Where were u 9/11/01?

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They only reason I'm starting this thread is b/c where I was on this date will forever be memoriable to my nursing career. Just 1 or 2 phrases to tell where u were at the time of the attacks....

I was in Fall semester Nursing School, senior year....1st days on the floor of our Psyc Rotation....all the TVs on the unit were on. It was a very interesting place to be during such a time.

I was in Saudia Arabia and the time difference I think is 10 hours or something like that. I got up because of all the noise in the common room. My room was right next to the common room and everyone was surrounding the t.v. and told me what was going on. It was a very sad day :(

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Specializes in Telemetry, OR, ICU.

I was employed as an OR RN [civilian] and was scrubbed in on a CABG. It was a surreal type mood with us concentrating on the procedure and at the same time someone coming in the OR with updates on the terrorist events. I was on break in the staff lounge watching television when the second tower was hit.

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Specializes in Level III cardiac/telemetry.

Shopping in Tuesday Mornings and the radio was on talking about the towers. I was scheduled to fly to Floriday the next day to prepare for jaw surgery (with a specialist) but after hearing about what happened my mom and I packed up and headed out in the car 3 hours later - kept passing gas stations that were out of gas because of panic.

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Specializes in Infection Preventionist/ Occ Health.

I was away at college (senior year), and as I was waking up one of my roommates had the T.V. on in her room. I went in there just as they were reporting on the second plane hitting. My roommate was panicking because her brother had just started a job in Manhattan a few days earlier. He ended up walking all the way back to Brooklyn, but thank goodness he was ok.

There were many students at my university from the NYC area, and there was a rumor going around school that one of the students had turned off her cell phone because it was ringing in the middle of class. It turned out to be her father calling from one of the towers. He left her a voicemail saying goodbye. How sad :(

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I was pulling out of my garage, at 6:00, on the way to a day shift, when I heard the 1st tower had been hit. As the wife of a pilot, I thought, "God, what a mess." The 2nd tower was hit before I reached the bottom of my hill. When I heard that, I immediately picked up my phone, called my husband, and said; "Honey, you need to turn on the TV. I think we are being attacked."

My thoughts were immediately of my cousin and her husband, who work in the area, and my other 5 cousins, who are firefighters with the NYFD.

Thank the Lord they all survived. Every one of them responded on that terrible day.

I spent the next 8 hours caring for sick people that I have no memory of. All I can remember was the TV screen and it's images.

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I was a freshman in college, did not have class that morning and was sleeping late when I heard someone's voice outside my door whom I knew was usually in class at the time. I got up and she told me what had happened and at first I thought it was a joke. I then spent the rest of the morning watching the TV in the dorm lounge, then at noon went to the college chapel with a friend, there was always a service there at that time on Tuesdays and needless to say it was very different that day. I will never forget it. And how quiet it was and the sky so blue. And the service that night in the community chapel with so many people from the college and the city communities all coming together, the huge conversation in the dorm about it... So many things, a day none of us will likely forget. As well as the first time I saw a plane flying again after that day, just after an outdoor prayer vigil on campus... do you remember that moment too?

It is hard to believe it's been five years ago.

I'll never forget how blue the sky was that day. I was working for an ambulance service, and I was about 3 hours into my 12 hour shift... we were picking up a patient at a VA hospital and there radios always interfered with ours. I was driving so I could here them say over there security radios about a plane hitting the World Trade Center, then we tuned in to the AM station here in Cincy. As I was crossing the bridge from Kentucky into the city I remember looking up at the sky and there were no clouds just blue... then when we got where we were going everybody was watching TV and the sky was the same. Now when the sky is that clear blue I always think about that day and how the world has changed.

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I was in the bagel store when 1st plane hit. Went to work and heard the whole thing transpire over the radio.:bluecry1:

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I was a junior in high school in floral design class... we always "broke" the rules and watched Good Morning America. I will never forget the first reports and the shock that followed. By noon the school was empty, they let everyone go home and everyone knew our country would never be the same.

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Specializes in NICU, peds CICU.

I was on my second day of orientation at my first real job as an RN- in NYC. We were listening to really boring lectures (in the subbasement of a hospital building, far from the towers) on things like body mechanics, and which things to plug into red outlets, and the woman sitting next to me was covertly listening to her walkman. She whispered what she heard on the news to me. Not much later the official announcement came in, and we were given the option of going home or staying and being put to work. I managed to contact my family (who were not in the city) to tell them I was safe, and then went to the hospital. I worked at the hospital that housed the major burn center, and so they were mobilizing to take a large influx of patients (that sadly never came). I was sent to a med-surg floor, where I spent the afternoon taking vitals on the whole hallway, answering phones, and doing any busywork I could to allow the "real" nurses to concentrate on discharging anyone they could and covering for coworkers who were unable to make it in. I caught little bits of the news on the TVs in patient rooms.

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Specializes in ER, IICU, PCU, PACU, EMS.

I was sleeping when the Towers were hit. I worked a 12 hour shift that night and got off at 0530 - this was my "Friday". My message machine kept clicking over and over again and woke me up. I had around 15 messages. My supervisor left me a message informing me that all leave and days off were suspended and that I was to report to work tonight and to bring my duty weapon. I worked as a structural/ aircraft rescue firefighter/ paramedic and cross trained as a police officer for an international airport.

My first thought was that an aircraft had crashed at my work, but then I turned on the TV. I was stunned. I repeatedly tried to call my family who resided in NY and I tried to call all of my airline friends to see if they were alive. Needless to say, I didn't get anymore sleep that day. I could not stop watching the TV.

As I was driving into work, I normally look at the airplanes to find out the wind direction and traffic patterns - no planes. We patrolled the AOA (runways, outside areas of the gates) and it was silent. I have never had an eerie feeling like that before. I was numb.

A few weeks later, I responded to the first anthrax/"white powder" calls in my jurisdiction and was quaratined. First responders never had protocols for situations like this. We never had to think about terrorism when responding to a call. We do now.

Our lives will never be the same again.

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Specializes in Cardiac/Telemetry.

I was coming out of my Algebra class. I turned on the radio in my car and all I heard was the wailing of sirens. I had no idea what was going on. Then, the deejay chimed in with, "If you've just tuned in, two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center. There are rumors that it is terrorist-related." Being from Puerto Rico, I had no idea what the WTC was. However, when I got home, the phone was ringing off the hook. My family from Puerto Rico was calling non-stop to see if we were okay. I sat down on the couch as I listened to my grandmother talk to my aunt and assure her that we were fine, when the first building collapsed. I swear, it was like time stopped. Complete silence enveloped my house. The reporters on the TV went completely quiet. They cancelled everything, from afternoon classes, to activities around my house. To make matters worse, we learned that my step-uncle's niece worked in the North Tower and they had no idea if she was alive. Thankfully, after five hours of trying to contact the family in New York, we found out that she was okay. However, it was a very feeble light in such darkness.

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I was in my high school history class when one of the other teachers came in the room and said turn on the tv because one of the Twin Towers was on fire. My teacher turned on the tv just in time to see the second plane hit. My entire class just sat there in silence as we watched history in the making. The school day went on but everything after school was cancelled so we could go home and be with our families.

I live right outside of Westover AFB and I had quite a few friends who had a parent called up to active duty that day. The base is usually a quiet reserve base but even since 9/11 it has been very active.

A teacher I had in elementry school lost her daughter in the attacks. She had been in the World Trade Center for a business meeting and was above the area where the plane hit and could not evacuate the building. It really hit home for me when I knew some one who lost their life that day.

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