where were you when 9/11 happened?

Question

what did you do how did you help

Answer 1

Watching the smoke rise from the Pentagon. I couldn't do anything, our building was in lockdown.

Afterward, a group of us went out into our community and offered consolation to those who were affected (whether directly or indirectly).

Answer 2

I was in my Intro the the Arts class, teaching, when the first plane struck. I had a break between classes, when the thinking was a small plane had struck the first tower. I was back in class when the second plane struck. Some of my students, in the second class, were able to give others of us sketchy details.

It was during that period that the school cancelled classes. I encouraged my students to pay attention to the news and to call their loved ones and make sure they are okay. I did the same and I sat with my friends and colleagues watching it play out, repeatedly, on television. We were dumbfounded.

From where I was geographically, I couldn't do much to help immediately.

What I did the next two days was cancel any planned class activities and gave my students an open forum to share whatever thoughts and views they had about the events, if they chose to; I was just the moderator. I also allowed students to leave if they chose, or to just sit and listen (which, to me, is participation). I learned some of my students had family in the area, and a couple actually had loved ones in the towers.

I will never forget that one student thanked me for that, saying that I was the only one of her teachers who had given up class time and had given my students the opportunity to express themselves.

I also encouraged students to donate blood; there is a center just blocks from the school, and they set up a mobile unit right on campus. But the number of volunteers was overwhelming, and some were turned away.

Over the semester, I collected donations for the Red Cross and other agencies. I have done the same again, following other disasters like the great tsunami and the hurricanes that have ripped through my state and others.

At the end of the term, the majority of my students art projects were in some way related to those events. It is amazing what can come out of tragedy.

Still, I just wish that it would never have happened.

Answer 3

I was on my way to class (in the south) when I heared on the radio that a plane had crashed into the first building. After I arrived news had spread that the second plane had hit and they believed it to be an intentional attack. Classes were cancelled and everyone was gathered around any t.v. they could find to watch the news. All I could do was stand there frozen. I'm just glad I was back in the car on my way home when they collapsed instead of watching it happen.

A couple weeks later on my way to the mall, firefighters were standing along side the roads taking donations for the NYFD, so I went window shopping instead.

Answer 4

I was in my Senior level Calc. Class, they had us turn off the TV's. I wasn't able to find out what all had happened until after school. When it first came on the news I thought it was a movie. It seemed so unreal. My school collected blood, food and essentials for the people effected, and sent it up to the areas around the towers.

Answer 5

I was still asleep in California. My sister in London called and told me to turn on the television and watch the news.

I sat and watched for about an hour, on and off, while getting ready for work, then went into work and tried to deal. Checking updates all day long on Yahoo!.

I helped by going on with life and not letting terrorists dictate how I live. I donated money to different organizations (Red Cross, etc) and volunteered for different things at work to help others get along.

Answer 6

I was asleep and all my friends kept calling to tell me someone had just ran planes into the World trade Center. It was one call after the other. And i kept telling everyone that I was sleeping and to leave me alone. Once I finally woke up. I sat and watched on T.V., then went to work to close down the store for the day. Then spent the rest of the day at the Beach listening to the news on the radio.

Answer 7

At work, I lived in NJ at the time so it was right in between all the crashes. It got really slow in the store suddenly, we had sattelite radio so we didnt get any news. Then a woman came in really upset and told us about the WTC, we turned the TV in the back on and 7 of us stood there watching and couldnt say a word.

Answer 8

I was sitting in a plane on the runway tar mack, we were taken back to the terminal, and asked to wait in the terminal. I got a cell phone call from my husband, and he calmly told me not to re-board the plane, my college age son was coming to pick me up, because of a family emergency and he would explain everything to me when he picked me up. The airport I was in was very small and did not have televisions in the terminals, so I was clueless. When my son picked me up, he looked panicked. He then explained what had happened, he then drove me home. It took nearly 3 months to get reimbursed for my ticket. When I went to the airport a couple of days after 911, the young man working the ticket counter stamped my ticket/ cancelled because of terrorism, he then handed it back to me and said that I would want to keep it, and he was right.

Answer 9

I was packing for my flight from Cleveland to Seattle with my two boys. I turned on the TV to check the weather channel to see if there was going to be a layover in Chicago O'Hare and instead of weather I got planes flying into buildings. Needless to say I never took that flight that day.

Answer 10

I was in my living room. My husband called me and told me to turn the TV on. He said something is happening in NY. I turned it on right after the first plane hit. After the second plane, I frantically started calling family and couldn't get thru. It was a terrifying several hours until I knew who was okay and who wasn't. How did I help? I prayed. Still do.

Answer 11

In the 6th grade in school. They didn't tell anyone what happened they just told us to go home and that's all that we were supposed to do. So we did it and learned that the twin towers in New York had been hit by planes when we got home.