9/11, September 11, 2001, By Sydelle Russo-Gordon
From MemoryArchive
Who: Lynne Sydelle Russo-Gordon What: 9/11 When: September 11, 2001 Where: White Plains, New York
Its been over two years now, but I still remember every detail of that day. It was a beautiful warm sunny clear sky day that Tuesday. I had to go to work and then had class at Hunter College that night. Little did I know what would await me that morning. I worked in Lower Manhattan, less than two blocks East of the WTC. I got off the 4/5 Express at the Wall Street Station, which is right across from 115 Broadway and Cedar Street where I worked. I found that my building was being evacuated and no one could tell me why. I could not find anyone that I worked with. There was hundreds/thousands of people just walking or milling around. No one knew exactly what had happened. Then someone said that the Twin Towers were on fire and that a plane had hit them. I suppose in retrospect that I should have turned around and tried to get back on the subway and go home. But a police officer shouted out to "go stand over there", a get out of the way kind of order. Many of us who were there just walked over to the Helmsley Plaza directly accross from Liberty Plaza and just stared dumfounded at the towers on fire. I found out later that even had I tried to get back on the subway that they had already been shut down. I had taken the last subway allowed to go to that area that morning. Then the first tower to fall exploded in a burst of white clouds of billowing smoke and slowly started to slip downwards. The same officer who had directed us to stand there now shouted, "run" and we did. But not fast or far enough. We all were caught in the debris fallout. Most of us made it out, some did not. The world went totally black and soundless, I never heard the buildings fall, I could not see, nor hear, nor feel, just smell and taste were left. I could not breathe or think, nothing, the world just dissappeared in an instant. I eventually made it out and home, but I have never been the same since. I lost a major part of me that day and I am still trying to find her.
Co-opted from Wikipedia's Personal Experiences Page
