I got to class early that day, and was working on my design project. My teacher smokes, so he went outside for a cig. He rushed back down seconds later and told us all that the WTC was on fire. So our whole class runs out to the parking lot (we are right across the Hudson from NYC), just in time to see the second plane hit the towers.
It really was surreal. No one could honestly get their minds around what was happening. I know the most emotional moment of that day for me was not when the towers got hit, or collapsed, or as the wounded came to the PATH station so we could tend to them. It was when we had just seen the first tower collapse, and the second one was still standing. A girl next to me (I don't know who she was, I probably never will) had her father working in the towers. She was desperately trying to call him, and nothing on campus would work. Our cell towers were on the top of the WTC, and our phone lines were jammed. Finally, she does get through, and you could see the hope on her face as it started ringing. Then, she just let out such a wail as she got the message that the cell phone was not in service.
I don't know what happened to her or her father, but that was the worst moment of the whole event.
We were quite busy that day. We ended up converting our field (which was a parking lot at the time) into a helipad, but only one helicopter ever came. I registered as being certified in first aid and a large group of us began turning the school gym into a triage center. However, we never got the wounded. The loss of life was just horrible. We never expected such a small amount of wounded to come out. It truly was a tragedy, that day. I still have a photo taken from my campus as my desktop.
Armani
