On 9/11/01, I took my mother-in-law to LaGuardia Airport at 7:30am to catch an 8:45am flight back to her home in Oklahoma City. I remember what a gorgeous morning it was -- no clouds, breezy -- just perfect (not to mention she was going home ). Got back to my office in White Plains, NY by 8:00am. She called me on her cell at 8:55am asking what was going on since the pilot on her plane simply and abruptly announced that there was an "air traffic emergency" and they would have to return to the gate & get off the plane in an orderly manner. Just as I turned on the news, I heard the live coverage of the second plane hit. Needless to say it was quite a day. If you know the NY area, you know that LaGuardia Airport is in Queens on Long Island. By 9:30am all roads and bridges to Long Island were closed. M-I-L was totally freaked out. She was on her cell to me describing the smoke that she could see from where she was sitting outside of the airport building. I knew there was a ferry that went from eastern long island to Bridgeport , CT so I told her to try to get there. I ended up picking her up at 6:00pm in CT. Her bags remained locked in the airport for 3 days. Driving back to get them on 9/14 was very unsettling -- as you went across the Tri-borough bridge from the Bronx to Queens you could see the smoke still completely covering lower Manhattan. I remember when the wind shifted north around that time that you could smell the ash and smoke 30 miles to the north. 7 people from my town were killed that day -- 5 in the towers & two on the plane that hit the Pentagon. My college roomate works for Morgan Stanley 2 blocks from the towers. I spoke to him on 9/12. He saved a pocketful of the ash that was 3" thick on the streets. When you look at it closely, you realize that it's not just concrete dust -- it's pulverized desks, computers, windows, phones, etc.

I was home between assignments and saw it on TV. It was a tuesday. I was scheduled to be in indianapolis on the following monday. the next day i got a call from my manager telling me i had to be at WTC to set up temporary power units for the rescue effort. Later that afternoon they remembered i was scheduled to be in indianapolis and unscheduled me and i didn't get to go. it would have be an experience to go. some of my co workers went.