Where were you?

I was asleep on my grandmother's couch in Logan, WV. I stayed with her the night before (along with many other family members) because we were to bury my great-grandmother on 9-11-01. My mother woke me up right after the first plane hit.

No need to apologize.

I was at the office.

I was almost 3,000 miles away and was devastated, I can't imagine what it was like to be in the same proximity........

I watch the news, I listen to the stories, my eyes still fill with tears.

I pulled up to the espresso stand and the lady was watching a TV; she said a plane had crashed into the World Trade Towers in New York City. I got to the office and tried to get on the internet to see what was going on and it wasn't working.

I had a meeting with a contractor; we were to stake some new dolphins at the ferry dock on Anderson Island. I remember the drive to Stielacoom, no commercial planes flying, but I did see a couple of military jets, it was kind of eerie...I listened to Howard Stern, he was very distraught, he didn't want to be there.

I got to the island and met with the contractor, they told us they might shut the ferry system down.

I didn't get much else done that day, went home and watched the news......

I'll never forget.

Douglas Casement, WA PLS

I was working on a highway rehabilitation project which just so happened to be the PA Turnpike in Somerset. It was my second day on the job. Our field office was about 5 miles from Shanksville where Flight 93 went down. I had to go get keys made for our field office. We knew about the planes hitting the WTC. As I was leaving the office, I made the comment "Good thing we are in the middle of nowhere in Somerset rather than in downtown Pittsburgh (where we were working for the previous year). Only thing we have to worry about here is if they try to bomb the Somerset courthouse." I left to get the keys made and was watching everything on the TV at the hardware store when the plane went down in Shanksville. I went to a different hardware store then what everyone thought. They all thought I went to the store that was in Shanksville. Needless to say, we were told to get our crews off of the turnpike and we all went home for the day.

We are six hours behind EST (in the summer) here in Hawaii, so the events had already occurred before I was even awake. My sister called from California and woke me at 4:30 or so.

We had some preparedness meetings at DOT just in case there were additional attacks that might affect us locally. A few people might have forgotten, and some were just too young to understand, but nobody was sure that there wouldn't be more attacks over the next few hours/days.

I was alone at my house in the remote mountains of NC. The phone rang and it was my long time buddy and former Army Ranger 2Lt. sounding somewhat paniced saying to turn on the TV. I immediate dropped a tape in the VCR and began recording realizing I was seeing history (albeit devistating) unfolding before me. He said he was going to go get his kids out of school and ponder what to do. Realizing I was on my last blank tape I went into town to get some more. By then local police were parked at every school entrance, the courthouse and every traffic lighted intersection in town (all 3 or 4 them).
Later in the day he called again asking could he and his family came stay with me up the mountains. He was in an Atlanta suburb at the time and wasn't feeling safe near a big city. Apparently rightfully so as we saw. He also asked if he could bring his guns. I said something like "of course, so long as they don't get in the way of my guns all of which we fully loaded by then". We laughed and said he thought he would ask anyway.
I pretty much kept to myself for about a week sitting around in disbelief.

In recent days I've watched many documentaries about it all. The common question I kept hearing was "Did you know anyone lost on 9-11?". I pondered that question most of the week not really knowing if I really did know anyone personally. Late one night the answer came to me should I be asked every again.
"Yeah, I lost about 3000 friends that day."

Septeber 2nd...WTC..site seeing...
September 10th..Yankee stadium.
9/11...middle of a 70 acre site in Branford...heard it all on the radio..

I-95 had signs up saying AVOID NYC...

still makes me sick..

I was in the air ...

in my plane and was one of the planes that was to get on the ground ASAP. Fortunately I had just taken off in the preceeding 15 or 20 minutes and I was allowed to return to my home base. That day and for the next three days I was the last plane to take off and the last plane to land at my home airport.

Topo for intersection improvements

Not too good an image, I'm still learning.

On July 25th, 2000 my future wife and I were on vacation at Pensacola Beach, FL when the Concorde crashed in France. On September 11th, 2001 we were on vacation in Panama City Beach, FL. We spent the day in the condo watching the coverage in disbelief. I'm not a superstitious person, but even now if I'm out of town I feel uncomfortable turning on the news.

Had stopped in at a little grocery store to pickup some drinks and snacks for the day. The owner had a little black and white TV atop one of the meat refrigerators showing the first tower smoking. He explained what had happened. Just then, the second tower was hit, confirming that neither hit was accidental. We didn't know what to do, so we went on to work doing an ALTA at the site shown.

We spent much of our time watching the skies and observing the craziness as hundreds showed up at the gasoline station across the highway hoping to fill their tanks in case there was a need to drive somewhere in a hurry.

Had a crew meet me here at 8 A.M. to wait for a pipeline company rep. He never showed. We were listening to the radio..sent the crew back to the office.

BTW - We were working on a road widening project. As you can see, it got wider.
Ten years ago that was a two-lane asphalt road, with pasture on both sides of the road. My, my, don't things change.

Pipeline ROW in El Dorado, AR.

In Rutherford, NJ within eyesight of the towers. From our roof at the time we set up a Leica TS and watched as the towers came down.
Later that afternoon I had to drive east on Route 46 to Fairview, NJ as the field crew's van dropped the trans. They were stranded but I was nearly alone in the office so I went to get them. About 12 miles took me 3.5 hours as all on Route 46 were seeking a way home.Returning west was no problem.
Later that evening a friend called to tell me he was stranded on Route 3 in Secaucus where the bus left him. So I went to pick him up and that took nearly 2 hours for 6 miles.
When I returned home to my apartment I parked the car in the garage and when I went outside it was total silence as there was no air traffic. Very unusual as Teterboro and Newark's flight paths are all around this area.
A day I can never forget.
Earlier in 2001 I worked on the 73rd floor for Port Authority Traffic as my firm had a CAD services contract with them. I remember using the stairway as the 73rd floor bathrooms were being renovated. I thought at the time "the stairways are so narrow" because you could not get past someone going up or down without squeezing to the side. On 9/11 I thought about that stairways again.
I now work as a Port Authority consultant full time at Port
Newark.

Parking lot at the Office in Dallas when the first one hit. Was inside watching television when the second one hit.

I was not real safe to talk to that day.

Surveying a Gas Unit in Rusk County. I never before listened to AM radio, but did for weeks that day and after.

Truly a day to live in infamy.

I was a recently unemployed Geologist, sitting at home taking care of my new born while my wife worked. Little did I know that my live as a Surveyor was about to begin.

Staking out a daycare center in Horn Lake, MS. Left the site to get more news, which was pretty much unheard of for me at that time.

I was in a construction meeting at a tilt wall panel site in Allen Tx.

Of course, it seems like a horrible accident at first, until we got word of the second strike.

At that point, everyone was glued to the radio as the events unfolded, making phone calls checking on family...etc.

I lived in Frisco Tx at the time, and my house was close to a flight path (a lot of air traffic above). I remember how eerie it was sitting out in the hot tub at night and not seeing any planes in the air.

Within a week, my wife who was a travel nurse had already gone to Manhattan to help out at a hospital there. My son and I followed a few weeks later and stayed for a week.