When the Big Apple Fell

On September 11, 2001 (16 years ago), I couldn’t recall the exact time but I knew I was at school and everyone was panicking, urging us to look for a television and watch what was going on. An eerie silence followed as most of us knew one by one that the greatest city in the world was blown into shambles, literally. I remembered a classmate of mine who cried because their family could not contact her older brother who was then working in New York as a nurse.

Eight years after, I was fortunate enough to visit the 9/11 Tribute Center located at the former Liberty Deli, where meals and supplies were given to rescue workers in the attack’s aftermath. The tribute center provided online resources, walking tours, exhibits, and a visual diary of what were the remnants of the tragic event. Going there, I could not help but cry as I felt with families who lost their loved ones, as I went reading through a collection of stories that has different perspectives of what happened that day.

I was so heartbroken when we went at the memorial. You can feel the stillness of the crowd. People respectfully went from one picture to another, feeling and reliving what happened last 9/11. Tissues were seen at every corner for those who wept for souls gone so suddenly.

Those who were actually there and survived 9/11 eventually becomes emotional as they recalled what happened. Even though it will be years later, this day could never be forgotten.

Written in the tribute center, here are some stories and recollections:

• I always told my kids, focus in on the twin towers if you can’t find your way home, that way you can never be lost. – Lois Eida, Battery Park City Resident

• I saw another plane come towards the tower. I thought, oh that’s incredible that a rescue plane could come so fast. And then I saw it go right through the corner of the buildings, wings sheared off, the engines came flying… We’re under attack.—Nicholas Goldsmith, Tribeca resident

• A huge blast had come out of the sky. The building was designated to oscillate, the steel structure was elastic but it seemed as if I was one of the old-fashioned swings. I went like this, I went like that (Zaheer Jaffery, The Port Authority of NY and NJ)

• A giant airplane is bearing down on me, eye level, eye contact. The plane makes a little tilt at the last minute and the bottom wing just swipes right through my office, 20 feet from where I am standing. – Stanley Praimnath, Fuji Bank

• As I’m looking up, I saw flames, people jumping, and I’m screaming over the radio, “Mr. Marrero, you and those people got to get out of there”. And he says, “No. I have injured people up here. I can’t leave.” – Jerry Banks, Euro Brokers

• I watched it flying real low.. followed it with my eyes..it went up and then made a right turn and down it came. It shook the ground. It was explosion after explosion..- Terry Butler, eyewitness

• I wanted to jump in the TV and grab the airplane, stop it. I ran out in the street, my tears in my eyes.. Everybody just came out..—Sandra Hernandez, Bronx resident

• Todd called his mother from the 105th floor, “Mommy, don’t worry. I’m going to the stairs. She asked, “What about Daddy?” Todd said, “I just spoke to him, he’s all right.” Todd had not spoken to me. At the moment of greatest danger, he was protecting his mother. – Herb Ouida, World Trade Centers Association

• There were doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, equipment, but very few patients were coming in. The look on his face represented to me the trauma New Yorkers were going to be experiencing. – Joan Siobhan Dolan

• We had to move aside to let the firemen up. We applauded them. I felt like weeping because these men have trudged up 40 floors and God knows how many more to go..- Zaheer Jaffery, The Port Authority of NY and NJ

• Lights, ceilings, wires came down, the concrete floor buckled and doors jammed in their frames. The air on the 84th floor was a gray and yellow fog as if someone was shaking a sack of concrete. – Brian Clark, Euro Brokers

• I went in search of fresh air , up to about the 91st floor. There was no way to get out so I started heading back down. Around the 79th floor, there was a little landing and people were starting to lie down, to get a bit of air, people were starting to go to sleep..- Ron DeFrancesco, Euro Bankers

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• Jonathan's helmet was found one or two weeks after we found Jonathan. The helmet is the symbol of every fireman; it's his signature piece that's been blackened and bent by many years of fighting fires. 343 firefighters were lost at the site but only 12 to 15 full helmets were found.

This coat tells us of what these men and thousands of other people went through during 9/11. it is ripped right down the back, ripped right off of him. Some guys from Rescue 3 were there when the coat was found and they gave it to me. - Father of deceased firefighter Jonathan Lelpi

• Impact: when people got into Church Street, it was sheer pandemonium. They stepped over large pieces of metal. One Neil Getter who used to work in aviation, realized that one piece of metal was a row of windows from an airplane.

• She called me right before they were getting ready to attack the cockpit. We talked, we prayed, then we got disconnected. I kept telling myself she’s smart and feisty, she used to be a police officer. She’ll get out of there.- Lorne Lyles, husband of flight attendant Cee Cee Lyles

• The loss will be more than any of us can bear. – Mayor Rudy Giulani

• We went down to the World Trade Center to make plans for a temporary mortuary. We had never conceived of a situation in which DNA would be the major source of identification. – Charles Hirsch, Chief Medical Examiner, NYC

And this just a small percentage among all the other tragic, emotional and hopeful stories at the 9/11. Today, on its 14th anniversary, it will become forever a nightmare that most will never forget, a day that will live in infamy. Let us all pray for the souls of the victims, the NYPDs, firefighters, the flight stewardesses, the healthcare workers who worked hand in hand during that day. May we hold in our hearts the poignant reminder of hope and endurance this tragedy brings for all, where on that day, all people became one nation.

Youtube tribute: