Tucson remembers 9/11: The towers fall

I moved from NYC to Tucson exactly one week, to the day, before September 11th, after living there nine years. The morning of the 11th, my brother woke me with a phone call telling me to turn on the TV. I couldn't believe it. I immediately called all of my friends there, and those I could reach (many I could not) were safe.

I figured out that at the time of the strike to the towers, I'd have been on the subway headed into work, right near ground zero, probably trapped. I cried for two weeks and couldn't even turn on the TV. I learned later that no one I knew was killed or missing.

Two weeks prior, as I'd left the city for Arizona, I took one last photo of the NYC skyline, not knowing it was the last time I'd ever see those towers.

 ─ Tiffany Fenmore

The call from my neighbor came in at 7:30 p.m. No preamble, just the words: "They attacked the World Trade Center." We were living in Islamabad, Pakistan, 100 miles from the Afghan border, nine hours ahead of EST. We had no television, no radio, no internet. My husband and I were teaching at the International School.

Long hours of emergency meetings and tearful class discussions marked the following days. One student, whose parents worked at the U.S. Embassy, said his uncle never made it out of the South Tower. Others were panicked about the fate of family members living and working in Manhattan. Within a week, the school was closed down and plans for evacuating all foreign nationals were put in place. A vibrant, multinational community was disbanded, never to regain its status as a top international school.

The following months, spent in exile in Thailand, left us in a muddle, trying to reconnect with classes online, trying to understand the hate, the anger and the outrage that led to such an attack. The news often showed cheering crowds, though we knew most Pakistanis and others across the globe abhorred the violence. Those few who believed in such behavior were immortalized by the non-stop reportage, their names and faces implanted in our hearts and minds.

I will never understand the intolerance and bigotry that lead others to inflict harm in the name of religion or political beliefs. I can only hope that human decency will prevail.

 ─ Lisa Tenuta

9-11-01, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — Sitting in a small conference room in a compound housing Lucent Technologies, I was, as program manager, giving an update to my boss in N.J. on the status of upgrading Saudi Telecoms infrastructure of several million land lines, wireless networks and the internet. A contract won during the Clinton years. I had been there four years.

Suddenly the audio conference call was interrupted and we were told to hang up and that something serious was happening in NYC (where I was previously working for NYTelephone). We were told to turn on CNN and everything would be clarified as to the emergency.

Moving to another conference room with teammates of Saudi nationals and expats, we watched the most terrible event in my life on American TV. After awhile I advised everyone to go home and grieve in private. They all left.

The next day was funereal for all of us back at work. Expats and contractors throughout the Kingdom were extending their friendship and thoughts. The Saudis working for us were also solemn and disbelieving. (This was before blame was assessed.)

A few weeks later I gave my notice and resigned by the end of the year to settle in SaddleBrooke, Arizona. A decision I never regretted and in my own way mourn on every September 11th.

 ─ Jim Daily

I was working in northern Virginia for a defense contractor on 9/11. As I walked through the cafeteria to get breakfast, I saw the news on TV showing the aftermath after the first plane hit the north tower. It was surreal. When the Pentagon was hit less than an hour later, and with no idea how many planes were out there or what buildings might be targeted next, I didn't see my building as safe and left for home, where I stayed glued to the TV. I called my brother and his comment was seared in my memory: "They really got us good." I was 3 when my parents made me watch Kennedy's funeral, and I still remember it (I was not happy.) The next big events for me were the moon landing, followed by the Iran hostage crisis, Air Florida Flight 90 crashing onto the Potomac River, the first flight of the Space Shuttle, Challenger, 9/11, Columbia, Katrina, and too many mass shootings to list. All American tragedies, seemingly increasing in frequency. But 9/11 really stands out for its brazenness, planning, and execution, not to mention the unimaginable horrors endured by those in the towers, the Pentagon, and on the planes. Never again will plane passengers be cowed by hijackers into thinking everything will be OK if they just stay quiet and remain seated.

 ─ Dave Hairfield

I went to vote and walked to work. On my Walkman the DJ announced that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. When I got to my office my phone was ringing. It was a friend in Seattle asking if I was okay. Someone came to my door and motioned me to come — I proceeded to the corner office where I could see the WTC covered in plumes of smoke and with a huge hole in the shape of a plane, not the small plane I had imagined. I watched the billowing smoke in horror until the building slid from view and the sky cleared. The building was gone. I watched in disbelief. I couldn’t move.

Eventually I learned that was the second plane. I called my family in Tucson to let them know I was fine. We were sent home from work. I walked back up Broadway. What had just happened? Gradually I learned about the Pentagon and the heroes in Pennsylvania. We went back to work a few days later. Life went on.

When I went to the Metropolitan Opera, my handbag was searched. When I went to Yankee stadium, my handbag was searched. But the Yankees and the Diamondbacks were playing in the World Series. I flew to Tucson for my 40th high school reunion in November. My niece got us tickets for the World Series game in Phoenix. Fighter jets flew over the stadium. The Yankees lost. I went home to NYC and life went on.

 ─ Nan Schubel

On Sept. 11, 2001, I was in New York on assignment for the Miami Herald, staying at my parents' Upper East Side apartment. My brother called from Boston about 9 a.m. to tell us to turn on the television. Flight 175 had just crashed into the World Trade Center's South Tower. I threw on jeans and sneakers, grabbed a notebook, a tape recorder, my phone and some cash, and jumped into the elevator. I dove into the southbound traffic on York Avenue and waved my arms. A limo driver stopped. We watched the towers' smoke plume wafting toward the East River across a pristine blue sky, as frantic callers described the scene to a radio host. At 9:59, a woman caller screamed, "Oh My God, the building is falling!'' By then we were in Lower Manhattan, so I jumped out of the limo and began running toward the North Tower. I was about four blocks away when it telescoped into the ground. Ash-covered ghosts staggered toward me, too dazed to talk.

In an absurd coincidence, I ran into a childhood friend whom I hadn't seen in decades: a famous photographer who'd left her Chinatown loft with a single camera. We managed to reach the burning pile but didn't stay long, realizing the danger. I interviewed firefighters, cops, rescue-dog handlers and shell-shocked locals before hitching a late-night ride uptown on a garbage truck. For the next five days, I phoned in stories from near Ground Zero.

Those notebooks are in a box in the garage. I last found them when we packed to move here in 2014. They still smelled faintly of smoke.

 ─ Elinor J. Brecher

Stopping for gas in rural Indiana in our RV, I found the young cashier was glued to the TV above her head and would not acknowledge me at all. I looked up to see an airplane plow through the north tower and thought there had been some terrible airline accident. Then a second plane hit the south tower. I laid cash on the counter and raced to find a motel where we could hunker down with a TV to find out what was happening. Our children all worked in high-rise Chicago buildings and we were desperate to insure they had left the city, since news said other cities might be targets of the terrorists. A relative worked at the Pentagon. All were OK but my sense of security was altered forever.

 ─ Diane Harris

I was an EMT in New York state during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Because of the location of the attacks my EMS agency was deployed to NYC. I was honored enough to go, was there for six days, and recovered three deceased first responders. As hard as that day was, I was able to give three families peace of mind so that they didn't have to wonder if they would ever see their loved ones again. I never imagined something that horrific but I'm glad I was able to give the families closure.

 ─ James Buskey

I lived in New Jersey and was attending a scientific conference in Florence, Italy on Tuesday 9/11, where senior researchers from my company had assembled from all over the world. It was mid-afternoon there, and the conference center had a bar with TV screens. By chance I caught the live broadcast showing the second tower being hit. Gradually the news spread throughout the auditorium. Everyone stopped listening to the presenters.

The U.S. contingent was then stranded in Florence since all flights were cancelled. Florentines held a candlelight vigil at Piazza Della Signoria and our restaurant wouldn’t let us pay for our wine. After two days of waiting and worrying what was happening (getting through by phone was virtually impossible), we were all put on a private train to Switzerland and to our global company HQ, then just waited in our assigned hotels till the company conjured up a (Spanish) charter plane. The researchers, plus many other U.S. company employees caught in Europe and needing to get home, filled that flight; it felt totally unreal. It was among the first aircraft somehow obtaining clearance to land at JFK, the evening of Saturday the 15th, and we were bused back to N.J. HQ, passing within distant view of the smoking ruin lit by powerful searchlights cutting through the dark. Our families had foregathered at the site to take us home. This journey lives in my memory as a most amazingly focused, compassionate feat of organization by people we mostly didn’t know or get to thank.

 ─ J Peppard

I remember my mother called from N.J. at around 0600 and told me to turn on the TV. There was completely raw footage that day, news anchors were crying, cursing, screaming, and terrified. While we were watching the footage of the first tower, the second tower was hit. That's when you knew we were in real trouble. The news reported the hijacked plane to San Francisco and the Pentagon being struck, and life as we knew it would never be the same.

My brother was in the federal building in NY and as he made his way down to the street he heard reports of Anthrax as everyone was outside listening to their car radios. Cell phones and ATMs were not working, adding to the confusion. He made his way down to the river where a barge took him to N.J. later that day.

The raw TV coverage is what really struck me that day and will stay with me forever. Everyday after, we turned to the news with unmatched interest and a fervent desire. Watching the news became an obsession for which there was no cure except for the capture of America's attackers. Thirteen people left my hometown of Chatham, N.J., on the morning train on 9/11/2001 — they never came home. There will be a ceremony honoring them on this, the 20th anniversary.

https://patch.com/new-jersey/chatham/honor-chathams-9-11-victims-20-years-after-attacks

 ─ Nancy Wyatt

On Sept. 10, my cousin's daughter and I were visiting New York City. Around 4 p.m. we decided to visit the World Trade Center and went to the observation decks and marveled at the view and the small planes flying below us. The next day, 9/11, I decided to visit West Point and while driving I heard the news that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Driving north on the New Jersey Turnpike I had a view of the events occurring across the Hudson River. I often wonder why we decided to visit NYC on Monday instead of Tuesday.

 ─ Jack Anderko

What started out as a normal workday at Walker Elementary on Sept. 11, as I looked forward to celebrating my 55th birthday, turned into a day of sadness and, yes, fear. I arrived at school and realized what had happened in New York City, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania. I called my husband to get in touch with our four children, one living outside the U.S., another in Phoenix, and two who lived in Tucson, to make sure they were all OK.

I have to give credit to all the staff I worked with at Walker who kept the day as normal as possible, but still talking and reassuring their students, and parents, to alleviate any fears and answer any questions they might have.

When I returned home and knew all four of our children and three grandchildren were safe, we decided to go ahead and go to dinner at Olive Garden. We wanted to be with other Tucsonans to share our thoughts and prayers for those we lost that day. It is a birthday I will never forget and I hope Sept. 11, 2001 is a day all Americans will never forget.

 ─ Georgianna Gerhart

I was working for Morgan Stanley, which occupied 25% of the South Tower. I was meeting a client in downtown Chicago that day, a very rare circumstance. She was late to the meeting and said we needed to turn on the TV. I saw the North Tower burning and then the South Tower struck and the collapse of both towers. I knew people I talked to every day were in the South Tower. The client said she had received word there was a fourth plane possibly headed for the Willis Tower in downtown Chicago and that the city was being evacuated.

I had to walk past that building to get to the train station, no choice. I thought of others who might have been innocently walking past the World Trade Center that may have been killed that day, just as I might be. I got to the train station and the conductors said "just get on the train, fill the aisles, we will be pulling that train out and another will come. We will make all stops on all lines. No tickets will be collected." Obviously, the government had made a plan for just such an emergency. I got on and was so glad when we left the station.

I later learned all but 12 of several thousand Morgan Stanley employees got out of the South Tower OK thanks to the quick thinking of our head of security, Rick Rescorla, who insisted everyone leave immediately despite the tower announcement not to do so as debris was falling off the North Tower. Had he not, many more would have died. His picture is at the 911 memorial. He was one of the 12 employees who perished when he returned to the building to try to help more people get out. He was a true hero that day.

 ─ Rebecca Williams

My husband and I were living in the Washington, D.C. area on 9/11. My husband was playing golf near the Pentagon and heard a loud boom when the Pentagon was attacked. I was at work watching CNN at the time and saw the World Trade Center buildings collapse.

The Washington, D.C. airports were closed for one month after the 9/11 attacks. We were not able to fly to California to attend my nephew's Bar Mitzvah or to celebrate my sister's 50th birthday.

After the attacks, I told my husband that we needed to move back to California to be closer to family. He adamantly refused. His reasons: too many people, too much traffic, too much smog.

We started thinking about moving to Tucson. Two weeks after 9/11, we were still pondering what to do when I received a job offer to work in Tucson. In Yiddish, we call this Beshert, a fortuitous event. I resigned my job. We moved to Tucson in December 2001 and never looked back!

 ─ Lauren Mathon

I was working for Qantas in Tucson on 9/11. I'll never forget that morning. I had seen the news on TV before I left the house to come to work, worrying about my family in NY, never dreaming that someone I knew would be involved in that horror.

When I arrived at the office, I saw I had voice messages. The first one was from Laura. "Hello, Valerie. This is Laura Morabito. Thanks for sending my laptop to L.A. for my meeting." I was in shock when I found out that Laura was on Flight 11, as was another Qantas employee, Alberto Dominguez. My heart refused to believe what my mind knew. Laura was dead but her laptop was safe in L.A.

It has been a very difficult time for me as I imagined Laura and Alberto on that plane. Their loss is so senseless. Everyone who died that day is a hero and a martyr. God bless them all and their families and friends.

 ─ Valerie Golembiewski