9/11, 5 years later

It has been 5 years since my life changed in an instant. Until now I have told parts of my story to many people but not everything. I worked at 140 West St which was across the street from Tower 1. I heard the explosion from the plane hitting the tower. At that time we were not sure what was going on. I called my wife on the phone to tell her to turn on the TV because Tower 1 had some type of explosion and is on fire. After staring for several minutes at the fire and smoke pouring out of the tower, an announcement came over the intercom that we should evacuate the building. As we were getting some of our belongings together, another announcement came telling us to stay where we were because of falling debri. At first it seemed to make sense because we still did not know what had actually happened. My co-workers and I stood at the windows looking up and staring at the sight. Then I saw the most horrific things that to this day I wish I never saw. I saw people jumping out the windows and falling to their death and because we were on the 14th floor, I could see bodies that had hit the ground. Many people in my office were screaming at this point. Then after a while, I caught a glimpse of a plane coming over the water and watched as it slammed into Tower 2. My father-in-law worked in that Tower on the 67th floor and from where I was looking it seemed to be about where he would be. I had no idea if he was still there or not. At that point, I did not care anymore if there was falling debri, all I knew was that I did not want to be anywhere near the towers now. The announcement came to leave the building. Because of what was happening we had to use the stairs to leave the building. When I left, I ended up seeing Mayor Giuliani walking by to go to the emergency command center. I headed west towards the river because it was farther away from the towers and I could walk along the water down to the ferry terminal. By the time that I made it down to the Jewish Heritage Memorial, Tower 2 collapsed. All I remember was running at first and then everything went dark. I have no idea why but one of the things that I had taken with me when I left my building was a water bottle from my desk. I soaked my shirt with it and put it over my mouth. It was like a blizzard, I could hardly see anything. I was glad that I had walked through Battery Park many times because I did not need to see much to know where I was. I eventually made it into a building close to the ferry terminal. They were giving out quarters in the lobby so that people could make calls from the payphones. I made a call to my wife to let her know I was OK. Several minutes later, she received a call from her father that he had made it out OK. When the air had cleared enough, I left the building and walked down to the ferry terminal. There were many people waiting to try and take the ferry back to Staten Island. Just before we pulled out of the terminal, we heard the rumble of Tower 1 falling. I remember looking back at Manhattan as we pulled away and all you could see was smoke. When we made it across to Staten Island, I could not get a Bus so I walked about a mile and a half to where I was able to get a payphone and call my wife. There were several people from our church who had come to the house to be with my wife while she waited. She was pregnant with my daughter and due in January. The pastor's wife came and picked me up. I arrived home at 1:29pm covered in ash and grateful to just be home. I will never forget that day. I hope that everyone in this country remembers that day and never forgets the lessons that we learned.

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