I write and don't get into my groove until later in the day so I was home when my oldest called to say he was OK. I had no clue what was going on until he told me what just happened across the street from his office.
I turned on the TV and knew immediately that it was terrorists. I told him...'This is an attack, get as far away as you can as fast as you can'.
He hesitated, mesmorized by the scene of jumping/falling bodies that he was describing to me from the street. I knew where he was standing, right at the entrance to Brooks Brothers.
I told him again to get out when the second plane punched through 2WTC from the west and the fireball exploded out the east, right over where he was standing.
I had no time to warn him. I heard the explosion in my ear as he dropped his cell phone and ran. I didn't hear from him again until the afternoon.
At the same time my wife was a few blocks away. She did get away fast and far. She ended up being rescued from the waterfront by a friend (cop) in a private boat as 2WTC fell behind her. She got through to me later too.
At the same time one brother was evacuating his building three blocks north and my other brother was coming up out of the subway and stepping into chaos.
At the same time 12 people I knew were dying.
On the 12th my son and drove side roads into Brooklyn, I walked in from there and made our way down to GZ where we worked the pit until the night of the 13th.
Incredible story. Thanks.