9 years ago today

[Newhomebuyer]

We were due to fly out of Orlando on the 11th September 2001. We didn't watch the television that morning and after packing,we had the bell hop come and pick up our luggage to store at the Disneys Beach Club resort. We had been staying there as it was before we owned the villa. We planned to have a last walk round Epcot before the taxi came to pick us up to take us to MCO.
We entered Epcot through the International Gateway and turned right towards France. There was no one around and we thought it was just because we had gone through the side route.The staff at the gate didn't say anything ( we later realised they may not have known what was happening) There was no one about until we got to the American pavillion. There was a lady at the pin stall and I stopped to talk to her. I told her that we were going home that day.
" You don't know?" she said " We are under attack. All planes are grounded indefinitely"

Just after she said this a group of suited, Disney staff came out from the buildings behind and said that the park had to be evacuated immediately. We were told to make our way back to the resorts where they said we would be safe.
Back at the Beach club, the lobby was full of people trying to phone relatives and arranging to get taxis to get home if they could.
The staff were very kind to us and we were allowed to stay as guests, free of charge until we were able to get a flight home. (5 days later)

The park was closed all day but the following night we went back into Epcot when the firewroks were on and listened to "WE go On" The music at the end of reflections of Earth. I cannot describe the atmosphere in there that night but I can still feel it when I watch the newsreel footage of all those men who were making their way into the towers when everyone else was getting away from there.

Brave men and women like that put themselves in danger on a daily basis. So today I don't just remember the Twin Towers victims, I give thanks for the bravery of those who 'serve others'in this way, all the time, and in all coners of the world.

[karenk]

I was working in a local housing office and we had the radio on. Couldn't believe what I was hearing and I remember the shock I felt. My parents had been on holiday in the USA and were in the world trade centre exactly one week before it happened, thank God they visited on arriving in the USA rather than departing or otherwise they may have been in the building at the time, who knows.

[MarkJan]

I have been in Austria this week with work and was chatting to a colleague who was in the World Trade Centre on the 10th September 2001. The visibility was poor so he and his wife were given rain-checks for the following day. On the way to the WTC on 9-11, he say the fisrt plane hit the tower.

[VIOLET]

Thank you for your memories, gives me goosebumps reading them - I think that day changed the world.

[luckylady]

I was driving home from London, when I heard the news on the radio. At first I thought I had misunderstood what the newscaster was saying. When I arrived home and saw the news on the TV I was horrified.

Three years later we visited Ground Zero when in New York. I will never forget until the day I die the overwelming feeling of sadness and senenity I felt as stodd there.

I will never forget the bravery of so many from all over the world who died to save others.
God Bless them all.

[mfairhurst]

We forget and reading all this brings it home again ,
We put the tv on and could not beleive it the first plane and then the next we thought it was a Steven Spealberg film and then the reporter said what was happening ,we felt just like when Diana died that was the same feeling .
All we said was the people in the buildings and on the planes it must have been hell .
We flew to florida with Delta 4 days later via Alanta and there were soldiers all around in customs very edgy to say the least but that is America got to the job on hand .
MAUREEN
www.onlinevillas.com/villas/1683.aspx

[SteveandJan]

I was working in London at the time and I work for an American law firm and although they didn't have office in the World Trade Centre, the New York office was very close and we had an announcement to tell us what had happened. I still find it hard to believe that someone could do that and all those people that lost their lives

[kitch50]

I, like everyone else watched the whole day unfold on the tv, I have since visited Ground Zero on a number of occasions and like Barbara found it a very sad and serene place, especially the first time when we went to St Paul's Chapel which is one block away from GZ and the boots of the men in the emergency services that lost their lives on that day were still hung on the railings of the Chapel where they had left them.

People will always know where they were when 9/11 happened the same as it was when Diana died and when JFK was shot.

[Mo Green]

I had left the TV on after watching the news and like Maureen though it was a disaster movie. Quickly rang husband who was working in London and can remember the gasps from people in his office as he relayed the unbelievable chain of events I was seeing on TV. In Florida at the moment and we were watching a programme of videos and photographs taken by ordinary people in New York and around the Pentagon on 9/11 - unbelievable scenes. On the same programme Mayor Giuliani described how several people in the towers were personal friends and how the tears and emotion had to wait until he was alone.

Mo

[SDJ]

I was in US and my husband was bound for Washington on a United flight. I had turned the TV on just as the second plane hit the Tower. Then of course Washington was hit and by now I was certainly panicking. Eventually I was able to get through to United Airlines but with a name like "Jones" they were telling me all sorts of different scenarios and that he was in LA. That could not have been true as he had only left London 4 hours previously!! They said they would look into it and phoned me back to say the plane had been turned round and was heading back to London. My husband said that on the plane, he was wondering why the sun was in the wrong place when the Captain made an announcement and asked everyone to tune into the headset radio channel. From that moment there was pandemonium with people screaming, crying hysterics etc. Once they landed in London, United gave them all sandwiches and they had to wait penned up for 4/5 hours when they were all ferried to various hotels throughout London. My hubby travelled back to Devon the next day and it was 7 days before he managed to get the first flight to Washington DC. He had to stay overnight at Washington Dulles so booked into the hotel there and he was the only person staying there.

My thoughts are with all those families who lost their loved one's as I know the feeling of panic I experienced and I was lucky.