They say that 1 in 4 Americans personally know someone who died on 9/11, did you?

Question

I knew three people very well and had four ex-employees in WTC that day, all died.

Todd Hill from Boston just happened to stay at the Marriott WTC and was going to meet me for lunch on 9/11.

Samantha and Lisa Egan from NJ both worked at Cantor-Fitzgerald.

I miss them all terribly and I had to watch for nearly three hours as dozens of people had to jump off the building and went right past my office window. I often pray I could have reached out and saved just one.

Republicans often point fingers at me but all of us suffered that day.

Did anyone else know as many folks as I did that died that day?

Does anyone else have remembrances?

The 1 in 4 American knowing someone is from The Richmond Times-Dispatch (AP) the number was also quoted on NBC this morning.

Answer 1

Although I do not know anyone, I wanted to express my condolences to you & anyone else in your situation reading this. I am in CA & thought it less likely for any of us to "know" anyone. But a co-worker (born & raised in NY) did know someone. I admit this surprised me, to "know someone who knew someone", even if by one degree of separation. I cannot fathom your feelings as you went through this, literally, while the rest of us watched, we can only begin to imagine how you & others like you felt . . .

Answer 2

Hate to be pedantic on such a delicate subject - but if you do the math we're talking 300,000,000 people divided by the amount of people who perished. Given that a proportion weren't native to the US and would have had a smaller circle of friends there needs to be an allowance made for that. Anyway, without getting the calculator out - that kind of means that each person who lost their lives knew 75,000 people which although possible isn't likely. Maybe 1 in 50 would be plausible.

All that said, my heart does go out to all of them, their families, and how ever many friends they had and always will.

Answer 3

I dont think that that number is correct. I wont do the math, as others already have but will add this.

while i doubt that 1-4 knew someone who died (personally, I dont know anyone killed in the attack), what does sound probable and very likely is that there are only 4 degrees of seperation between everyone in america and someone who died.
in other words, A friend of mine has a friend who knows someone who died in the attack.

Answer 4

A business associate lost both his parents on the plane that hit the Pentagon.
A co-worker's best friend's mother died in the Pentagon.

Answer 5

My aunt worked in the North tower. She was never late in the 25 years that she has been employed, except that day. I am eternaly grateful for her alarm not going off, but she lost everybody she worked with. It took her 8 hours to walk home since she was almost there when it happened.

Answer 6

I don't but the statistics sound about right to me. I would say it's 1 in 4.

Answer 7

I knew many people, as I'm the daughter of a FDNY Lieutenant. I feel that I know all of the guys that perished that day, in some way.

Answer 8

You know, I'm thankful that I didn't know anyone personally...it's horrible and I'm sorry for your loss.

However, I highly doubt the accuracy of the "1 in 4 americans" statistic. There were 3000 people that died in those horrific attacks. There are nearly 300,000,000 people in the U.S. It doesn't seem possible.

God bless them all...let us remain ever vigilant.

Answer 9

I knew one person. A Navy officer at the Pentagon. I went to high school with him, Jonas Panik. Nice enough kid but I didn't know him all that well.

Answer 10

I knew people in the WTC but they all got out.