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My 9/11 experience?

I was sitting in a meeting room which faced the WTC when all of a sudden smoke started coming out of the North Tower. My Operations Manager was on the phone with his sister who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald. The phone went dead.

People started coming into the conference room and looked out the window at the WTC. As we speculated on what happened, someone came into the room and said a plane crashed into the North Tower. My Ops Manager quietly sat down and started to cry.

At that point we were all transfixed on the smoke coming out of the North Tower. A little while later we saw the smoke come out of the South Tower. At that point we knew what was going on.

People came and left the room to make calls. My wife told me what happened and that the school called for her to come and pick up the kids. That was the last outside communication I would have for the next 12 hours.

We were instructed by senior management to go to our uptown office. While there plans we’re being made for people who couldn’t get home that evening. After a while I went to Citicorp Center to donate blood. Waited on line for a couple of hours before we were told to leave.

Went to the piers on the West Side to volunteer. The police told me to leave. They weren’t looking for anyone to help out. Standing there you would think it was the zombie apocalypse. People were walking aimlessly through Manhattan, not sure where to go or what to do.

As day turned to evening, I heard there were ferries going to Jersey. I made my way to the ferry, stood on line for a couple of hours and finally caught a boat to Jersey. They were telling us that all people below some downtown street which I do not remember we’re to go to the front of the boat. Those were the people that would go through decontamination.

I got off the boat and made my way to the path train. They were only going westbound. Got off at short hills, I was trying to get to the Hilton, hoping to call someone to get me. A woman walking her dog saw me milling about and brought me back to her home. Had a drink, called my wife and told her to meet me at he Hilton. The woman was kind enough to drive me there.

My wife picked me up about 3 hours later and brought me home. At the Hilton people were sitting around drinking in silence. I joined them.

Next day I went to pick my car up in the garage where I caught the bus to Manhattan every day. There was one chalk mark on my tire. The man driving around putting chalk marks on tires saw me, shook my hand and said “welcome home.”