.

Mr. Ahlsen took the class into the small room in between his and Dr. Hazan's, and there we all crowded in to listen to the radio which was tuned to WCBS 880-AM. I believe it was just as their top-of-the-hour tone sounded when one of the anchors said that one of the towers had just crumbled. It was so surprising because no one was expecting that one of the major symbols of New York could come down like that. She then said that 50,000 people worked in the Twin Towers, and I started to think about all of the people who were trapped inside, still shaking.

At 10:30, it was time to move to fifth period, which was lunch for me. As I made my way through the halls, I was stunned to see the students standing right outside the guidance office crying and hugging each other. This was the first time I cried, not only for the sadness that everyone was feeling, but also because I was joyed at seeing everyone coming together in such a way that I would have never expected.

In lunch, I felt sick not knowing what was going on. There was no radio to listen to and no TV to watch. For 45 minutes, I was uninformed, and that made me even more scared.

Sixth period was Computer Programming. That's when I found out that the second tower had collapsed just as I was leaving the Chemistry lab. Mrs. Phillips had us continue to work on our projects, and I actually felt better being in that classroom. Somehow, the usually stressful task of making computer programs made me feel relieved.

Seventh period was Global Education, and Mr. Baierlein had the radio (880 again) on. I think he did a good job at explaining everything to us and trying to calm everyone down. He did, however, make one huge mistake: He said that he wanted to end the rumors that the Twin Towers had been attacked because it was really two other buildings in the World Trade Center complex. This made me confused for the next few hours. (The next day, he apologized for this error, saying that he was uninformed and couldn't believe that the actual Twin Towers had fallen.)

Then came English, and I remember Mrs. May trying to make some kind of a statement on the day's tragedies, but she didn't really make sense. She kind of laughed it off, which bothered me a lot. And finally, I had Math ninth period. I don't remember Mrs. O'Brien making any comment about what had happened. All she did was teach a normal lesson. (Apparently she taught right through Mr. Touretz's announcements that day.. Typical Mrs. O'Brien, but still stunning.)

That whole day during school, kids were leaving left and right. An announcement broke into class seemlingly every 5-10 minutes: "..Would you please send so-and-so to the main office for dismissal?" A good number of people were gone by the end of the day (I'm not good at estimating numbers of people, so I won't).

When I got home, I was happy to see my mom and my dad. Then I wanted to watch TV for the rest of the day because that is one of my hobbies. Being able to hear the information was somewhat calming for me, but I also heard a lot more and it made me mad. And for the first time, I saw the video of the 2nd plane hitting the tower. Then I saw them collapsing. Then they showed pictures from the streets of New York, looking more like a war zone in a third world country rather than one of the biggest cities in the world.

I remember my parents went out to play tennis later that evening to try to relax. So it was just my sister and me at home (along with our dog, Whitney). We heard one loud airplane outside in the sky, and it was very scary because the FAA had grounded essentially all airplanes in the country. We realized that it was probably a military jet or something like that. That night, I had trouble sleeping because I kept thinking about what had happened that day.

Dan Rather's open of the CBS Evening News at 6:30: "A stunning and cowardly strike on the United States. Terrorists send mighty skyscrapers crumbling to the ground. Many innocent people are dead. The President vows the killers will pay for this attack on America. (open) September 11th, 2001. You will remember this day as long as you live. Good evening again, this is CBS News continuing coverage of the Attack on America, a series of coordinated terrorist strikes today at this country, its people, our freedom. Strikes that came without warning. Four U.S. commercial jetliners were hijacked, two crashed into the World Trade Center here in New York City, and sent the giant Twin Towers, filled with workers, crumbling to the ground. A third hijacked airliner slammed into the seat of American military power, the Pentagon. The fourth hijacked airliner, target unknown, but possibly a target intended in or near Washington, went down in Southwestern Pennsylvania."

Last year, I remember the assembly we had at school to mark the first anniversary. It was so quiet in that North Gym as the selected students recounted how they felt that day. The only other sound that you could hear was that of crying. And yes, at more than one moment, I cried too. I was comforted when one girl gave me a hug after she saw me like that. And that giant American flag looked wonderful.

I'm glad that we won't be having another assembly tomorrow. As appropriate and well-done as I thought last year's was, I simply do not want to shed many tears in school again. I'm sure that Mr. Touretz will make at least one announcement at around 8:45am. That's when I expect a moment of silence to take place as it will be two years to the minute when the first plane struck the North Tower.

How will I be observing tomorrow? I don't think I'll be doing anything too special. I have three "flag shirts" and I will be wearing them for the last three days of this school week (I started today). I just took out my CBS News "What We Saw" book, and I plan on reading that tomorrow during my free time (in study hall). I also took out the DVD that was included and I watched some of that this afternoon. It is quite sickening to watch that footage once again, but I think it is necessary to do so at least once a year so that we can remember how we felt on 9/11/01. Unfortunately, TV networks and stations will probably refrain from airing this more than a few times tomorrow because it may anger some. I think it should be aired and it should get us angry. We can't let those terrorists win and we must bring justice to them. I don't feel safe with Osama bin Laden or any of his henchmen out there.

Here are two good websites to look back on 9/11:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/day.section.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/september11/main500249.shtml

That's all for now...

I'll Never Forget

I'll never forget how beautiful that Tuesday morning in September was.

I'll never forget when the principal came on the loudspeaker at around 9:40. It was the second week of school everyone was still trying to get back into the swing of things. I was in Mr. Ahlsen's tenth grade Chemistry class when Mr. Touretz announced that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. I can't remember for sure whether he said the word "terrorism." But I remember everyone being confused and shocked and sort of silent.

I'll never forget listening to WCBS 880 on the radio shortly after that announcement. At 9:59, the anchor reported that the South Tower had just collapsed. We all just looked at each other. I was eager to find out how it was being covered on TV, being the news junkie that I was (and still am).

I'll never forget seeing dozens of students crying outside the guidance and main offices. The change of periods had been delayed but then they tried to have the school resume with the usual schedule. This was the day before most students had cell phones and so they were lining up to get in touch with their family. Some would eventually learn that their parents were not coming home.

I'll never forget the constant announcements into classrooms asking for specific students to report to the main office to go home. Throughout the day, classes became emptier and emptier. Some teachers tried to go about their usual routine. Mr. Phillips still had us work on some computer programming. Mrs. O'Brien tried to teach a little.

I'll never forget the misinformation of that day. My global history teacher Mr. Baierlein tried to clear up some of the misinformation and announced that, yes, two buildings in the World Trade Center had collapsed but that it was NOT the Twin Towers. (He apologized to us the next day.) There were reports that the State Department had been car bombed and other planes were still up in the air. It seemed like the attacks would never end.

I'll never forget coming home off the bus and rushing to watch the news coverage. This was the first time I was seeing the plane crash, the buildings crumbling, the people running away from the dust cloud, the new skyline and the damage at the Pentagon and Shanksville, PA. It was one thing to hear about it but it was so much more disturbing to actually see it.

I'll never forget being home with my sister that evening while my parents were out playing tennis. We heard planes overhead and that was scary considering that all commercial flights had been grounded. We quickly realized that they were fighter jets, which was both comforting and unnerving at the same time.

I'll never forget how annoyed I was with the way the middle school handled the day. My sister said they made an announcement telling all teachers to lock their doors and windows but said nothing more for a little while. That's what you say when there's a person running around the building with a gun. What a way to create panic.

I'll never forget watching the CBS Evening News with my sister and seeing close-up video of a person jumping out of one of the Twin Towers. We had heard about how people had jumped that morning but that was the first (and last) time I actually saw it.

I'll never forget the photos at Ground Zero of missing loved ones.

I'll never forget how no survivors were found after the first few hours. Later that week, Mr. Touretz tried to announce some good news to the school: A survivor had been found at the World Trade Center site. It turned out not to be the case -- it was a rescuer who had fallen and needed to be rescued. It was not someone from the initial collapses.

I'll never forget how we could smell the smoke from the World Trade Center fires by that Friday, even all the way out here in Suffolk County. The local weather reports on the news included in what direction the wind was pushing that plume of smoke. The schools even had to cancel outdoor activities that day because of the poor air quality.

I'll never forget the rumors that more attacks were imminent. There was a widely reported story a few weekends after 9/11 that an attack on Boston was soon to happen. It seemed like we would never be free anymore.

I'll never forget how the number of those killed kept decreasing as duplicate records were merged, and how I hoped that it would go all the way down to zero.

I'll never forget the stories of heroism on United Airlines Flight 93 and Todd Beamer's "Let's roll."

I'll never forget the November 12th American Airlines Flight 587 crash in Queens and how it made us think the terrorists had struck again.

I'll never forget the many attempted attacks since and how lucky we've been that none of them have been successful.

I'll never forget the sacrifice of thousands of military members and their families that fight in the wars overseas to keep us safe at home.

I'll never forget.

The Earth Moved And I Felt It... Finally

It was seven or eight minutes before 2:00 yesterday when I felt it. I had just gotten back from lunch outside across the street at Jake's with my boss Sharon and we were still settling in. I was trying to catch up on Twitter and Sharon called home to reach her babysitter to check in on the baby (she had just returned from maternity leave the day before).

I felt a little movement at my desk but didn't immediately think much of it. I can often feel people walking by, especially when they're delivering mail or when someone is walking quickly into my office. But the shaking lasted more than just a second or two. Maybe someone was rolling some sort of cart with heavy packages? Nope. I noticed that the floor lamp in front of me (which I've never turned on in the almost one year that I've worked at CBS 2... it's not plugged in) was swaying slightly. I felt sort of dizzy, or at least thought I felt dizzy. It kind of reminded me of the shaking you'd feel in the upper decks of Shea Stadium sometimes. So my first reaction was to tweet.



Then I quickly thought: "Hmm, wouldn't it be cool if this is an earthquake? But it's probably not." I remember a Saturday or Sunday morning around 2002 when an earthquake happened up in Plattsburgh. I was on the couch watching TV when my mom came from upstairs asking, "Did you feel that?" I hadn't felt a thing. She was in the bathroom and heard the shower doors rattle suddenly. As this was before Twitter and Facebook, we actually had to wait a few minutes until we heard confirmation of the earthquake on WCBS NewsRadio 880. I was disappointed I had missed that one so I thought yesterday: "Finally!"

I went into Sharon's office next to mine and asked, even though she was on the phone, "Do you feel that?" She said no. Then I felt bad for interrupting. But then some of the sales people on the floor were asking if others felt shaking. One of them asked me to call downstairs to Security to find out what that was. Seemed like a weird request to me but before I could, Sharon said, "They feel it in Queens!" So that's when it was clear that we were feeling an earthquake.



The shaking stopped and we all looked around, probably thinking what I was thinking: "Hmm, I guess that's kind of cool." Then one of the sales women, located next to a stairwell we never use, shouted, "They're all running down the stairs!" Someone else said, "Let's get out of here, guys!" I hadn't thought of evacuating because the earthquake was over but then, as she said that, I thought about the possibility of structural damage and figured if everyone else was leaving, I would, too. Sharon reminded me to bring my phones and backpack just in case we didn't get to go back inside that day. And then we went down the stairs.



Now, these stairs are never used by any of us so we were sort of disoriented after going down the two flights. We ended up in some area that was under construction. Some thought to maybe try going down one more level. But then I realized that this looked familar. It was the space that they're turning into more offices for the network news. I only knew this because I had been given a tour of the network facilities less than two weeks ago and was pretty sure I knew the way out. So I led. (One of the sales bosses later jokingly said something like: "Thank god for Geoffrey for getting us out of there or else we all might have died.")

Going through the hallway, we saw tons of other people escaping. There was no panic but we were trying to go quickly. There was one older man who was being helped as we slowly walked and some people ran around. Someone came on the loudspeaker saying that they had received reports that the building had shaken but I don't think any information was provided yet except to let people know that they knew (and to stop calling). I checked Facebook on my phone and saw lots of statuses asking if anyone else felt it or announcing that it was an earthquake. One friend said he felt it in DC. I think that was the first time I got nervous. I started to think about how strong it must've been and how many people must be hurt.



We finally got outside to safety and stood right next to the buildings. I guess if they were going to come down, they'd still get us. I saw other people across the street filing out as well. Most everyone was on their cell phones, and most of them were not getting through. I decided to stick to Twitter and Facebook. I quickly got a text from my dad at home on Long Island asking if I felt it and one from my friend Matt in Los Angeles who suddenly saw a ton of statuses on Facebook and wanted to know if I, being the news nerd that I am, could confirm anything. Then my dad texted me again, saying a preliminary report had it at a 6.0 magnitude centered near Charlottesville, VA (where I was visiting my friend Kim this month two years ago). And then I was sad that I was outside missing the news coverage.It was now around 2:00, right when a new wave of reporters comes to work, and at least two of them were talking to people to find out what was going on. And everyone else just chatted and kept providing updates on what they were hearing. Luckily, nothing included anything about severe damage and, most importantly, nothing was heard about injuries.Two fire trucks with lights and sirens pulled up, coming from both ends of the street. We had smelled something weird on the way out, maybe gas, and I guess they were there to make sure we weren't going to blow up. I think it was around 2:25 when they announced that we could go back inside so everyone did. I don't understand the people who took elevators up but I work on only the third floor and I guess most of those people worked higher up.

When I got back to work, I turned on our coverage and also flipped around. I had been glued to CNN's coverage all morning of the Libyan rebels gaining access to Gadhafi's compound. It was very compelling stuff. But now that was blown out for earthquake coverage. I was again glad to see that there didn't seem to be any serious injuries or damage.



So that was that. The big earthquake of 2011. And I felt this one. I'm good now. I don't need to feel any ever again.

Is It Spring Yet?

Here we go again... I'm not used to almost always being in the top region.

Say It Ain't Snow!

Tuesday morning forecasts for the storm starting later tonight and continuing into tomorrow.