I was a university student doing a co-op with an oil company in Calgary (MST - 2 hours difference to NYC) and turned on WPIX before going to work, saw the North Tower on fire. Just as I was leaving to catch the train to work, I saw the second plane hit.
At the office, most everyone was in one of the two lounges on that floor, watching the coverage. I did not feel right about spending so much time watching the news while being paid, so I went back to work, checking in every few minutes.
I recall going back to the lounge, seeing only one tower and asking, “Aren’t there two towers?” The response was, “Not any more.” Reporters were talking about upwards of 20,000 injured, so I quickly call the Canadian Red Cross, to schedule a blood donation. My thinking was that 20K casualities State-side will draw down bloodbanks in all Eastern Canadian cities, so they will need resupply from the West.
Later that morning, a number of US oil company buildings in downtown Calgary were evacuated and shut down and the streets blocked by police. As Calgary is the energy capital of Canada and hosts the largest number of Americans in Canada (65,000), it was considered a prime target. Because of this, I believe that a couple of CF-18s were scrambled from 4 Wing, CFB Cold Lake to fly CAP over Calgary. CAPs were also flown over Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver at least until all civilian aircraft landed.
the idea that our President wants to be the allies of the people who did that.... *sigh*