New York: Six Weeks On (Attacks on America)

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Product:	Attacks on America
Date:	14/09/02 (17 review reads)
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Disadvantages: Terrible Scenes, Death, Who Could Sacrifice their own life just to kill thousands?

'Oh My God! Come quickly! You Won't Believe This!'

This was what I was greeted with arriving home from school on September 11th.

It had been a good day. I had only been in my new High School a week, and I was beginning to settle in. As I strolled home in the sun, thinking of how good things were going, actually looking forward to school the next day, I had no idea of the devastation that was happening. I had no idea that over 2,000 innocent people had died. That was, until I stepped into the front porch of my home. My brother came running over to me shouting my name repeatedly and cursing. Confused, he dragged me into the living room where I was shoved in front of the TV. And at that very moment, I knew that the world would never, COULD never, be the same again. A million different emotions swept through my mind, all of them bad. What I was seeing couldn't be real. It had to be a clip from some new action movie. But it was real, it was happening, right as I watched.

I was looking at an image of the two towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. But they were different. in fact, there was black smoke billowing out of the tops. My Brother explained terrorists had flown aircraft into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre, The Pentagon in Washington DC, and another had crashed in Pennsylvania. (I had imagined little fighter planes, not huge airliners) We were watching BBC1, but they had deleted the schedule, and in its place was live coverage taken from BBC News 24. The writing at the bottom of the screen said 'Twin Towers completely flattened by terrorists. I thought aloud, 'but they can't be, they're still there on screen'. It was then pictures of these great towers falling were shown. And I watched on in shock. Not just that, but another thought crossed my mind. We were due to go to New York in 6 weeks time. It was to be my first time in America. We were planning to go up the Twin Towers. I had r
esearched into them. What were we going to do? But the shock, and worry, I was feeling, standing in my living room watching pictures, was nothing to the shock anyone in New York, or Washington, or anywhere where the attacks were, was feeling.

It now surprises me that at that time how little everyone knew about what was happening. No one knew exactly what sort of planes had been used. No one knew who had done it. No one knew what was going to happen next. At this moment, anything seemed possible. My dad rang up, asking where everyone was, making sure we were all home. He said he wanted to come home to get one last look at his family before we died. Maybe not that blatantly, but that was what he was implying. He really thought the Americans were going to do something stupid in return. Of course, 1 year later, they are, but I?m not here to talk about that.

I spent the next couple of hours watching, still in shock, the coverage on TV. When I came home it had been 2 hours since the first plane hit, by the time I stopped watching it had been 5 hours. While I watched, more news came in. More pictures. Pictures of people covered in dust, walking down streets covered in dust. More pictures of the Pentagon, and one of its sides collapsing. More pictures from the crash site in Pennsylvania. Speeches from World Leaders. Everyone in shock. It seemed, nowhere was safe. Anything could happen next. The President of the USA was up in the air above America. All flights to and from America were cancelled, and airports closed. My friend's dad was on a flight from London to Boston. Almost half-way across the Atlantic, the flight turned around and headed back. Imagine the panic of people on such planes. Only being told things were being destroyed across America and It wasn't safe to land there. I went to sleep on the night of September 11th wondering what was next.

Over the coming weeks things slightly returned to normal, at least as normal as they

could possibly be. The hope of finding survivors in the rubble diminished, and workers concentrated on removing the rubble. The actual terrorists who hijacked the planes had their identities uncovered, and with that the USA found a main culprit; Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda terrorist network. America strikes back and bombs Afghanistan, where the Taliban is toppled and a normal government reformed. Osama Bin Laden is still not caught, and some rumours believe him to be dead. In Lessons in school we talked about it, had debates. I needn't carry on explaining events such as these that happened after September 11th, as everyone knows them already. I shall move back to my story. What I got annoyed with was the fact that people seemed to forget that people died heroically not just New York. When ever September 11th was mentioned, no one thought of Washington or Pennsylvania, they just thought of New York.

As all these events happened, the clock ticked down to October half term, when we due to fly out to New York. We really didn't want to go anymore, nor did anyone. But we were not allowed a refund, and we had to wait until the night before we flew out to New York. In the end, we ended up going, which was really a good thing, because we were all packed. And the next day, we went to Newcastle Airport. Newcastle Airport is a fairly small airport, with mainly national flights but a growing number of international flights to Europe. The airport, today, seemed quiet. Security was at large. In the scanners, anything at all suspicious was called back so Security could have a proper look. We flew to Amsterdam, where we changed to New York. Both flights were with KLM. The Magazines onboard, and a new program on the TV explained KLM were to cut staff, aircraft and routes due to September 11th. And they weren't the only ones. All Airlines went through the same problems. People were too scared to fly. There were, thankfully, a decent number of people onthe fl
ights. Six weeks on people were beginning to come back to air travel. I don't like air travel full stop so I wouldn't enjoy the flights much anyway. The journey was safe, however, but delayed. We boarded the plane an hour late at Amsterdam because there had been a problem with the air conditioning.

We drove across New York by taxi, travelling to our hotel in Manhattan, the Edison. As Manhattan island itself came into sight, we noticed the gap in the skyline at one end. It was dark, and the Empire State Building (which always has coloured lights illuminating it's spire at night) was showing the colours of the American Flag.
In our week in New York we stayed mostly in Midtown Manhattan, but even there the reminders were there. Posters, stuck up on walls, each with a different message. The Most memorable one I can remember was one that was very simple, yet effective. It was the USA flag, with a silhouette of the Twin Towers, and a message underneath; we Will Never Forget. And on the metro system, the World Trade Centre Station remained on the map. This was a city still very much recovering.
On one of our final days we decided to get the ferry to Staten Island. The ferry terminal in Manhattan is just round the block from Ground Zero. As we went down the streets (and these were several away from Ground Zero) you could tell it was there. The air seemed heavier. And then there was the smell. The stench of burning, of dust, and of death. It was a powerful yet terrible sensation. On The way back into Manhattan we actually walked as close as you can get to Ground Zero. The Small streets and paths that led to it were blocked off with tall metal fences, but you could see through them. You could see the remains of the Winter Gardens Centre, (a shopping Mall) now just a skeleton. You could see the remains of the stubs of the Twin Towers, and the unmistakable wall patterns. The Buildings surrounding the site had all of their windows
smashed, pre
sumably when the Towers collapsed. The Fences stopping us from getting closer were decorated with American Flags, tributes from school children and people all over the world. These tributes were all over New York.
When we went up the Empire State Building (which we did twice, once in the day and once at night) you could see it. By day, you could see the smoke rising up. By night, huge floodlights illuminated the scene. Workers literally worked 24 hours for months to clear the remains.
One day we even went past the offices that had held the Antrax virus. The doors were sealed but you could feel the emptiness around the building.
Generally New Yorkers seemed happy to see us. They were glad people were still coming to their city.

When I got back, people were still shocked at the photos I showed them. But they didn't really know. You can only get so much from photos. It's entirely different actually being there. The atmosphere is something unique. The sadness hangs in the air itself.
Some people call me sick, going out to New York to see the remains of a disaster. But these are the people who didn't know we booked to go out there months before September 11th . We didn't know. If someone had told us, or anyone, beforehand, what was going to happen, we wouldn't have believed it. No one would. The idea would seem impossible.

In ways, I am glad I went out there when I did. I am glad I saw what I saw. In other ways, I Wish I had never gone. The experience will stick in my mind forever. But my experiences were nothing compared to what New Yorkers experienced that terrible day. Not just New Yorkers, but people in Washington, and Pennsylvania. So just you think about that, next time you see a film clip or a photo of that day, that day that changed our world in a way that is totallly indescribable.

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