Posted By:
Ted ZanidakisAbout 9 AM that day NBC was reporting a "small commuter plane hit one of the towers in the WTC". When I looked at the TV, and
saw the damage, I instantly knew NBC had the story wrong. I called my wife at work and while we were talking, the 2nd plane cut
right thru the other tower in a huge ball of fire. It made me sick to my stomach. I told my wife to leave work and that I'd pick her
up and we went to our house at the Jersey shore.
In north Jersey, my older Daughter, Debbie, together with her neighbor were devastated, as they watched the towers collapse. At
that point, her neighbor realized that she would never see her husband again. He worked for Cantor-Fitzgerald in the WTC.
Arriving at the shore (80 miles south of NYC), we saw a huge layer of black and gray smoke emanating from NYC and hovering over
the Atlantic ocean. Later that afternoon we drove back to Pennsylvania and we experienced a very eerie feeling that I'll never forget.
We were driving on I-195 and in the entire 40 mile trip to the Trenton area....believe it or not....we were the only car on the road !
As we drove, we had this very strange feeling that we were the lone survivors from this horrendous disaster.
Many thoughts went through my mind, as we listened to the car radio reporting of people choosing to jump to their death, rather than
face being burnt alive. And, the media predicting of 10,000 deaths. Also, going through my mind was the construction of the WTC. In
the early '70s, I had many business trips to lower Manhatten and saw these buildings go up. It was amazing to see the tremendous
sections of structural steel that were in place at the base of these buildings....now these towers and many innocent lives were gone.
TED Z