My journal from 9-11-01

September 11, 2001 Tuesday

What a day! I slept through the alarm, so the phone ringing at 7:05 woke me up. Mom told me to turn on the TV. I turned it on, and 2 hijacked airplanes had flown into the two World Trade Towers in New York City. Hundreds of lives lost. Later, both the towers collapsed, burying over 200 firefighters and policemen that were there to help. Then a plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington D.C. I was so worried about A.

I had the TV on all morning, well basically all day. It is so horrific.

I finally got in touch with A. Her entire building of BYU interns got sick yesterday. A had diarrhea all night. Out of the 30 people, only 6 decided to go to work. So the rest were all home when it happened, thank goodness! I was so relieved.

Another plane crashed outside of Pittsburgh. They think the pilot crashed it on purpose so the hijackers couldn’t hurt anyone else. I am so sad. But I have to be strong in front of the kids. t is old enough that he really understands, and he is asking a lot of questions. We talked this morning, then I drove him to school. His teacher talked to the kids about it at school as well. When he got home, we talked even more.

They talked to a nurse that had been emailing her husband who was in the top of the building. They were emailing after it was hit, and all of a sudden the emails stopped, and she looked out the window and saw the building collapse. I cannot even imagine that!

They have said that they number could be up to 800 killed in the Pentagon. No one knows how many in the towers. A lot of people were able to get out, but they still don’t know. It’s going to be weeks before we know. We do know that there were 266 killed on the airplanes alone. They chose airplanes that were going from Boston to California, so they knew the planes would have a full load of fuel on board. At least one person on board each airplane was able to make a cell phone call out to family and let them know they were being hijacked.

They have grounded all airplanes in the entire United States until at least tomorrow. R is in Iowa, and was supposed to fly home tonight, so I guess he isn’t doing that now. This is the first time they have ever grounded all the planes…ever! It is so shocking!

We were up until 11:30 watching the news, over and over again. It is such a shock. Watching, it looks like a movie. I can’t imagine being there right now and having to deal with it in person.