September 11, 2001 ----------------We will NEVER forget




Thoughts on September 13, 2001,

Who would have thought that flying on 9/11 would have turned into a real 911 tragedy. That is exactly what whoever masterminded this chaos had in mind, I am sure.

My neighbor took me to the airport in Sacramento on the evening of 9/10 about 7:00 pm, I didn't want her to be driving after dark.

At about 12:25am 9/11 my plane left Sacramento and arrived at Dallas/Ft. Worth approximately 5:30am.

At 7:27am our plane (American Airlines) left DFW enroute to BWI. About an hour into the flight, the captain came on the PA and said, "We are no longer heading toward Baltimore. There has been a major accident and all of the Northeast is closed to air traffic. We are returning to DFW."

Immediately I thought, this has to do with terrorists' activities. No accident closes all of the airports. If there was a serious accident at BWI, we would have been directed to National or Dulles airport, something else is happening.

The pilot later came on the PA and announced that the World Trade Center in New York was down and one tower was remaining. He said we would be landing but didn't know if we had a gate because all planes had been directed to land.

We landed and taxied to the airport and waited approximately 45 minutes for a gate. In the meantime, everyone with cell phones were phoning there friends and family's, trying to determine what was happening.

We then heard that both towers of the World Trade Center had been hit by airplanes and were down. The time was approximately 11:00am EDT. A hit on the Pentagon was also indicated, and there were rumors of high schools being targeted and car bombs in many cities going off(both untrue.)

We deplaned and were told to go home, or if enroute, go rebook our flights. I did and was told all flights to BWI tomorrow are booked and most of Thursday also. Where do I go from here? I told the ticket agent I would hang around and return later for perhaps better news. Around me were some of the other passengers from my flight to BWI. I asked a woman there if her destination had been BWI. She told me, "Yes." I asked her if she minded if I hung around with her until we determined what the best plan for getting to Baltimore was. She said, "Yes." She then told me she and four others were returning from Maui where she had been to a conference of the National Association of Home Builders. They all worked in Washington DC and lived in the area. Her name is Debra, her friends are Liza, Petra, Jay and Dave.
Liza immediately began phoning on her cell phone, trying to get a rental car. We all thought driving to Baltimore was a wild idea, however, we waited to see what could be arranged. Dave phoned family to see if he could arrange something. After much walking back and forth, getting cash from the ATM and trying to sort all of this out, Liza found a car in OKLAHOMA CITY! All of the rentals in the Dallas area were taken! We were apprehensive about the huge cost of being driven to OC by taxi but finally determined we had no cheaper alternative. We felt being stuck in Dallas until Thursday, at the very least, was unacceptable.

Deb, Liza and Dave
 Outside the terminal was a taxi stand with a very efficient gentleman getting all of the people taxis. There was a fleet of taxis enroute to the airport and we only waited five minutes to be seated in our taxi to OC.
Our driver and Jay loading the van and then on to Oklahoma City

After putting $350 on the credit card bill, we proceeded to OC. While driving there we speculated as to whether we should drive straight through or stay one night in the area and wondered what was really going on. We tried to remain calm while our Ghana-born driver dozed, rallied, zig-zagged and continued on our way. We tried to engage him in conversation to keep him alert. Jay and Petra had been watching his eyes close and pop back open. Almost to Okalahoma City a trailer ahead of us lost a tire that rolled toward us, our driver adroitly avoided running over it!!

The rental agency was near the Oklahoma City airport but we missed our turnoff and ended up in a gas station to get directions. We noticed the station was doing a brisk business. We asked what was the reason. The cashier told us she had been directed to increase the cost of gas to $3.00 or $4.00 dollars a gallon and everyone was filling up to avoid the increase.
There were people leaving without paying and a policeman was trying to keep order. Outside now was a queue as far as we could see, all waiting for gas. Unable to exit the station directly, we had to drive through the car wash and then back on the road to the rental agency. Liza called to ensure our rental car was still waiting.
We shortly arrived at the Hertz Rent A Car lot and after some haggling procured at Windstar van at the cost of $350.00+ for 24 hours!!

Deb

Liza drove and we were off, destination Baltimore.
Very relieved to be on the road we settled down to listen to the radio to hear what we could about the morning's events and continuing events.
We could not believe what we heard, it all seemed so impossible. How could anyone be so evil? We learned that four planes had been hijacked, one flew into the first World Trade Center tower and shortly thereafter, another into the remaining Tower. The Pentagon had been hit and there was word that another was heading for the Whitehouse. There were six other planes that were not accounted for and perhaps also hijacked.
Liza proved to be a determined driver. We counted the states as we put them behind us. We finally stopped at dusk to get dinner. There were enough drivers, so we decided to rotate driving and continue on through the night.
Petra
Back on the road, Dave took up the driving and away we went into the night.
Dave driving
The news on the radio was that more than 70 police and 300 firefighters arriving at the original Tower tragedy were killed by the second tower coming down. More than 50,000 persons work in the World Trade Center towers and it was unknown how many managed to escape. The Pentagon was burning uncontrollably but thankfully, no more planes had crashed into any other target.
At around midnight we stopped to refuel again and Jay took over the driving duties. Dave had done an excellent job of safely driving us to this point. Jay proved to be a real road warrior. He threaded us through the highway system, construction zones and unclear road signs the entire night! Whatever obstacle presented itself, he smoothly brought us to the other side intact. The rest of us fitfully dozed and made the best of our cramped quarters as we headed to our final destination-Baltimore. We rotated sitting positions so that we all had the opportunity to be equally claustrophobic in the back seat.

As daylight approached we looked for a place to refuel, change drivers and decide the best route to BWI where Debra's car was waiting. Those in the MacDonalds had the first newspaper pictures we had seen of the tragedy that continued to unfold. Unbelievable. The picture that sticks in my mind is that of thousands of New Yorkers walking away from Lower Manhattan. The sheer number is outstanding. Many injured, some young, some old, all walking, many for hours to get to a safer place.

We were told that some local airports had recieved planes that had been directed to land at the nearest airport. Many of these airports were not designed to receive these planes. Ladders had to be brought in to unload the passengers since no skywalks were there. No refueling facilities, that would have to be worked out later.

As we prepared to restart our journey we were informed that our planned route was blocked by an overturned fuel truck. We readjusted our plan and Liza took the wheel again, a really determined woman with a mission!

The country-side is beautiful. Farms neatly whizzing by, rocky hills, streams and rivers flowing. The trees and grass are so green and everything looks like heaven. How could something so devastating be happening elsewhere? We all hope we are just dreaming the events of the previous day and that we will all awake soon.

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