September 06, 2011, The Jersey Journal, Pennsylvania man recalls seeing 9/11 attacks from Jersey City Waterfront,3:55 PM
A Pennsylvania man has shared with The York Dispatch his tale of watching the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks from the Jersey City Waterfront.
That morning, Bob Kefauver, 48, currently chairman of the York County Democratic Party, was in Jersey City, where his girlfriend had an apartment, reports the Dispatch.
Kefauver was using a pay phone on the Waterfront to call his girlfriend when a plane struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
Baseball, other sports, Broadway theaters cancel schedules September 12, 2001, by Ronald Blum, AP sports writer, 5:49 AM,
NEW YORK - Major league baseball postponed its entire schedule of 15 games last night following terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
Other sports also rewrote their schedules.
Aside from work stoppages, it was the first time since D-Day in 1944 that baseball wiped out a whole day of regular-season play.
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig made the decision about 31/2 hours after the attacks began in New York.
"In the interest of security and out of a sense of deep mourning for the national tragedy that has occurred today, all major league baseball games for today have been canceled," Selig said in a statement.
Expressing "my deepest sympathy," Selig also called off the owners' quarterly meeting that was set to start yesterday. He did not make any decisions about today's games.
Also:
All Broadway shows were canceled.
The Latin Grammys in Los Angeles were canceled.
In Florida, Walt Disney World evacuated and closed four theme parks and shopping and entertainment complex.
Philadelphia Liberty Bell and Independence Hall closed.
Seattle's Space Needle was evacuated and closed.
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art shut down.
In California, Knott's Berry Farm in Orange County closed. The Museum of Tolerance and the 1,700-foot Library Tower in Los Angeles shut down.
Baseball's minor leagues - their regular seasons over - postponed postseason games in all nine leagues that were to play yesterday.
Race tracks around the nation called off their cards and the National Football League was mulling whether to postpone Sunday's games, league spokesman Joe Browne said.
Major League Soccer postponed all four games that had been scheduled for Wednesday night, and in Columbus, Ohio, the U.S. Women's Cup doubleheader involving the United States against Japan and Germany vs. China was postponed.
The PGA Tour canceled tomorrow's starts of the World Golf Championship and two other tournaments.
Commissioner Tim Finchem said the American Express Championship in St. Louis, featuring Tiger Woods and top players from tours around the world, would begin Friday with 36 holes. The Senior Tour will remain on schedule, with a 54-hole event that starts Friday in North Carolina.
The Thoroughbred Racing Association canceled all its cards Tuesday, shuttering tracks at Delaware Park in Stanton, Del; Finger Lakes in Farmington; the Meadowlands in East Rutherford; Philadelphia Park in Bensalem Pa.; and Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa. Cards also were wiped out at Great Lake Downs in Muskegon, Mich.; Fairplex in Pomona, Calif.; and Moutaineer Park in Chester, W.Va.
Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Ill., and Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., canceled Wednesday's cards.
In hockey, the Toronto Maple Leafs postponed their trip to Newfoundland after Canadian airports grounded all outgoing flights. The Leafs were to travel to Newfoundland for training camp.
The NCAA said conferences and schools have the authority to determine whether to play college football games this weekend.
The decision by the major leagues was only the third time they postponed an entire day's regular season schedule for something other than labor strife or weather, according to Scot Mondore of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
The other days were Aug. 2, 1923, when President Warren G. Harding died, and June 6, 1944, when Allied forces invaded France in World War II. Exhibition games were called off on April 14, 1945, two days after President Franklin D. Roosevelt died.
In 1945, the All-Star game was canceled because of wartime travel restrictions. The 1918 season ended a month early on Sept. 2 by order of the U.S. War Department.
September 12, 2001, The Associated Press, New Jersey shudders in wake of attacks, 3:48 PM,
New Jerseyans struggled with fear, anger and uncertainty yesterday in the wake of terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Centers and rocked the Pentagon.
Airports shut down, traffic backed up at crossings into New York and telephone lines were overwhelmed as people sought word on loved ones living or working in Manhattan.
As television reports showed the smoky wreckage of bombings in New York and Washington, edgy workers worried about their own security.
"I want to go home," said Terry Rossi, a law office employee in Trenton. "I don't want to be in this building, the highest building in Trenton."
A crew of workers refurbishing a building across the street from the Statehouse said they were slightly concerned about being so near the capitol building.
Mostly, though, they were angry.
"Before the end of the day, it should be declared an act of war," said Jim Henrichsen, of East Rutherford. "They've effectively shut down the United States," he said. "The ripple effect is going to be unreal."
In Atlantic City, casinos remained open but an unknown number of New York-area gamblers were stranded, unable to get buses back to New York.
"We're being as accommodating as we can be," said Brian Cahill, spokesman for Park Place Entertainment Corp., which has four casinos here.
Police Chief Arthur Snellbaker said there was no reason to believe casinos would be targeted by terrorists, but said street patrols around them were increased as a precaution.
At Trump Plaza, anyone carrying a bag and trying to enter the casino was detained and then escorted across the floor by a uniformed security guard.
Trump Hotels spokeswoman Suze DiPietro-Stewart said all bus traffic in and out of Trump's three Atlantic City casinos had been halted because of the attacks.
"We're trying to find space for people, if they have to stay over," she said.
The head of the Miss America Pageant said there was a chance the competition - scheduled for Sept. 22 - would be canceled for the first time since the 1930s.
No decision has been made yet, said CEO Robert M. Renneisen Jr.
Pageant officials canceled Tuesday's schedule for the 51 contestants and security was tightened at Boardwalk Hall, the site of the event.
Renneisen worried that the pageant could be a target because of its status as a "national icon."
"We have no specific reason to believe we're a target, but we've always considered ourselves a target for that reason. We'd be foolish not to now," Renneisen said.
"Speechless," said a handwritten sign on the Boardwalk at Atlantic City Miniature Golf.
"I'm numb," said Corinne Zuege, 49, of West Lafayette, Ind. "This is such a tragedy. They always said there would never be another Pearl Harbor, and here it's happened on our shores."
About 260 travelers were stranded at Atlantic City International Airport when U.S. air travel was halted in the aftermath of the attacks. Even the Federal Aviation Administration's William J. Hughes Technical Center, a research-and-development arm of the FAA, was closed. Workers were sent home at noon, spokeswoman Holly Baker said.
Rob Halsey, a physical education teacher at St. John Vienney High School in Holmdel, didn't believe the first reports of the attack.
"We all thought it was a joke at first," said Halsey, interviewed at a South Brunswick convenience store.
"Of course I'm angry because it's such a cowardly thing. I agree with the president that we should hunt them down and punish them.
"If we let this go that sends the wrong signal. The most disturbing part of the whole thing is that people have been warning us for years that New York City was vulnerable," Halsey said.
Paula Cap, of South Brunswick, was home with her children when she heard the first reports.
"It's very sad and the great impact this will have on people both directly and indirectly will be tremendous," she said. "I hope as a nation we can pull through and correct our shortcomings and complacency about who we are."
Joe Brown, of Trenton, said he didn't understand how the attacks could have happened.
"I just thought intelligence had more people in place to detect these incidents before they happen," he said, filling up his car with gas. "It seems they would have had security in place, especially in New York and Washington."
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Grim view shocks all, By Agustin Torres, Journal city editor, 3:47 PM,
Onlookers wail over deaths; Call made for unity, strength,WEEHAWKEN - There was a collective gasp from hundreds of shocked people watching from Hamilton Plaza on Boulevard East as the second World Trade Center tower began to collapse.
"There goes the second one," a voice shouted.
As the giant steel and glass structure crumbled, resembling a receding fountain of billowing smoke and debris, the sobbing began all along the edge of the Palisades.
It was a quiet, very controlled chorus of grief coming from a huge stunned gallery while amateur photographers and those with video cameras rushed forward for the unimaginable shot.
"There must be firefighters, police, people still trying to get out of there," wept Gladys Betancourt, 45, of Weehawken who, unable to watch anymore, hugged her husband and looked away.
"Oh my God. Oh my God," was all Hector Mendez, a 28-year-old man from North Bergen, could say. He was on his way to work for a bank in Lower Manhattan.
"How can people do this? Those poor people down there," said Mendez.
A few seconds after the start of the collapse, the shattering sounds of the disaster hit the crowd on the Palisades.
Two Weehawken police officers manning barriers at Hamilton Place watched, one biting his lower lip. "If this country doesn't do something about this, I'll be ashamed," said one officer in an emotionally strained voice.
Boulevard East provides one of the most spectacular world-class views of Manhattan and several Japanese tourists, cameras in hand, never imagined they would be witness to such a horror.
"This is so sad not just for your country, but for the world," said Joey Ito, a Cliffside Park resident acting as a guide for visiting relatives.
Former Weehawken Councilwoman Alane Finnerty, eyes brimming with tears, begged those within earshot to fly their flags.
"We're Americans. Fly your flag and be strong," Finnerty shouted.
She and other neighborhood women approached police and offered their homes and food to anyone who might need assistance for the night.
A half-dozen blocks away, some students in Union Hill High School in Union City were quietly watching the terror on fuzzy television screens in their silent classrooms.
Principal Robert Wendelken was directing 20 to 30 parents, some dabbing tears from their eyes, to sign release forms to take their children out of the school. Like Jersey City, Union City schools are closed today.
Every other block, a resident was flying an American flag, most of them at half-staff.
At St. John's Episcopal Church on Palisade Avenue, the Rev. Steven Giovangelo placed a large American flag on the sidewalk next to the wide open doors beckoning those who needed to pray.
Police closed off many of the side streets to Boulevard East and the Lincoln Tunnel to discourage traffic after the North Hudson mayors declared a state of emergency. Union City officers were also stationed at a local mosque and at a Hasidic seminary.
Union City City Hall was closed and employees sent home. The city's emergency management team received word that several hundred of the injured would be sent to the Bruce Walter Recreation Center at Eighth and West streets. Mostly those with cuts and less threatening injuries would be transported there.
By late afternoon, there were about 10 surgeons but none of the injured had arrived yet.
"Life in this country will never be the same again," said Dr. Vicente Ruiz.
Scores of area residents began to arrive at the center asking to volunteer. Ana Galvan, a local architect, arrived looking for hope.
"My son-in-law was in the World Trade Center, near the top, and we haven't heard from him," she said holding back tears and asking for help to communicate with authorities in Manhattan.
A trauma unit arrived from Jersey City to help prepare the medical staff. Many of the injured were being washed down for fear of contamination and they would only be wearing towels and sheets.
At about 7 p.m., the Union City triage received word that none of the injured were coming.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Hoboken: Haven for Survivors, By Christina Joseph, Journal staff writer 3:46 PM
Hundreds, many injured, flood Terminal area
HOBOKEN -- Shocked, scared, concerned and lost, hundreds of people who escaped from a fiery Lower Manhattan paced city streets yesterday trying to locate loved ones and find their way home.
Anthony Smith could barely make out any words yesterday as he stood one block from Hoboken Terminal while listening to news accounts about the tragic World Trade Center collapses.
He was running late for work yesterday morning.
"This is the first time this year that I have been late to work," said Smith, a Bergen County resident who works on the 104th floor of Building 2.
"I was late. I think I just lost my whole office," he said, tears choked in his throat. "I guess everybody at home thinks I'm gone, too."
Smith was just one of hundreds of out-of-towners stranded in Hoboken early yesterday after train and ferry service was halted into Manhattan. Desperately trying to use cell phones and lining up at local pay phones, commuters grew frustrated after several failed attempts to contact family members due to overloaded phone lines.
The crowds lining the blocks near the terminal grew larger as New York Waterway ferries and PATH trains shuttled scores of Manhattan commuters to Hoboken Terminal, as hundreds more walked from Newport Centre and other Jersey City businesses in hopes of getting home.
Commuters debarking ferries and trains were then hosed down by emergency personnel stationed at the terminal before being allowed to wander the streets.
While police officers stationed throughout the city directed traffic, they were also bombarded with questions from confused commuters trying to locate a bus, train - anything - to get them further away from the carnage at New York's financial center.
As the day progressed, buses bound for New Jersey suburbs lined Observer Highway, and New Jersey Transit started running commuter trains to Bergen County. But those headed into New York's five boroughs and Long Island were not so fortunate.
"I have two kids in the New York City public school system and my husband is stranded in Brooklyn. I can't get out of New Jersey," said Manhattan resident Phyllis Manning, who works in Downtown Jersey City.
Officials cleared the city's main arteries to make way for the emergency vehicles that cruised up and down Observer Highway.
Outside the PATH station, dozens of ambulances from cities as far away as Scotch Plains, gathered in formation awaiting the barrage of commuters who escaped with their lives and fled to this side of the Hudson River. A triage center was set up at the foot of the terminal to decontaminate those covered with soot and treat minor wounds. Crisis counselors had also been stationed to assist those who were traumatized by the tragic events.
One of those who made it back, his suit covered with soot and water, was Chris Trimble of Hoboken. He was standing on Nassau Street in Manhattan when the first tower collapsed.
"The building came down and there was pandemonium everywhere. I put my head down and prayed to God. It was the scariest thing I have ever seen," he said.
Mayor David Roberts said Hoboken was poised to help New York City in any way necessary, but was stunned by the sequence of events.
"Today's cowardly attack on the World Trade Center strikes at the heart of all Americans. While the City of Hoboken looks on the rest of the nation, we are touched by this tragedy in a very personal way," said Roberts.
"Thousands of people make Hoboken their home because of close proximity to New York City, and many of them work in New York's Downtown area. Our thoughts and prayers are with all people affected by this disaster, but they are especially with our Hoboken neighbors and their loved ones."
"As always, America will go on, and so will we in Hoboken. Together, we will grow stronger in the face of this senseless tragedy," he added.
Renee Whitaker of Hoboken was working at the World Financial Center nearby when the first plane hit the World Trade Center.
"It literally rocked our whole building," she said, "I took my bag and ran out."
The scene outside was horrific. Whitaker, 38, said she saw about one dozen people leaping from the Trade Center.
"I'll never forget that sight. Those poor people," she said.
Whitaker recounted the experience on the street near Pier A in Hoboken, where some 300 people - including several who had returned from Lower Manhattan - gathered as the tragedy unfolded.
The pier was evacuated after the second Trade Center tower collapsed.
Long Island resident Michael Sandjaby, who works on Wall Street, said when he got out of his building people were crying, running and even throwing up on the side of the street.
"People were even running across the bridge into Brooklyn, it was chaotic," he said. "It was like something out of the movies, 'Armageddon.' There were people falling off the World Trade Center buildings."
By mid-afternoon, emergency helicopter landing sites that had been set up at Stevens Institute of Technology and at the Hoboken High School athletic field had not been used. But a command center was set up in City Hall where the mayor, fire and police chiefs, emergency management coordinator and other police officials gathered to institute the city's emergency plan.
Two staging areas were set up at the Multi-Service Center on Grand Street and at Wallace School on Willow Avenue and 11th Street, according to Michael Estevez, a spokesman for Roberts. The city collected blankets and was preparing to open the two centers to stranded commuters who needed a place to sleep for the night.
Estevez said St. Mary Hospital received several mild trauma patients, complaints of chest pains, hysteria and lacerations. City officials urged people to use caution while traveling, but maintained that the city's borders were still open.
"People who want to return home or pick up people, are able to do so. It'll just be a little congested," said Estevez.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Washington grinds to a halt as thousands jam roadways, By Will Lester, Associated Press writer 3:45 PM
WASHINGTON - Federal offices in the nation's capital were closed yesterday after planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.
About a quarter of a million people were sent home early, federal officials said.
The order to close government buildings was given soon after 10 a.m., said Cathy McDermott, a spokeswoman for the Office of Personnel Management.
At some of the high-profile facilities such as the White House, Capitol, Pentagon, Supreme Court and the Treasury and Justice departments, employees were evacuated. Officials at the Office of Personnel Management were unable to provide exact numbers, though it was thought to be in the tens of thousands.
Those who monitor the federal work force say:
About 23,000 people work at the Pentagon.
About 21,000 work at the Department of Justice, with roughly half of that work force downtown.
About 24,000 work at the Department of Treasury, with about two-thirds of those employees downtown.
About 9,000 work at the Department of State, with roughly 8,000 of those downtown.
The District of Columbia government shut down and ordered nonessential personnel to leave, and many private firms also closed and sent employees streaming home, jamming the subway and roads.
Later in the day, the General Services Administration said it was allowing any of the 8,300 federal office buildings that it controls around the country to close. The action was not the result of threats, but a way to be cautious, agency officials said.
About a million people work in those GSA buildings, which make up about 40 percent of the federal office space around the country. The GSA has increased patrols and restricted outside parking at the buildings and is working with federal law enforcement agencies to keep its buildings secure.
GSA officials had no immediate reports on how many of the buildings were closed.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, U.S. embassies authorized to close; several shut indefinitely, By The Associated Press, 3:43 PM
WASHINGTON - In response to the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, the State Department gave U.S. embassies worldwide the authority to shut down and urged them to take all necessary security precautions.
Several U.S. embassies in the Middle East decided to close indefinitely.
Secretary of State Colin Powell cut short a visit to Peru and headed to an undisclosed location in the United States. He was in Lima for an Organization of American States conference on democracy.
Powell canceled a yesterday visit to Colombia.
It was late yesterday in the Middle East when the attacks occurred. In Cairo, Egypt, the U.S. Embassy decided to suspend nonessential operations at government facilities in Cairo and Alexandria today, according to a message posted on the embassy Web site.
The embassy strongly recommended that U.S. citizens in Egypt keep their travel to a minimum, and avoid public places and large gatherings.
The embassies in Yemen, Kuwait and Oman and the United Arab Emirates announced that as of today, they were closing indefinitely. The embassy in Qatar was undecided.
The U.S. Embassy in Kuwait was closing as a sign of mourning for the fatalities of Tuesday's terror attacks, Egypt's Middle East News Agency reported.
In Zagreb, Croatia, the embassy said it was closing today "out of respect for the victims of the tragic terrorist incidents."
The ambassador, Lawrence Rossin, said on Croatian state-run television, "I can assure you that people who did this can never sleep and have a safe night in their beds."
The U.S. Embassy in Sweden closed early yesterday and was to remain closed to the public today. The downtown building and the ambassador's residence were cordoned off by riot police. The U.S. Embassy in Japan decided to remain shut on today.
In Oslo, Norwegians left bouquets of flowers in a park near the U.S. Embassy.
NATO and European Union institutions also took special security measures, including partial evacuations.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Eyewitness to horror, By Jason Fink, Journal staff writer, 3:43 PM,
The Jersey City waterfront was thrown into chaos yesterday morning, as thousands of frantic office workers raced through streets in an effort to get as far away as possible from the unfolding carnage across the Hudson River in Manhattan.
Dozens of buildings were evacuated and police cleared all streets east of Washington Street while thick, black smoke billowed from the tops of the two World Trade Center towers and orange flames engulfed the buildings' upper floors in the aftermath of what is likely the worst act of terrorism ever committed on American soil.
Two airplanes - apparently hijacked - crashed into the towers only minutes apart just before and after 9 a.m. A plane also struck the Pentagon in Washington D.C., a portion of which also later collapsed.
Officials have not estimated the number of dead and wounded, but it is likely to run well into the thousands by the time the full impact of yesterday's assault is assessed.
By late morning, emergency service workers and volunteers were feeding and providing First Aid to boat loads of wounded and dazed victims being brought to the NY Waterway ferry stop at Colgate Street.
The office building at 70 Hudson St., adjacent to the ferry slip, was converted into a temporary shelter for the thousands that came streaming in, many of them covered in dust and using oxygen masks to breathe. The most seriously wounded were transported by waiting ambulances to local hospitals.
Most of those being cared for at 70 Hudson and just outside, by the ferry stop, were suffering from minor bruises, dehydration, and respiratory problems.
Dozens of firefighters, as well as people who had fled the smoke and flames in lower Manhattan, were handed bottles of water, wet towels and offered oxygen masks as they walked off the NY Waterway and New York police boats that spent the day evacuating people from New York.
Employees of Datek Online, which occupies much of the building, led groups of people up to their offices to use telephones and restrooms. In the lobby, mothers rocked their crying babies while survivors with bandages on their heads leaned against the walls, expressions of shock plastered on their faces.
Tables were set up by Datek with water, soda, bagels and doughnuts. Many of those who could were escorted to waiting NJ Transit buses on Christopher Columbus Drive and Washington Street to be taken to Journal Square and Newark.
Witnesses to the attack described a grim scene of suffocating smoke and raining debris in lower Manhattan following the collisions. The tops of both towers collapsed within an hour of the strikes.
"All of a sudden you heard this rumbling and it was pitch black," said Richard Asnolet, who works at Deutsche Bank on Liberty Street in Manhattan, next door to the Trade Center. "When it collapsed, there was a tidal wave of dust."
Asnolet said his building was evacuated just after the second plane hit and hordes of people flooded the streets, heading south ahead of the thick clouds of dust and smoke. He and two co-workers took shelter in a parking garage a few blocks from the scene as they heard the top of the first tower fall.
"I thought, at that point, we were going to die right there in that parking lot," Asnolet said as he stood in front of 70 Hudson, his voice quivering as he recalled the events of less than an hour before. "This is the sickest thing I've ever seen. I can't get those images out of my head."
Despite the poor visibility on the street, Asnolet said he managed to make his way to a ferry dock near Wall Street and board a boat that took him to Jersey City. He rode across the river with dozens of wounded adults and children, he said.
On Montgomery Street in Jersey City, when the first of the tower tops fell, screams rose up from the mobs of people making their way west, many afraid that there had been an explosion in Jersey City.
By noon, all of Exchange Place was surrounded by yellow police tape and closed off to pedestrians and cars. The crowds that had filled the streets just after the explosions had mostly dispersed and an ominous silence settled over the normally bustling business district. Only the far-off sounds of emergency sirens punctuated the stillness.
The activity around 70 Hudson, however, continued through the afternoon as fully-packed boats brought survivors across the river.
All bridges and tunnels, as well as PATH trains and ferries, were shut down until the early evening.
Hundreds of people from lower Manhattan who escaped the attacks unscathed walked from the ferry stop to the NJ Transit buses, hoping to find safer ground.
"They're getting everyone out of lower Manhattan," said Viral Tolat, chief technology officer for Integral, a financial software company on State Street, just blocks from the Trade Center. "It's pretty much deserted now."
Tolat, who arrived in Jersey City by about 2 p.m., was on his way to his in-laws' house in Edgewater. He said many of his co-workers who live in New York walked home on the FDR Drive, the highway along the East River in Manhattan.
"There was a lot of panic when the buildings fell down," he said. "Everybody was running."
Several witnesses also reported seeing people jump to their deaths from the towers as the buildings became consumed by flames.
Mayor Glenn Cunningham, who declared a state of emergency in Jersey City, spent the day shuttling among several First Aid centers.
"This is the worst tragedy that I've personally ever witnessed," Cunningham said as he stood next to the Goldman Sachs construction site, across the street from 70 Hudson.
Goldman Sachs also provided phones, restrooms and water from its trailers adjacent to the site.
The mayor, who said he heard the news before leaving his house for a meeting he was scheduled to attend on Ellis Island, said all city employees were helping to accommodate the wounded.
"The spirit of the people has been amazing," he said, mentioning retired and off-duty police and fire officials who volunteered to help out.
At the foot of Grand Street, several local residents, many of the them snapping pictures of the smoke-shrouded skyline of Manhattan, tried to come to terms with the sheer tragic proportions of what they were witnessing.
"This is unbelievable, just unbelievable," said James Bell, 50, a computer salesman who lives in the city's Greenville section.
Bell, a lifelong resident of Jersey City who said he has always loved architecture and particularly admired the World Trade Center, said it would be difficult to get used to the New York skyline without the signature twin towers.
"I watched them going up when I was a kid," Bell said. "I can't believe they actually fell."
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Liberty Park becomes triage site 3:41 PM,
By Alberto Canal, Journal staff writer
An urban oasis, Liberty State Park in Jersey City became the site of a medical treatment center and make-shift morgue following yesterday's gruesome terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers.
Dozens of ambulances and emergency vehicles from as far away as Trenton and Glen Rock funneled into the park that straddles Jersey City's waterfront and were stationed around the historical Central Railroad Terminal, where an emergency management headquarters was set up.
Brought over from New York's river banks by numerous boats and ferries, those badly injured were cared for or transported right from there. The walking wounded were taken south to Caven Point, while others made their way by bus or foot to the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit System.
During off-peak hours it's usually easy to find a seat on HBLRT trains, but yesterday it was standing room only as many labored through whatever public transportation was available to make it home to all corners of the state.
Two passenger planes carrying nearly 300 people crashed into the World Trade Center towers yesterday morning as part of a systematic terrorist attack that included another hijacked plane crashing into the Pentagon. Comparisons to the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor were almost as instantaneous as officials stepped up national security - closing all airports, bridges, tunnels and several roadways.
Although Jersey City government offices were closed, many workers volunteered to help, as did employees at Datek Online, among others. Many Downtown buildings, like 90 Hudson Street, served as communications posts or shelters for disoriented "refugees" - the moniker many placed on themselves after escaping a chaotic scene in the heart of New York's financial district.
Jersey City emergency personnel were to serve as relief for worn-out New York workers, according to Bill Ayala, chief of staff to Jersey City Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham. A rush of emergency vehicles zipping through the city and pillars of smoke filling the space formerly occupied by the famed twin towers set a somber tone yesterday.
Downtown is usually buzzing with professionals on weekdays, but yesterday it resembled a scene from a high-budget disaster film.
White dust masks still dangling from many of their necks, hundreds of dust-covered people who worked in and around the World Trade Center and were shuttled to three triage sites in Jersey City. Many donned wet towels over their sun-baked heads, while others were still wearing tags denoting their medical condition.
Although not the first act of terrorism on U.S. soil, yesterday's multiple blows to Americans' sense of security was one of the most horrific and paralyzed Lower Manhattan, halting the financial markets and scarring many lives.
"It was like something out of a movie. The windows of my building rattled and some blew out completely when the second plane hit," said Alex Lepinsky, 26.
The Deutsche Bank financial advisor was one of thousands that went from building to building seeking shelter from explosions, collapsing buildings and waves of smoke taller than some skyscrapers.
"At one point there were people cleaning themselves and drinking out of a large water pool in the lobby of 45 Broadway," he said. "Then the smoke came and chased people outside, up stairs. I managed to go up to the 16th floor."
Like scores of other people who made it out of the devastation, Lepinsky waited for more than five hours for a relative to make it to Liberty State Park and drive him home to Fairfield. Overhead, fighter jets cut through the sky and blaring sirens blanketed the hot air.
Unfortunately, Vinnie Pham has seen massive death and destruction before.
Born and raised in Vietnam in a time when the Asian country was plagued with war, Pham also witnessed the first attack on the World Trade Center seven years ago. He still works a block from the World Trade Center.
"I'll still go back to work as soon as I can. This won't scare me. I've seen things like this my whole life, but just not to this proportion," said the Jersey City resident only moments after emerging from one of the many boats that cut across the Hudson River yesterday docking, only briefly, along the Gold Coast before returning for more passengers.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Aid from Bayonne at terror scene, By Steven Kalcanides, Journal staff writer, 3:40 PM
A Bayonne ambulance firm head who responded quickly to the scene of the World Trade Center terror attack yesterday characterized the scene as "horrific" and "absolute pandemonium."
Bayonne itself served as a place of refuge for hundreds of people injured or stranded as a result of the terror attacks. And a Bayonne priest who went to the scene of the disaster to help was injured by falling debris.
Hundreds of bodies lay on the ground yesterday as H. Mickey McCabe, director of EMS for Bayonne, arrived at the World Trade Center.
McCabe, who had a staff of 40 people and half a dozen ambulances treating victims of the terror attack, said his team got ready to go to work as soon as he and the others saw images of the attack on the TV screen.
"When the building collapsed, I was two blocks away," he said. "I heard a loud thud and saw smoke and people were screaming. Riots were breaking out because people were so distraught. It was so horrific."
He added, "This was absolute pandemonium. I never saw anything like it in my life. I had responded to a plane crash before. This was two plane crashes and the collapse of the World Trade Center."
McCabe yesterday evening estimated there were anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 people dead, in addition to perhaps 1,000 rescue workers, including police and firefighters, who may have been killed when the mammoth structures collapsed.
Bayonne Mayor Joseph Doria declared a state of emergency as of 9:30 a.m. yesterday, with Fire Director and Emergency Management Coordinator Patrick Boyle coordinating the city's emergency response.
The Port Authority closed the roadway of the Bayonne Bridge. With the walkway open yesterday afternoon, scores of people walked across the bridge to get home to Staten Island from Bayonne.
Students were sent home from the city schools yesterday after their parents could be contacted and pick them up. Doria said public schools would be closed today.
When McCabe, owner of McCabe's Ambulance, went to Manhattan to assist with emergency operations there, he was accompanied by the Rev. John Doherty, pastor of St. Andrew's Church in downtown Bayonne.
According to Bayonne city spokesman Joe Ryan, the two got separated shortly after the collapse of the South Tower.
It was confirmed by the Rev. Gary Ward of St. Andrew's that Father Doherty was struck in the leg by falling debris and had to receive several stitches. He was released from Brooklyn Lutheran Hospital and was staying last night at the rectory of St. Ephraim Church in Brooklyn.
Doria, along with City Council President Vincent Lo Re, witnessed casualties being transported to Bayonne Hospital.
By late yesterday afternoon 42 patients had been treated there, and five of them were admitted, Bayonne Hospital Vice President Eugene Greenan said. To check on family or friends in the hospital, people may call 201-858-5393, he said. He said those taken to Bayonne Hospital had mostly cuts and bruises, rather than life-threatening injuries.
They were transported to the hospital from the Military Ocean Terminal (MOT), which was being used as a reception center for people ferried over from the site of the disaster.
Other Bayonne locations set up to house the stranded included the Lincoln Community School on Prospect Avenue and 30th Street (one block east of Bayonne Hospital); the First Baptist Church on Avenue C and 33rd Street; Ahern Veterans Stadium; the Bayonne Community Education/Physical Education (Ice Rink) building and the Board of Education Complex.
Bayonne Hospital was besieged with people trying to donate blood but the donors had to be turned away. The American Red Cross will hold an emergency blood drive today at 2:30 p.m. at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 39 East 22nd St.
With McCabe Ambulance Service swamped with calls for assistance in helping World Trade Center disaster victims, the Bayonne Fire Department put its own EMTS into use throughout Bayonne.
Fire Chief Thomas Lynch said two Fire Department-operated ambulances were put into service yesterday, with two EMTs each in those vehicles.
"We're also prepared to receive any injured people transported here from New York City," Lynch said. "We had one standby at the MOT but that was diverted to another facility. We have a report there may be additional people transported by vessel to the Coast Guard station (at the MOT) in the evening."
September 11, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Timeline, 3:39 PM
From CNN:
Terrorists struck the United States Tuesday morning in harrowing, widespread attacks that included at least three commercial jet crashes into significant buildings.
In the first attack, a plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan shortly before 9 a.m., followed by another plane into the second tower about 20 minutes later. Both towers later collapsed.
American Airlines told CNN that it lost two planes in "tragic accidents:" Flight 11 from Boston with 81 passengers and 11 crew aboard and Flight 77 from Washington Dulles airport with 58 passengers and six crew aboard. Both planes were en route to Los Angeles
About an hour later, a plane crashed into the Pentagon, part of which later collapsed.
United Airlines Flight 93 airliner headed from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco, crashed near Somerset, Pennsylvania - police said initial reports indicated no survivors. It was not known if this was connected to the attacks. United also said it was "deeply concerned" about Flight l75 from Boston to Los Angeles.
The Pentagon, the White House, the State Department, the Justice Department, the Capitol, the CIA and all other government buildings in Washington evacuated.
In the first ever national ground stop of aircraft, all flights nationwide have been stopped at their departure airports.
All international flights were diverted to Canada.
Israel has evacuated all its missions around the world.
President Bush cancelled an appearance in Florida to return to Washington, calling the crashes "apparent terrorist attacks" and "a national tragedy."
In Chicago, the Sears Tower was evacuated; United Nations in New York evacuated.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta was evacuated. CDC was preparing bioterrorism teams in case they become necessary.
The New York Port Authority said it had closed all bridges and tunnels into the city.
New York's Bellevue Hospital was designated command central for handling the catastrophe. Several hospitals have already reported receiving victims with burns and head injuries.
U.S. stock markets were closed after the New York attacks.
Closures continued throughout the afternoon.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, 'Every hope fell flat', By Jennifer Morrill, Journal staff writer, 3:38 PM,
I arrived at Chambers Street, just a few blocks north of the World Trade Center, at 9:30 a.m., where two planes had just flown directly into the tops of the Twin Towers.
The subways were being shut down in the area, and people on the street, not yet sure what had happened, were standing on corners, in amazement at what stood before them:The top 30 or 40 floors of the Twin Towers, the iconic edifices that are New York, were ablaze, smoke billowing from their tops.
Metal and structural debris was flaking off of the buildings, which had gaping holes in their bellies.
The street a frenzy, police struggled to control the scene and keep citizens from walking south toward the towers. Women and men on their way to work, many of whom were headed for a day at the World Trade Center, stood in awe, or collapsed to their knees as they saw the tragedy unfold.
George Minisci was one of them.
Having traveled from Bayonne, Minisci, 45, told me how his PATH train was diverted from the WTC to Ninth Street, where he exited and began walking toward his office at 75 Park Place. Sirens screeching in the background, Minisci said he saw the second plane crash into 2 World Trade Center, from several blocks away.
"The second plane, it just went right through the offices," Minisci said, trying to keep himself composed.
"It seemed as through it went in and came out."
Standing on the corner of Greene and Warren streets, four blocks north of the World Trade Center, Minisci gasped as he pointed to the burning buildings.
"People have been jumping out," he said. "...This is definitely a suicide bomber."
While Minisci and I stood watching the Towers, FBI vehicles, fire trucks, New York State and City police, as well as EMS vehicles from every borough and surrounding areas flashed by, Maria Satterfield, a 35-year-old broker at Lehman Brothers, shared what she had experienced.
Satterfield, who was in her office at the nearby 3 World Financial Center, said when the first plane hit One World Trade Center at 8:45 a.m., she and her co-workers heard a loud noise, and thought maybe it was just construction.
But by the time the second plane struck 20 minutes later, the incident was already being reported on the news and she was being evacuated from her office.
By this time, just moments before 10 a.m., Satterfield said there was no doubt in her mind the attack was made by terrorists.
"This was absolutely a terrorist attack,"she said.
"There's no way you could come that close. It's just amazing."
Looking out of her office window, Satterfield said she saw victims jumping from the World Trade Center, unable to stand the fire.
"People were jumping out of the windows, but there's nowhere to go," she said, her voice trembling. And then, like nothing I've ever witnessed, a loud rumbling shook the earth, Satterfield screamed and grabbed my arm. Terrified, the 110-story 2 World Trade Center crumbled before our eyes into a ball of dust.
A gigantic ball of smoke filled the sky and we ran several blocks north - a sea of people who seconds before stood watching and wondering how those trapped on the top floors would escape. Suddenly, every hope fall flat.
Onlookers with loved ones trapped somewhere inside, collapsed to the ground in tears.
Leveled, my heart sank and tears started streaming down my face.
I looked around, devastation was hardly enough to describe what everyone was experiencing - from the relatives of the victims, to people with friends inside, to those who worked in the area, to the average New Yorker, the average American.
Something beyond comprehension had just happened in my midst.
As a journalist, I've been trained to stay strong in the face of tragedy. Get the news and move on. But this was something else. There was no way to repress the emotions that were unleashed. After the smoke cleared, what I saw blew my mind - one of the Twin Towers was left standing alone.
It was an image out of place, disarming. Seconds after the explosion that caused 2 World Trade Center to collapse like a building set for demolition, I saw Annette Hines. Standing on the corner of Greene and Chambers, Hines told me how she was supposed to be inside of that building - working on the 95th floor.
But someone, something had been looking out for her, and she was late for work.
"I was supposed to get here at 8:45 this morning, but my husband made me late," she said between sobs.
"To watch it crumble just like that, people you worked with and loved for 14 years, it's so hard. This is so scary."
An employee of Fuji Bank, Hines, who lives in Brooklyn, was at work during the last terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. She said this was on an entirely different plane.
"I saw people jumping out of the building and thought, could that be one of my co-workers?" said Hines, who counted her blessings for not being inside. "This is one of the worst days of my life and one of the best."
Kenny Johannemann, a 36-year-old employee of ABM, a maintenance company, who was inside 1 World Trade Center when the plane hit was also thanking God he made it out alive.
"I was in the basement of the building and there was this explosion," Johannemann said. "I backed up and the elevator shaft just exploded open and I dragged this guy out."
Johannemann said he was waiting to take the elevator to the 78th floor.
"If I had caught the elevator any earlier I would have been in there," he said. "I feel really lucky, but I know a lot of people in there."
And then the last pillar of hope crumbled to the ground in a ball of smoke and debris.
One World Trade Center perished like its twin had 25 minutes earlier. Again, a sea of people ran away from the demolished building as smoke and debris began falling on the people in the area.
I made my way over to West Broadway, where paramedics were treating people and ambulances were hurrying to the tragic scene that just kept getting worse.
On West Broadway, about four blocks north of where the Twin Towers had stood, a white ashen debris covered the streets, and paperwork from the fallen offices lay strewn on the ground and blew in the air. A man searched through the papers for his wife's belongings.
Steven Martinez frantically pleaded with police to find out about his son, a freshman at a nearby high school. Paramedics finished treating Kevin Horan, the fire safety director for the World Trade Center who was injured when the second tower collapsed.
A retired New York City fireman, Horan said he was telling firemen to stay clear of the building because the skin, or metal frame, was peeling off and it was dangerous. And then the whole thing blew.
"You could hear the rumble and I dove under a car,"said Horan, who was standing on Liberty Street at the time of the explosion. "The whole thing just leveled itself. This is impossible. I couldn't believe this happened."
Horan, whose face and arms were bloodied, swollen, and cut, said several floors of both buildings had been evacuated before the two structures perished. Bob Hoffman asked me to use my cell phone, but it wasn't working. The guy next to me gave him his so he could call his wife in Princeton.
"Honey, it's me. Stop crying, I'm OK," Hoffman, 38, said over the phone. "It's like a movie. It's armageddon."
As I made my way through the debris, a stream of ambulances and EMS vehicles raced by.
A NYC police officer screamed that his partner, doubled over, was dying. Everything seemed unreal. After the second blast, the smoke just remained in the sky, a reminder of what had taken place.
An epochal moment that I thought my generation had been lucky enough to escape. But walking up Sixth Avenue, away from the scene, I looked back. It was quite clear that what had happened was just the beginning.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Caring for the injured: Medical Center takes in casualties, By Sally Deering, Journal staff writer, 3:36 PM
Stuck inside the revolving door of the World Financial Center across from the World Trade Center towers, Aswad Hutchins of the Bronx watched in horror as people jumped to their deaths from the 50th floor of One World Trade Center.
Shortly after 9 a.m. yesterday morning, the Wall Street area seemed like a war zone when two airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center, killing and injuring thousands of people.
Hutchins, 29, who works as a client services representative for Deloitte and Touche, an accounting firm housed on the fourth floor of the Financial Center, had been talking on the phone when he heard a loud explosion.
"The building shook," Hutchins said, "but I kept talking. I thought it was construction. I wasn't looking out the window."
When Hutchins did look, he saw smoke and flames pouring out of One World Trade Center. He ran down the stairs of the Financial Center and made it to the revolving door of the building's entrance when the door wouldn't open.
"When the building blew up, I was in the revolving door," Hutchins said. "I thought I was going to die."
And that's when he saw the jumpers.
"I saw people jumping from the top of the building," Hutchins said, sitting in a wheelchair at the Jersey City Medical Center where he was being treated for lacerations on his elbow and bruises to his back. "They were jumping from the 50th floor and above."
A firefighter broke the glass and freed Hutchins and as they made their way out of the building, broken glass, cement and audit books rained down on them. Hutchins was then transported over the Hudson River on a fireboat and taken to the Medical Center.
"All around me was glass," Hutchins said. "When I opened my shirt, glass was falling out. It was like a real heavy rainstorm with all the debris. It was pitch black from the dust and smoke. You couldn't see your hand in front of your face."
By 11:30 a.m., more than a dozen victims of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center had been brought to the Medical Center for treatment. The first victim arrived at 10:15 a.m. with burns on his face, said hospital spokesman Bill Dauster. The man seemed to arrive on his own and must have taken the ferry to Jersey City.
The Medical Center turned the emergency room waiting room into a triage area to determine the severity of victims' injuries. Minor injuries were treated in the auditorium, while those with more serious injuries were taken to the emergency room and the Special Intensive Care Unit.
Chief of surgery, Dr. Philip Lisagor, said that by 2 p.m., the hospital had treated about 100 patients with upper body injuries.
"We had a couple of compound fractures," Lisagor said. "One firefighter was in the intensive care unit for smoke inhalation. Within the next five days we'll see more casualties."
TV personality Tex McCreary was admitted to the Medical Center. He had been walking along Battery Park when the attack occurred. Two pregnant women were also being treated for minor injuries. The Medical Center, which is also a community mental health center, provided counseling for the trauma victims.
"People seem to be very shocked," said Rita Smith, vice president of patient care services. "We've gotten a lot of firemen and policemen who were on the ground around the World Trade Center. From the looks of them, the buildings collapsed around them."
A volunteer emergency medical technician for Hatzolah Ambulance Corps in New York, Joseph Berman took patients to Beekman Hospital in New York and returned to the scene of the attack when the second blast occurred. Temporarily blinded, Berman was taken to the Medical Center where doctors treated him for a cut to his leg and placed two blue rubber gloves filled with fluid over his eyes.
"It just came down on everybody," Berman, 34, said, lying on a gurney in the auditorium. "I figured I'll just close my mouth and eyes. I waited for the noise to stop. I couldn't see. I started to grope my way back. People were screaming Help! I saw the flashing lights of the ambulances. The air was very bad. I started feeling the debris on my back."
Berman said one of the doctors who took care of him called his wife, Chanie, to tell her he was OK.
PSE&G Public Affairs Manager Rich Dwyer was at the hospital to offer two helicopters for personnel transport and two vans to shuttle people being released from the hospital.
"What we're worried about is what's coming next," said Dr. Jonathan Metsch, CEO of the Medical Center. "We all know there's thousands more. If they're not dead, they're seriously injured. We were told to expect 5,000."
Metsch saw the building explode from his office at the Medical Center.
"I really started to shake," Metsch said. "It was a scary moment. To me, this was a terrorist attack right away. It was not an accident. We just started mobilizing."
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Airport security scrutinizedBy Jeffrey Gold, Associated Press writer, 3:34 PM,
NEWARK -- Airport security is under renewed scrutiny following yesterday's terrorist attacks.
Like all the nation's airports, Newark International Airport was closed yesterday after the attacks. One of the hijacked planes involved in the attack took off from Newark.
By late last evening, there was no timetable for reopening the facility, which was completely evacuated for the first time in its history.
Under normal procedures at Newark, all passengers pass through metal detectors before being allowed down concourses to their gates in the three terminals. All carry-on baggage must pass through an X-ray machine.
In only one of the three terminals - Terminal C - can people without tickets proceed down the concourse.
United Airlines flights generally leave from Terminal A. It could not immediately be determined if the doomed Flight 93 left from Terminal A yesterday.
The airlines have the responsibility to hire contractors to staff the metal detectors and X-ray machines.
It was not immediately possible to determine what agency handled passenger and baggage checks.
United spokeswoman Jenna Ludgate said she did not know what company was hired for those checks. She could not immediately provide the gate and terminal of the departing flight.
Overall security is the responsibility of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport.
Airport general manager Susan Baer told reporters at the airport yesterday that she would not discuss any security matter.
Port Authority headquarters are in the World Trade Center, which was destroyed in yesterday's attacks. Port Authority spokesman Greg Trevor said he could not comment on security.
The agency announced in the evening that its facilities, including its airports, were secure and prepared to reopen after getting clearance from government and law enforcement officials.
Following the 1993 Trade Center bombing, parking directly underneath the airport terminals was banned, and officers became more strict in ensuring that cars picking up or dropping off passengers did not linger.
The airport, just outside downtown Newark, is the busiest in the New York region, handling 1,400 flights a day, and providing service to 90,000 passengers.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Skies turn tragic, By The Associated Press, 3:21 PM,
SHANKSVILLE, Pa. -- A United Airlines jetliner carrying 45 people crashed into a grassy field yesterday morning, minutes after a man who said he was a passenger told an emergency dispatcher in a cell phone call: "We are being hijacked, we are being hijacked!"
A Virginia congressman said the plane's intended target was apparently Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.
United Flight 93 was en route from Newark to San Francisco when it crashed north of Somerset County airport, about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania State Police Maj. Lyle Szupinka said there was no reason to believe there were any survivors of the crash.
The Boeing 757 crash was one of four reported yesterday by United and American Airlines. Two jetliners crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City and one hit the Pentagon in Washington.
In Pennsylvania, an emergency dispatcher received a cell phone call at 9:58 a.m. from a man who said he was a passenger locked in a bathroom aboard United Flight 93, said dispatch supervisor Glenn Cramer in neighboring Westmoreland County. The man repeatedly told officials the call was not a hoax.
"We are being hijacked, we are being hijacked!" Cramer quoted the man from a transcript of the call.
The man told dispatchers the plane "was going down. He heard some sort of explosion and saw white smoke coming from the plane and we lost contact with him," Cramer said.
FBI agent Wells Morrison wouldn't confirm that the plane was hijacked, but said the FBI was reviewing the tape of the 911 call.
"At this point, we're not prepared to say it was an act of terrorism, though it appears to be that," Morrison said.
Rep. James Moran, D-Va., said after a Marine Corps briefing in Washington that Flight 93 was apparently intended for Camp David, the presidential retreat in the mountains of Maryland. The crash site was 85 miles northwest of Camp David.
The 10 a.m. crash of Flight 93 occurred about 85 miles northwest of Camp David near Thurmont, Md. The radar track of the flight showed it flew from Newark, passed north of Pittsburgh and nearly reached Cleveland before making a sharp left turn. It then flew south and turned southeast before crashing.
"There's a crater gouged in the earth, the plane is pretty much disintegrated. There's nothing left but scorched trees," said Mark Stahl of Somerset, who went to the scene.
He described the area as a former strip mine that is now a grassy field edged by woods. The plane came down near the tree line, he said.
Reporters were taken to the top of a nearby hill, overlooking a V-shaped gouge in the field. The gouge is 8- to 10-feet deep and 15- to 20-feet long, said Capt. Frank Monaco of the Pennsylvania State Police.
Investigators believe the plane crashed there and disintegrated, sending debris into thick trees nearby, Monaco said.
"There's nothing in the ground you can see," Monaco said of the crash site. "It just looks like tiny pieces of debris."
Michael R. Merringer was out on a mountain bike ride with his wife, Amy, about two miles away from the crash site.
"I heard the engine gun two different times and then I heard a loud bang and the windows of the houses all around rattled," Merringer said. "I looked up and I saw the smoke coming up."
The couple rushed home and drove near the scene.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Tower firms hopeful about WTC colleagues, by the Associated Press, 3:19 PM,
NEW YORK - Officials of dozens of financial services firms struggled to reassure their employees elsewhere across the country after yesterday's twin terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
Morgan Stanley set up a toll-free line for people seeking information about its workers in the towers. Dow Jones Newswires reported that Morgan Stanley sent a memo to workers outside New York saying the company's Trade Center workers had survived.
The investment company had 3,500 workers in the complex, including 2,500 in the south tower, which housed its retail operations, and 1,000 in the north tower. The company occupied nearly 25 floors.
In a message posted on the company's Web site, chairman Philip Purcell said he was saddened and outraged.
"In spite of this tragedy, all of our businesses are functioning and will continue to function," he wrote.
London-based Cantor Fitzgerald International, as well as eSpeed International, an electronic trading service spun off by Cantor, said they were still taking stock. Both companies had operations on the 101st and 103rd to 105th floors, and employed 1,000 workers there.
"All of our thoughts and prayers are with our New York colleagues and their families and friends at this time," said Howard W. Lutnick, chairman of both companies.
In San Francisco, Henrik Slipsager of ABM Industries Inc., said his company employed more than 800 engineers, janitors and lighting technicians at the World Trade Center.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with them, and with their families, co-workers and other friends. It is, of course, far too early for us to assess the human and financial toll of this tragedy," he said.
Bank of America spokesman Scott Scredon in Charlotte, N.C., said top officials of his company "weren't there," but the company had "no confirmation yet ... on people who worked there."
Citigroup said it evacuated its workers from the Trade Center's plaza level and nearby buildings. Credit Suisse First Boston said its staffers also were evacuated.
Detlev Rahmsdorf, a spokesman for Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, said more than 300 of its employees worked in the Trade Centers, all on lower floors.
"As far as we know at this point, everyone was evacuated," Rahmsdorf said.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Economists worry about the effect on fragile economy, By Susan Tompor, Knight Ridder Newspapers, 3:18 PM,
The U.S. economy, already on fragile ground, could dip into recession territory after apparent terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon yesterday.
Economists say fear that consumers - who had been spending fairly steadily - now could retreat and hold back as fear takes over.
David Littmann, chief economist for Comerica Bank in Detroit, warned that "it's going to be very difficult" to avoid a recession at this point. "The problem here is the fragility of the economy and the magnitude of the possible response," he said.
"I would never have expected anything so widespread," he said.
The New York Stock Exchange delayed trading indefinitely yesterday morning after two separate planes crashed into the World Trade Center and another crashed into the Pentagon.
Phone calls made to some brokerage offices throughout New York's financial district could not be completed. All U.S. stock markets will remain closed for the day, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said.
In overseas markets, European markets slumped. And the dollar fell in trading against the euro.
"All points of U.S. strength are being hit by terrorism and that makes the U.S. dollar vulnerable," said Jeremy Fand, head of global foreign exchange strategy at UBS Warburg in Stamford, Conn.
Many U.S. market watchers are worried about the fallout once stocks do begin trading again in the United States.
"When the market is jittery to begin with, bad news can be exacerbated," said Rande Spiegelman, senior manger for the KPMG Investment Advisors' personal financial planning group in San Francisco.
The U.S. economy barely made gains in the spring. The Gross Domestic Product - the country's total output of goods and services - grew at 0.2 percent in the second quarter, the slowest pace in eight years. Now some economists, including Littmann, fear that the third quarter could show economic activity below zero.
Littmann said the third quarter could end up being the worst quarter this year in terms of economic growth.
Auto sales also are likely to fall below a 16-million mark for the year, he said.
"Consumers do go into their shells a bit on this," Littmann said.
Littmann had felt earlier this month that the economy would be on its way to a recovery by year end. But he had warned that a recovery would be possible only if the U.S. military involvement would not escalate in hot spots elsewhere across the globe.
Now, the attack raises serious concerns about U.S. military activity.
"We are at war, and we should act accordingly," said Gilbert Hammer, a Manhattan investment counselor who said he knows many people who work inside the two towers hit by passenger planes that were apparently hijacked early this morning.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, I was scared as hell, By David Danzig, Journal staff writer, 3:17 PM,
NEW YORK - At 9 a.m. today, Hakim Benyedder, an analyst with an insurance company, was on a Manhattan-bound PATH train cursing himself for being late to his job on the 96th floor of one of the World Trade Center's two towers.
" 'Damn,' I was thinking, 'I was late Monday too,' " he said.
Normally Benyedder, a Hoboken resident, would have been at his desk in the north tower by 8:30 a.m. as many of his colleagues undoubtedly were when an airplane struck it just before 9 a.m.
"I have no clue what happened to my colleagues," Benyedder, 25, said as he stood on line to use a pay phone on Varick Street, a few blocks north of the World Trade Center.
"I just want to call my family to tell them I'm OK"
All around him, people stood in small groups looking up at the smoking towers.
It was just before 10 a.m. Many people who worked in or near the World Trade Center were gathered in small groups telling those who were interested what they had seen of the planes, or the fire that ensued in small groups. Others were shrieking hysterically.
"Rita! Rita!" screamed one man, while standing on the rear bumper of a car and throwing his arms out toward the burning buildings.
"He must have lost someone up there," said a passerby.
Just then a wave of people began rushing north on Varick, led by a man pedaling full speed on his bicycle.
"The tower went down! The tower went down!" he said, while some continued running and others moved into the street to get a better view.
Moments later the remaining World Trade Center tower collapsed, inspiring a similar mixture of fear and curiosity from people standing about a dozen blocks away.
Those that were streaming north from the financial center - as the police were directing them - said that once the buildings collapsed, it was chaos.
Jack DaSilva, a carpenter from Newark, said he tried to take cover in an office building from "the cloud of black smoke" caused by the towers' collapse, but that the smoke had filtered into the building's lobby, making it impossible to breathe.
"We threw a metal trash can through a glass wall on the other side of the building and escaped," said DaSilva, his hair and clothes covered in soot and his hand bloody.
"When those buildings fell, I was scared as hell," said Stephanie Oliver, a 39-year-old from Jersey City. "I thought today might be my last day."
One block east of Varick, at approximately 10:30 a.m., a man who had hurried up from the wreckage paused to catch his breath.
"The towers looked like a deck of cards coming down," said Jim Nolan, 41, a Manalapan resident. "I was standing about two blocks away looking up at it when it started falling. I just ran."
Nolan's white button-down shirt was covered with stains, apparently caused by a woman running toward the buildings.
"Some lady ran right into me - pouring hot coffee all over me," he explained. "That burned, but it got me moving."
Across the street stood a man who was saying, "Monday night football saved my life!" to a small group of people who he had apparently just met.
Tom Maciejewski, 33, said that if this had been any other Tuesday, he would have been on the 38th floor of One World Trade Center well before 9 a.m.
"But I stayed up late watching the Giants so I missed my 7:40 a.m. train," explained the Scotch Plains resident. As a result, by the time he reached the PATH trains bound for the World Trade Center from Hoboken they were being re-routed to 33 rd Street.
"It's a strange feeling knowing I could be dead right now," he said.
Most people who were watching the catastrophe unfold were convinced that life was going to change dramatically as a result of the attacks.
"This is a tragedy equal to Pearl Harbor," said Rob Griffith, 44, of Chestnut Ridge, N.Y. "We are at war. It's an all-out war. I'm not sure with who yet. But it's all-out war."
Gabriel Chelala, a 57-year-old hosiery salesman from North Bergen, said he thought the United States should spend more money on surveillance to ensure that these sorts of attacks don't happen in the future.
The hosiery salesman had been visiting a client near the World Trade Center when the first plane crashed.
"I'm from Cuba," said Chelala, who came to the United States 22 years ago. "These sorts of things are not supposed to happen here. Even if we have to spend a little less on health care and on education, we should do something to stop this."
A Weehawken resident, standing nearby, agreed that something needed to be done.
"This is just the beginning," said Jackie Simpson, 37. "Now we have to strike back."
NEW YORK - At 9 a.m. today, Hakim Benyedder, an analyst with an insurance company, was on a Manhattan-bound PATH train cursing himself for being late to his job on the 96th floor of one of the World Trade Center's two towers.
" 'Damn,' I was thinking, 'I was late Monday too,' " he said.
Normally Benyedder, a Hoboken resident, would have been at his desk in the north tower by 8:30 a.m. as many of his colleagues undoubtedly were when an airplane struck it just before 9 a.m.
"I have no clue what happened to my colleagues," Benyedder, 25, said as he stood on line to use a pay phone on Varick Street, a few blocks north of the World Trade Center.
"I just want to call my family to tell them I'm OK"
All around him, people stood in small groups looking up at the smoking towers.
It was just before 10 a.m. Many people who worked in or near the World Trade Center were gathered in small groups telling those who were interested what they had seen of the planes, or the fire that ensued in small groups. Others were shrieking hysterically.
"Rita! Rita!" screamed one man, while standing on the rear bumper of a car and throwing his arms out toward the burning buildings.
"He must have lost someone up there," said a passerby.
Just then a wave of people began rushing north on Varick, led by a man pedaling full speed on his bicycle.
"The tower went down! The tower went down!" he said, while some continued running and others moved into the street to get a better view.
Moments later the remaining World Trade Center tower collapsed, inspiring a similar mixture of fear and curiosity from people standing about a dozen blocks away.
Those that were streaming north from the financial center - as the police were directing them - said that once the buildings collapsed, it was chaos.
Jack DaSilva, a carpenter from Newark, said he tried to take cover in an office building from "the cloud of black smoke" caused by the towers' collapse, but that the smoke had filtered into the building's lobby, making it impossible to breathe.
"We threw a metal trash can through a glass wall on the other side of the building and escaped," said DaSilva, his hair and clothes covered in soot and his hand bloody.
"When those buildings fell, I was scared as hell," said Stephanie Oliver, a 39-year-old from Jersey City. "I thought today might be my last day."
One block east of Varick, at approximately 10:30 a.m., a man who had hurried up from the wreckage paused to catch his breath.
"The towers looked like a deck of cards coming down," said Jim Nolan, 41, a Manalapan resident. "I was standing about two blocks away looking up at it when it started falling. I just ran."
Nolan's white button-down shirt was covered with stains, apparently caused by a woman running toward the buildings.
"Some lady ran right into me - pouring hot coffee all over me," he explained. "That burned, but it got me moving."
Across the street stood a man who was saying, "Monday night football saved my life!" to a small group of people who he had apparently just met.
Tom Maciejewski, 33, said that if this had been any other Tuesday, he would have been on the 38th floor of One World Trade Center well before 9 a.m.
"But I stayed up late watching the Giants so I missed my 7:40 a.m. train," explained the Scotch Plains resident. As a result, by the time he reached the PATH trains bound for the World Trade Center from Hoboken they were being re-routed to 33 rd Street.
"It's a strange feeling knowing I could be dead right now," he said.
Most people who were watching the catastrophe unfold were convinced that life was going to change dramatically as a result of the attacks.
"This is a tragedy equal to Pearl Harbor," said Rob Griffith, 44, of Chestnut Ridge, N.Y. "We are at war. It's an all-out war. I'm not sure with who yet. But it's all-out war."
Gabriel Chelala, a 57-year-old hosiery salesman from North Bergen, said he thought the United States should spend more money on surveillance to ensure that these sorts of attacks don't happen in the future.
The hosiery salesman had been visiting a client near the World Trade Center when the first plane crashed.
"I'm from Cuba," said Chelala, who came to the United States 22 years ago. "These sorts of things are not supposed to happen here. Even if we have to spend a little less on health care and on education, we should do something to stop this."
A Weehawken resident, standing nearby, agreed that something needed to be done.
"This is just the beginning," said Jackie Simpson, 37. "Now we have to strike back."
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Terror's economic jolt expected to be immediate, By Mary Kane, Newhouse News Service, 3:15 PM,
The terrorism that struck America's financial nerve center yesterday will have an immediate impact on the economy, shaking an already jittery stock market and tallying losses in the billions of dollars from the destruction of property and real estate, experts predict.
But more incalculable and deeply felt will be the irreplaceable loss of expertise housed in the World Trade Center buildings in lower Manhattan, where hundreds of companies employed thousands of experts and analysts on global trade, securities, shipping, commerce and other areas.
Those companies, which eagerly expanded overseas with contingency plans for unrest abroad, will deal for decades to come with the new reality of major upheaval in their own backyard.
"Those companies used to talk about the political risk of being in those countries, but now we have that right here at home," said Richard Linowes, a professor of international strategy and entrepreneurship at American University in Washington.
Linowes previously worked as manager of consulting services for the Goldman, Sachs Group Inc. - just a few blocks from the trade center.
Contingency plans
Many companies with business overseas prepared contingency plans and even took out "political risk insurance," Linowes said, in the event they ran into trouble in an unstable country. At home, the firms often moved their computer support systems off site, for security reasons and in case of power outages or other problems.
But terrorism at their domestic headquarters, despite the trade center bombing in 1993, seemed unlikely to many firms, especially on a scale as large as that on yesterday, Linowes said.
In fact, he said, many people who worked in the Twin Towers complained about the hassles of getting to work in the financial district and the inconvenience of the center's elevators. Safety and security weren't much on their minds.
Now, lost along with vital records and important data will be experts who can't be easily replaced - like someone with 20 years' experience deciphering global shipping routes or someone who had trading expertise in specific countries, he said.
'We lost many'
Even before the death toll could be determined, Bradford Cornell, a finance professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, agreed that "We've lost many, many talented, hard-to-replace people."
In the short run, Cornell said, he expects the stock market to suffer a sustained drop as Wall Street ponders the country's vulnerability to further disruptions and as investors get even more nervous than they already were. Overseas markets also probably will drop.
But Cornell expressed some cautious optimism for the distant future.
"I think we're in for a financial hiccup, but the long-term impact won't be much if the Federal Reserve acts responsibly," he said.
After the Asian crisis in the late 1990s and the stock market crash in 1987, the Fed acted quickly to ease the money supply, making sure funds were available for borrowing and investing and thereby avoiding an even steeper stock market plunge.
In the past, when the market dropped, some investors stepped in quickly to snap up stocks at lower prices, noted Cynthia Latta, an analyst with DRI-WEFA in Lexington, Mass. But given the magnitude of yesterday's horror, "I don't think people are going to jump back into the market looking for bargains," Latta said.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Today, our nation saw evil, By David Crary, AP national writer, 3:14 PM,
NEW YORK - In the most devastating terrorist onslaught ever waged against the United States, knife-wielding hijackers crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center yesterday, toppling its twin 110-story towers.
The deadly calamity was witnessed on televisions across the world as another plane slammed into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed outside Pittsburgh.
"Today, our nation saw evil," President Bush said in an address to the nation last night. He said thousands of lives were "suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror."
Said Adm. Robert J. Natter, commander of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet: "We have been attacked like we haven't since Pearl Harbor."
Establishing the U.S. death toll could take weeks. The four airliners alone had 266 people aboard and there were no known survivors. In addition, a firefighters union official said he feared an estimated 200 firefighters had died in rescue efforts. Dozens of police officers were believed missing.
No one took responsibility for the attacks that rocked the seats of finance and government, but federal authorities identified Osama bin Laden - who has been given asylum by Afghanistan's Taliban rulers - as the prime suspect.
Aided by an intercept of communications between his supporters and harrowing cell phone calls from at least one flight attendant and two passengers aboard the jetliners before they crashed, U.S. officials began assembling a case linking bin Laden to the devastation.
U.S. intelligence intercepted communications between bin Laden supporters discussing the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, according to Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The people aboard planes who managed to make cell phone calls each described similar circumstances: They indicated the hijackers were armed with knives, in some cases stabbing flight attendants. They then took control of the planes.
At the World Trade Center, the dead and the doomed plummeted from the skyscrapers, among them a man and woman holding hands.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Hudson watched in horror, mobilized to help, By John Petrick, Journal staff writer, 3:12 PM,
Stunned Hudson County residents looked eastward in disbelief or scrambled westward to escape yesterday's devastating terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, reduced to rubble by two planes that crashed into the towers as part of a coordinated assault that also hit targets in Washington.
Hudson County hospitals treated injured people who stumbled off NY Waterway ferries in dazes. Emergency management command posts were set up at Liberty State Park and in the Journal Square area in Jersey City to help coordinate local rescue efforts.
Jersey City civilian fire dispatcher Joseph Lovero was tentatively identified as one of the dead. Hudson County emergency officials were notified by a New York City police about 8:30 last night. But, they said, details remained sketchy and no one had yet made an official identification. Local officials said they believed Lovero, who has worked for the city for about six or seven years, went to Lower Manhattan to take pictures after getting off duty yesterday morning.
Two fatalities were brought to Liberty State Park with some evacuees and walking wounded in the evening, and were going to be held at the temporary morgue at the park before being shipped to the Essex County Medical Examiner, officials said.
Banks and stores closed early and frightened residents struggled to reach family members on cell phones, fearing they might have been in the midst of the worst terroristic act in the nation's history.
People around the county with a view of the towers stood in the streets or on rooftops watching in silence, taking photos or telling each other what they had seen.
Phone lines, the Internet and cell phones jammed as residents tried to find out about friends and relatives.
On the Jersey City waterfront, many witnessed the horror unfold before their eyes as each tower collapsed. The fierce roar of the falling buildings and the mushroom of smoke that followed sent pedestrians in the Exchange Place area running for their lives and taking cover under cars.
One Bayonne resident traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike near the Liberty State Park exit said motorists stopped in their tracks as they witnessed the tragedy. Many got out of their cars, weeping and dropping to their knees, according to the witness's account.
Commuters brought to a triage center at Liberty State Park, before being diverted to regional hospitals.
Quigley herself was among those whose lives were personally touched by the attack.
"My son, who works on the 102nd floor of Tower Two, was on his way to Philadelphia this morning," she said. "My heart goes out to all the family members who lost someone."
Twenty-seven New York City police and fire personnel injured during the rescue attempts were treated in Jersey City hospitals
and were expected to be back home last night.
Quigley added that School 37 in Jersey City and Our Lady of Grace School in Hoboken were open to those who were unable to get home and needed shelter.
More than 150 doctors were on call at the Jersey City Medical Center, which began receiving victims of the World Trade Center attack at 10:15 a.m. By 2 p.m, more than 100 victims had been treated for upper body injuries like cuts, bruises and fractures.
Many firefighters and police officers were treated for smoke inhalation. Patients with minor injuries were being treated in the hospital's auditorium, which was staffed with doctors and nurses and set up with bandages, crutches and other medical items. The hospital also provided counselors for those victims who were still in shock.
'Most tragic day'
Late last night, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said some victims were believed to be alive under the World Trade Center rubble.
"Today is unquestionably one of the saddest and most tragic days in the 225-year-long history of the United States of America," acting Hudson County Executive Abraham Antun and Frank Pizzuta, Hudson County coordinator of Emergency Management, said in a statement. "It will undoubtedly change all of our lives forever.
"Because of our close proximity to New York City, it is important that we do all we can to assist all emergency management agencies, hospitals and law enforcement officials in treating victims of this frightening event. All our emergency management coordinators have assembled together and are assisting the City of New York in their efforts in treating and assisting all the injured victims."
Boats of every kind, including tugboats, ferried hundreds of injured from the WTC attacks across the Hudson River to landing points on the Jersey coast, from North Hudson to Liberty State Park in Jersey City.
"Anything that could float was involved," Hudson County Emergency Management Deputy Director Jerome Cala said.
Hudson County was ready for them, Cala said.
"As soon as we learned of the incident, we reached out to the Jersey City medical community and alerted them to prepare for a mass casualty situation," Cala said.
Once the fire victims began arriving at designated dropoff points, county emergency management and medical personnel loaded them onto buses operated by NJ Transit and other companies and rushed them to various local hospitals.
As soon as the boats unloaded, they quickly left and returned to Manhattan to pick up more hurt people.
At the same time, Cala said the state Office of Emergency Management set up a field hospital and temporary morgue at Liberty State Park.
"The numbers (of dead and wounded) we've heard are scary," Cala said. "We've heard that hundreds were killed."
Hotels
Because many of the people treated were uneasy about the prospects of returning to New York so soon - and because public and private transportation into New York City was closed for much of the day - Cala said the Hudson emergency personnel scrambled to find food and temporary shelter for them.
As of late yesterday afternoon, Cala said the county was considering bringing victims to the Newport Mall and Ferris High School and School 9 on Montgomery Street for overnight accommodations.
Those looking to spend a night in a local hotel were out of luck.
Maria Carralero, a supervisor at Crowne Plaza Meadowlands at Harmon Plaza in Secaucus, said there was a major influx of stranded commuters looking for rooms.
"We are sold out as a result of the tragedy," she said. The hotel, with 304 double-occupancy rooms, was doubling up with three and four to each room, she said. "And we have two people in the lobby waiting to see if there are cancellations."
The situation at Jersey City hotels was no better.
"We're overbooked," said Jacquelyne Moyeno, who works at the front desk at the Doubletree Club Suites hotel on Washington Boulevard in Jersey City. "We have over 100 people waiting. Moyeno said the hotel had been booked solid since yesterday morning.
Candlewood Suites, on Washington Boulevard in the Newport section, had also been booked since the morning.
While all the rescue efforts were going on, Cala said he used his legal authority to declare a local emergency, arranging through city police to close off key streets leading to the river and tunnel approaches to motorists.
Hudson County Prosecutor Fred Theemling also declared a countywide emergency and his office set up several security command centers throughout Hudson to take what First Assistant Prosecutor Terrence Hull called "precautionary measures against possible terrorism" and to help service the injured.
More than 100 detectives and 10 to 15 assistant prosecutors were called out to help in the effort, Hull said.
Financial district
In Jersey City, Downtown financial service businesses in the Harborside and Exchange Place areas - along with the managers of shoreline high-rise apartment buildings - were given the option to evacuate and/or shut down, Cala said, but none took up the offer.
Farther north along the Hudson, however, PaineWeber's two office towers accepted a recommendation by Hudson County Fire Coordinator Jeff Welz to close and allowed their 5,000 employees to leave for the day.
In Manhattan - where residents and workers didn't have the luxury of making choices whether to stay or go - the shock of the crashes, explosions, flying rubble and ashes - drove a lot of New Yorkers into a panic mode, Welz said.
"In the initial hour, based on reports I received, it seemed like everybody was trying to get off the island so people were grabbing anything they could - I don't know how but some people even came on tugboats - some covered with debris," Welz said, "and they were coming into Weehawken, Hoboken, Jersey City and - don't ask me how - even some private marinas."
Welz said that Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner went down to the township docks and ferryboat slip to try and calm the harried commuters.
"We had people (from New York) coming into Weehawken Township Hall in tears," Welz said.
In the early stages of the crisis, Hudson emergency personnel readied 10 ambulances and fire departments in Jersey City, Harrison, Kearny, Bayonne, Hoboken and North Hudson Regional Fire & Rescue mobilized 15 engines and five ladder trucks on a stand-by basis, in case New York needed them, Welz said.
Only an air service unit, equipped with oxygen packs for firefighters, was requested - until 5 p.m. - when New York asked for - and got - two engines, a ladder truck and a rescue unit from Jersey City Fire Department, Welz said.
Meanwhile, even some local colleges pitched in where they could. Fred Cranwell, spokesman for St. Peter's College in Jersey City, said classes were canceled yesterday and will be canceled again today.
"We have about three dozen Jesuits, and most of them are down at Liberty State Park to assist with the sick and the dying," he said.
"You look right down the street from the college and you see this happening. It's very traumatic. . . . We had a Mass, and the counseling center is open. After classes were canceled, teachers and administrators stuck around to help out," he said. "We were also shuttling a lot of students down to Greenville Hospital to donate blood, because there was a call for blood."
The Hudson County Administration building, which houses county offices and state courts, was closed by mid-day. It could not be confirmed whether it will be open today.
An untold number of Hudson County residents also commuted to their jobs in New York via the PATH stop at the World Trade Center or worked there.
Hoboken resident Jonathan Gordon, 47, had just reported to the brokerage firm where he works on one of the lower floors of Tower One when the first plane hit.
Gordon said he was at his desk when an explosion and falling debris sent him and co-workers scrambling to escape the building. Fire department personnel soon arrived at the scene to assist them, he said.
"They were shepherding everyone from the buildings. I lost track of everyone from my office. I was trying to get on my cell phone, but no cell phones were working. I wanted to let my parents know that I was alive," Gordon said.
After firefighters ushered him and others out through the Marriott Hotel, he made it to a ferry and was transported back to Hoboken.
Other refugees of the tragedy - whether they live in Hudson County or elsewhere - escaped the carnage by making their way to Journal Square, many via ferries from Manhattan to the Jersey City waterfront and then buses to the Square.
"I was lying on the sidewalk, trying to breathe," said Antonio Miro, 31, of Manhattan. Miro, an associate at Goldman Sachs who works just four blocks from the Trade Center, had his right sleeve torn off up to his shoulder.
"I got in at 7 a.m. After the explosion, the building was evacuated. We went to a friend's apartment just at the side of the World Trade Center. We were there when the building collapsed. One block away. And then we went running out of the building, with whatever it was, the particles, from what used to be the World Trade Center. It caught all of us. There were police all over," he said.
Bill Tompkins, 44, of White Plains, said he was attending a meeting on the 32nd floor of his office building right across the street from the Trade Center when the attack occurred.
"We heard a loud boom prior to the crash, looked up and saw the tail end of something going into the World Trade Center. It shook our office building," he said. "My first reaction was, 'Is this a missile attack? Let's get away from the building.' "
On the New Jersey Turnpike, the disaster brought traffic to a standstill, according Bayonne resident Casey Glover, who was heading to work as an ad saleswoman at The Jersey Journal.
"I called a girlfriend about smoke coming out of the trade center. I said, 'Go outside and take a look.' Then I said, 'Do you see that other plane? Isn't it coming in kind of low?' And then it just crashed right into the building. People on the Turnpike stopped in the lanes, got out, some dropped to their knees. People were crying, praying. It was a horrible site," she said.
Ed Flanagan of Rutherford, an assistant vice president at T.D. Waterhouse just minutes away from the Trade Center, said he narrowly escaped being in the middle of the catastrophe.
"I usually catch the 7:43 train to Hoboken and get to the Trade Center at 8:45. I caught the later train because I was watching the Giants game last night. So who knows what could have happened. I hate to think about it," he said.
State of emergency
New Jersey declared a state of emergency, closing down tunnels and bridges leading to Manhattan and major roadways heading toward New York such as Route 3 East and Route 80 East. PATH service was suspended for much of the day. With the exception of the World Trade Center line, it was restored by evening.
Local hospitals, meanwhile, went into high alert to treat people who made it back to the Jersey side of the Hudson.
Joan Quigley, spokeswoman for St. Mary Hospital in Hoboken and Christ and St. Francis hospitals in Jersey City, said that by mid-day, three of the injured were at Christ, 20 at St. Francis and 25 at St. Mary.
"We have been seeing mostly chest pains, smoke inhalation, shock and some relatively minor lacerations," she said.
Doctors from St. Mary and elsewhere set up a triage center to treat people as they exited the Hoboken ferry by the PATH station, decontaminating them of soot and dust that irritated their lungs and eyes.
By late in the day, she said, walk-ins had dissipated because more of the wounded were being
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Sept. 11, 2001 - with Dec. 7, 1941, a day that will live in infamy, by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, 3:12 PM,
The following editorial appeared this afternoon in a special edition of the Detroit Free Press.
There she stood, Lady Liberty, welcoming the world to America's shores. Behind her, smoke and dust poured from the collapsed towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. The split screen showed more smoke and destruction in Washington, where the Free World - and those who long for freedom - look for strength and leadership.
This, too, was a day that will live in infamy.
America was attacked Tuesday - with devastating impact. Freedom was rocked to its foundations by suicidal terrorist strikes in New York and Washington, and two apparently related aircraft hijackings that ended in crashes. Each new report was more incredible than the last. The death toll will be in the thousands. The images on television seemed unreal, the emotions overwhelming.
The impact on this nation's sense of security will be profound. Suddenly, Americans in America are more vulnerable than we were ever willing to believe.
But we are not defeated. We will not surrender to the cowardly forces of terrorism, who would bring America to her knees.
The first reactions must be the necessary ones: Contain the damage, recover the bodies, treat the injured, secure the nation and keep the peace.
President George W. Bush should extend all the resources of the federal government, including the military, to assist local authorities in this work.
The president also should set aside a national day of mourning for the victims. They died for freedom, as surely as the victims of Pearl Harbor.
At another level, America must marshal its forces, gather intelligence and lean hard on its allies and dependents around the world to aid in the pursuit of those responsible for these attacks.
There should be no safe haven for them anywhere, and any nation that would offer sanctuary is as culpable as the terrorists themselves.
The attacks exposed a serious weakness in the American intelligence network. How could an operation on this scale have gone undetected?
This was clearly a coordinated assault. It had to be planned somewhere. Someone was pulling the strings and giving the orders. Someone was celebrating a great victory. Someone must pay. American leadership must see to it.
Lady Liberty still stands tall. Shrouded in smoke. Covered in dust and blood. She is crying. She is afraid. She is angry. But she will not yield.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Suicidal terror attacks strike all too close to home 3:10 PM
In some parts of Jersey City, the sound of the towers collapsing at the World Trade Center was so loud and the smoke from the fires there was so thick that some people at first feared a disaster had occurred a block away.
Before the terrorists slammed planes into the towers, many in Hudson had been able to see the twin towers from the steps or windows of their homes. After the attack, all they could see when they looked toward the World Trade Center was the thick smoke of the ruins of the towers.
For the entire nation, the air attacks on the World Trade Center and other prominent U.S. targets represented a barbaric outrage of enormous proportions - the worst day of terrorism in the nation's history.
For the people of Hudson County, what happened yesterday was a tragic and world-changing disaster taking place virtually in their own backyard.
The sights and sounds of the cataclysm were all too close. Sirens were wailing loudly on the city's streets, as the attacks produced death and injury on a staggering scale.
The medical personnel and emergency personnel on both sides of Hudson River deserve gratitude and respect; they had to tend to the injured and try to save as many lives as could be saved from this hellish disaster.
The ramifications will be far-reaching - in terms of security arrangements at U.S. airports and other facilities, in terms of foreign policy, in terms of identifying and hunting down the parties responsible for the ghastly attacks on innocent civilians.
But it was also an assault on the psyche of the people of the county, the metropolitan area and the nation.
Ultimately, that assault will not succeed. The people will not give in to terror, reward attacks on innocent civilians or give up on a high-profile location such as Manhattan or its neighbor across the river, Hudson County. They will find the will and the spiritual and psychological resources to persevere.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, U.S. will need to hit hard at sponsors of today's attacks, by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, 3:09 PM,
The following editorial appeared in the Orange County Register today.
Turning on the TV early Tuesday morning, Americans were struck by what at first seemed like scenes from the latest new action movie: "Attack on America." But as the sight sunk in of two airplanes crashing into the World Trade Center in New York and the subsequent collapse of the twin towers, the nation began to grasp the enormity of what was happening.
Details of the events remain sketchy, with no terrorist group yet claiming responsibility. But it was clearly a coordinated and sophisticated attack - the likes of which America hasn't experienced since Pearl Harbor.
Two hijacked planes were steered into two of New York's most recognizable buildings just as the workday began on the East Coast - in an obvious attempt to maximize the number of deaths and casualties. For a sense of the horror, consider that 50,000 people - the entire population of a small city - work in the two buildings. Officials, were evacuating them, but expect many deaths.
Soon thereafter, another hijacked plane targeted the Pentagon. Reports surfaced of a possibly related plane crash near Pittsburgh, and U.S. officials believed that at least one other hijacked plane was still in the air, with the possibility of additional attacks.
The nation's entire air traffic system was shut down, and officials essentially closed down two of the nation's largest cities, with similar high alerts taking place at other American locales. False reports of other bombs and attacks added to the chaos. Federal buildings are closed.
President Bush quickly left a meeting with schoolchildren, then pledged to hunt down the perpetrators of this otherworldly attack. What else could a president say at this early stage, before the details have emerged, before we even know if the attacks are finished.
Commentators were careful not to assume a Middle East connection. Still, terrorist experts are looking toward Osama Bin Laden's organization, said to be the only one with the ability to pull off something of this magnitude.
One prominent Arab journalist points out that Osama bin Laden had been boasting of a coming attack on America, something that would send shock waves through the world.
Time will tell.
A few points are worth mentioning now:
For all the horror, all the death, all the destruction, the U.S. government, and certainly the nation as a whole, is still functioning. As one analyst emphasized on National Public Radio, the country most definitely is NOT in chaos, despite the fact that the attacks were designed to promote just that sense of unease.
Nationwide, Americas are stunned at the horror, at what is nothing more than an act of mass murder. But there is no sense that the nation is crumbling, or any widespread sense of peril.
America will certainly need to hit back - and hit hard - at the organization that sponsored this action, Osama bin Laden's or otherwise. This was an attack on American soil, an act of war. Obviously, a sufficient military response to prevent further attacks is necessary. But American officials need to be sure who committed this attack before striking back. They need to target the response to those who did this, not strike wildly in a way that would harm innocent civilians.
"Retaliation should come with the full approval of Congress," explains Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute in Washington. "It should be treated like an act of war, not a large-scale criminal justice problem."
One of the most prescient remarks on the crisis comes from Arizona Sen. John McCain, who said: "I don't think our lifestyles will be the same for a long time."
He is undoubtedly right. Americans will no longer feel as safe, as far removed from the terrorist actions and violence that occurs routinely throughout the world. Some view the Oklahoma City bombing as a wake-up call. But if that was the wake-up call, Tuesday's concerted attacks - with its thousands of likely victims - would be the alarm bell.
The question is: What do we do about it? How do we change our lives to deal with such threats?
The first point is to recognize that America is vulnerable because America is free. In a free society, where individuals have an abundance of liberties and security measures are generally unobtrusive, it's always a risk that someone will take advantage of that situation.
In the aftermath of the horror, Congress will no doubt evaluate calls for tightened up security in many aspects of life.
We must vow, now, when we're still hurting and fearful, not to allow the emotions of the situation to loosen our resolve to maintain our level of openness and freedom.
An adjunct argument, that will be examined more thoroughly in the weeks and months that follow, is the degree to which America's extensive overseas commitments contributed to this attack. We don't know yet why it happened, but we do know that various groups angry at American actions in the Middle East, the Balkans and some of the other nations where we station troops.
"We have just seen the full cost of intervening everywhere in the world," Mr. Carpenter added. "The American people are going to have to decide whether they're willing to pay the cost in blood of this magnitude. We can't pretend anymore that because of our conventional military superiority that we won't pay the full cost. We just found out how big that cost can be."
There's time for that and other debates. But for now, Americans can only sit back, watch the details unfold in the news media, and offer our prayers to the victims of this attack.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, 'What we felt most acutely was fear - the uncontrolled fire of angst and dread', By Bill Tammeus, Knight Ridder Newspapers, 3:08 PM,
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - What we felt most acutely was fear, the uncontrolled fire of angst and dread that eats away our assurance that the world is a safe and hospitable place.
We could see clearly on our televisions that New York and Washington were burning, that something unspeakable and bizarre was happening.
But what we didn't know - couldn't at first know - was whether somehow the whole world was unraveling, whether we were all in the crosshairs of fanatics who were determined to bring our lives crashing down. Whether what was happening in the East would begin to happen next here in the Heartland.
Fear like that knots the heart. It causes the soul to shake and shiver. It stirs rage at whoever unleashed this evil but also - perhaps irrationally - at whoever should have prevented it and didn't.
Just before the fear, what most of us felt was radical disbelief. In retrospect, of course, it's clear that such disbelief usually is born of naivete. And clearly we are guilty of naivete.
Despite previous terrorist attacks - not only in 1993 at the World Trade Center, site of the first attack Tuesday, but also in 1995 in Oklahoma City - most of us assume we live in a protected country, a place where terrorism can gain no permanent footing.
This sense of security, however foolish and ephemeral, is a luxury most of the world does not enjoy. People regularly die violently in the hostile air of Bosnia and Kosovo, of Rwanda and Belfast. The fear that people in New York and Washington - and the rest of the United States - experienced Tuesday morning was in some ways like what a lot of people on the globe worry about daily.
Now, of course, we will worry about it, too. We must. We simply no longer can afford the kind of innocence that imagines we are free from attack merely because we are, at core, a good-hearted people who love liberty.
For one thing, important parts of the world don't see us in that innocent way. For another, if we don't protect and preserve our freedoms by being watchful, cautious, careful, we may give away our role as the guardian of liberty. The world can't afford to have us do that.
This doesn't mean turning our country into a police state, abandoning all individual liberties, rounding up anyone who looks suspicious. We must resist that kind of natural response.
But it does mean that our systems for detecting and thwarting hijackers and other terrorists must be analyzed and improved. It does mean that the people in charge of protecting us from terrorism must be as clever as the terrorists. We must give them the resources for that - all the while making sure they don't run amok in their zealousness.
As the post-attack days unfold, it will help all of us to pay special attention to the stories of heroism we will hear. You can be sure that as people tried to escape the collapsing World Trade Center, lots of people - not just trained emergency workers, but also many others - performed acts of bravery and courage.
We will discover, in those stories, the true heart of our people. In the face of danger and disaster, most Americans inevitably seek to ease pain and offer comfort. They risk their own lives. They value the lives of others at risk because they understand that every individual - no matter social rank - is of inestimable value.
Pay attention to those stories as they get told. Remind yourselves, your children, your grandchildren, that when the darkness of evil envelopes our people, we respond with grace and spirit and valor. We saw it in Oklahoma City. We saw it in Kansas City when the skywalks collapsed at the Hyatt Hotel in 1981. We see it wherever destruction engulfs us.
We now will enter a protracted period of national grief that will be full not only of pain but also of recrimination and angry ideas for how to respond. As this takes place, let's remember what we value. Let's remember who we are. Let's not give in to blind and widespread hatred. Rather, let us hold accountable whoever it was who rained havoc on us. Let us bind up our wounds, mourn with those who mourn, comfort those whose losses were terrifying, shocking and irreplaceable.
This will not be easy, but it's what we all must do, including me. As I was hurriedly writing this piece, I learned from one of my sisters that her only son may have been on the hijacked flight from Boston that crashed into the World Trade Center.
We all pray it isn't true, but whether it was my nephew or someone else's nephew or son or daughter, the response must be the same. We must seek complete justice even as we hold each other up and become for one another the channels of grace and the deep wells from which we will need to draw comfort.
Bill Tammeus is an editorial page columnist for The Kansas City Star. Readers may write to him at: The Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 64108-1413.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Hudson clergy struggle to ease fears, By Daniel Schiff, Journal staff writer, 3:07 PM,
Members of the Hudson County religious community were busy in churches and hospitals today, helping the victims of the World Trade Center attack and praying for the victims and their families.
But the clergy members, like those they helped treat, were as much in a state of shock as everyone else.
Echoing the voice of religious people from every denomination, a statement from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark expressed the difficulty of understanding today's tragedy.
"There is no way for us to place this morning's horrific tragedy in perspective," it said. "No one should ever have to face the enormity of the destruction and loss of life that we have seen today."
All pastors within the Archdiocese were also asked to open their churches to "allow people of all faiths an opportunity to pray."
Our Lady of Grace Church in Hoboken, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Bayonne and St. Aedan's Church in Jersey City were among the Catholic churches that were planning to have services last evening in response to the tragedy.
An administrator at the United Synagogue of Hoboken said the synagogue had been open all day and there would be a special service in the evening.
The Rev. Andrew Reyes, an administrator at St. Paul of the Cross Church in Jersey City Heights, was one of the many clergy members who were still trying to take in Tuesday's events.
"It's awful to see how many people lost their lives in this crazy attack," he said. "The only thing we can do is pray for the families of the dead and for the injured and the families of the injured."
"It's a very painful experience for the whole nation."
And of course, for the parish.
"We have people who have relatives who work in those buildings. Some have heard from them. Some haven't. You can't imagine what they're going through, the anxiety, the fears," he said.
Rabbi Kenneth Brickman of Temple Beth-El in Jersey City, found words difficult.
"I think it's too much of a shock to respond," he said. "We can just focus our concern on those who were killed and their families and those who were injured and their families."
The Rev. Frederick Eid, of Our Lady of Grace Church in Hoboken, was dealing with the fears of those who escaped the attack by ferry and came ashore in Hoboken throughout the day today.
"I took care of seven or eight people. Mostly for trauma," said Eid. "They were traumatized by seeing people jump. Or they got out but people they know didn't, stuff like that."
"The heart of each one (in the community) goes out to each one who was taken from us, from families, from co-workers."
September 11, 2001, The Jersey Journal, America watches devastation unfold on television, By David Bauder, AP television writer, 11:04 AM,
NEW YORK - A chaotic sense of devastation unfolded on national television today with cameras catching a plane crashing into the World Trade Center and the subsequent collapse of both of the towers.
Television networks began live-coverage of a morning of terrorism at the time the first plane hit the New York City landmark. With cameras trained on the smoking skyscraper, television caught the second plane crashing into the other tower, footage replayed several times.
As the terror spread, CNN showed a split screen view of the smoking World Trade Center and the Pentagon, where smoke billowed from another plane crash.
Reports spread as fast as television could detail them - planes grounded across the country, the White House evacuated, an apparent explosion on Capitol Hill - while commentators tried to keep calm.
"This may be one of the worst tragedies ever to strike the country," said MSNBC's John Siegenthaler.
A producer from CNN, Rose Arce, reported people jumping from the World Trade Center and described the chaos gripping lower Manhattan.
Cameras then caught the collapse of the twin towers, showing white smoke billowing throughout the streets of lower Manhattan. A shaken Ashleigh Banfield reporting on MSNBC described debris showering around.
"Oh, my God," a breathless Banfield said. "It's just unbelievable."
C-SPAN took phone calls from shaken citizens. One caller from California said, "This is a sign to America. We think we are the strongest country and they hit us, they knew where to hit us."
September 11, 2001, The Jersey Journal, High alert, evacuations, closures nationwide, By David Crary, AP national writer, 11:16 AM,
NEW YORK - Authorities went on alert from coast to coast today, halting all air traffic, evacuating high-profile buildings and tightening security at strategic facilities following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Evacuations were ordered at the United Nations building in New York and at the Sears Tower in Chicago.
"Usually the building is so full of activity, and now there's no one in the hallways. It's creepy," said Cathy Grable, a 31-year-old interior designer who was leaving the Sears Tower.
Security was increased at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., home to the Army's main germ warfare defense laboratory.
Spokesman Charles Dasey said police at the gates were stopping cars without identification stickers and might search even those with stickers.
In California, Go. Gray Davis convened a meeting of the State Emergency Council and requested heightened security in all state buildings.
In Los Angeles, the police went on tactical alert, and mobilized an anti-terrorist division. A tactical alert means officers are held from the earlier shift to bolster the day shift and police only respond to priority calls.
In Virginia, authorities ordered intensified security at the port complex in Hampton Roads and imposed a lockdown of offices at the Capitol.
Under orders from the Federal Aviation Administration, airports nationwide halted all outbound flights, while keeping their runaways open for incoming plans.
"We're like everyone else in shock," said Carol Windham, spokesman at Birmingham International Airport in Alabama.
September 11, 2001, The Jersey Journal, NYC election postponed, 11:25 AM,
NEW YORK - New York City's primary election was called off today after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
The primary was to select candidates for mayor and other city offices.
Naomi Bernstein, a spokeswoman for the Board of Elections, said the judge charged with overseeing the election called it off because of the massive confusion that followed the attack on the twin towers.
There was no immediate word on when the election would take place.
September 11, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Nation reels in shock as terrorist attacks go on, By Robert Tanner, Associated Press writer, 11:28 AM.
The nation reeled in horror as the work day began with a series of bombs and crashes that left the World Trade Center in flames and smoke billowing from the Pentagon.
"We're like everyone else, in shock," said Carol Windham, a spokeswoman at Birmingham International Airport in Alabama. Planes were grounded nationwide.
Heightened security went into effect at government and corporate offices nationwide, from the Army's main germ warfare defense laboratory in Frederick, Md., to city offices in Colorado.
"I don't think there's any place in America right now that's not at risk," said Andrew Hudson, a city spokesman in Denver, where emergency preparedness officials gathered in the basement of City Hall.
In Philadelphia, dozens of people gathered in a hotel lounge to watch television coverage.
A visitor from Texas wept.
"I can't believe what I'm seeing. I never thought I would see anything like this in my lifetime," said 20-year-old Beverly Evans of Dallas. "How can we stop something like this from happening?"
September 11, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Taliban condemns attacks in United States 11:37 AM
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - Afghanistan's hardline Taliban rulers condemned the devastating terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on Tuesday and rejected suggestions that Osama bin Laden could be behind them.
The Taliban's ambassador to neighboring Pakistan, Abdul Salem Zaeef, said bin Laden, the Saudi dissident who has been given asylum in this troubled nation, does not have the facilities needed to carry out such well-orchestrated attacks.
"It is premature to level allegations against a person who is not in a position to carry out such attacks," he said. "It was a well-organized plan and Osama has no such facilities."
U.N. sanctions are currently in place against Afghanistan to press the Taliban to hand over bin Laden for trial in connection with the 1998 bombings of two U.S. Embassies in East Africa that killed 224 people.
The Taliban, a religious militia, promotes a harsh brand of Islam in the roughly 95 percent of Afghanistan under its control.
September 11, 2001, The Jersey Journal, American Airlines: 'We are horrified by these tragic events', 11:45 AM, by Knight Rider News Service,
DALLAS- In a press release today, American Airlines confirmed it lost two American Airplane planes "in tragic incidences."
American flight 11, a Boeing 767 from Boston to Los Angeles, with 81 passengers, 9 flight attendants, and two pilots; and American flight 77, a Boeing 757 operating Dulles airport in Washington to Los Angeles, with 58 passengers, four flight attendants and two pilots.
Because of the heightened security do the nature of these event, American said it is working closely with U.S. government authorities and will not release more information of at this time.
The government has shut down the entire U.S. air-traffic system.
American, TWA and American Eagle will not operate.
"We are horrified by these tragic events," said Donald J. Carty, chairman and CEO of American Airlines. "I thoughts and prayers go out to the of families of all involved."
09/11/01 ARCHIVE: Eyewitnesses shudder all along waterfront September 11, 2001, 5:05 PM
09/11/01 ARCHIVE: Terrorist warning for years September 11, 2001, 4:26 PM
9/11/01 ARCHIVE: Eyewitnesses and disaster alert in Hudson September 11, 2001, 3:16 PM
9/11/01 ARCHIVE: United Airlines: 'Today's events are a tragedy' September 11, 2001, 11:51 AM
9/11/01 ARCHIVE: Bush: U.S. 'will hunt down' those responsible September 11, 2001, 11:59 AM
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Menendez says terrorism cannot succeed, By Peter Weiss, Journal staff writer. Wednesday, 3:06 PM.
WASHINGTON - Congress and the rest of the federal government must get back into as normal a routine as possible as soon as possible to show the nation and the world that terrorism won't ultimately succeed, according to Rep. Robert Menendez, D-Union City.
"When terrorists change your way of life, that's when they win," said Menendez, who was in Washington as the tragedies unfolded in that city and in New York.
"This was a second Day of Infamy in our nation's history," Menendez said.
The two most immediate questions are to find out who is responsible and to decide on what action to take. He said it must be "decisive" action, but did not want to offer any specifics.
"There should be enough fingerprints on it to find out what group or groups are responsible," Menendez said. "Then we have to decide what is decisive action. We have to figure that out."
The fact that terrorism is afflicting this nation is not that much of a surprise, but that "the size and magnitude was a shock," Menendez said.
"We've all been aware for a while, since the (previous) World Trade Center bombing, that something could happen," he said. "Terrorism is now a greater threat to us than maybe nuclear weapons were."
Another pressing issue, he said, will be to find out why U.S. intelligence agencies apparently had no advance warning of the attacks.
"We depend on human intelligence. We have to see what went wrong, " he said.
He acknowledged that dealing with today's terrorists presents unique obstacles.
"One of the difficulties in dealing with terrorism is when someone is willing to give their life, it's difficult to defend against," he said.
Menendez was in the cafeteria in the basement of the Capitol Building when the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center.
"All of a sudden people started running out," he said. "I saw the Speaker (Rep. Dennis Hastert of Illinois) whisked away by Capitol police."
Menendez said he still didn't know what was happening when he went upstairs, where a Capitol police officer told him what was happening. "He told me, 'Congressman, you have to get out now,' " Menendez said.
At the time, authorities knew a hijacked plane was heading to Washington. It turned out the Pentagon was its target.
"All they knew was that one of the planes was 12 minutes away," Menendez said.
People left the Capitol Building in a speedy, but orderly manner, he said. The area was then sealed off by hundreds of police officers.
Menendez went back to his apartment, where he contacted Capitol police and was later picked up by them for a congressional briefing.
Some members of Congress went to their home states immediately.
"I wanted to stay because I want to know what's going on," said Menendez, who is the fourth ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives. He said he spent much of yesterday communicating with colleagues by phone.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Schundler urges unity behind Bush, By Journal staff, 3:04 PM
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler, the former Jersey City mayor who is currently visiting Israel, called on Americans to unite behind President George W. Bush and his administration in dealing with yesterday's "vicious and massive" terrorist attacks.
Schundler is visiting Israel on a trip sponsored by United Jewish Federation Metrowest.
"I ask everyone to join me in prayer for the people of the New York metropolitan area and all Americans who were personally affected by today's tragic series of events," Schundler said. "While we all come from different races, religions, backgrounds and ethnicities, today, first and foremost, we are Americans.
"Today's terrorist attacks on America are vicious and massive assaults on our freedom as a people and our ideals of democracy. I stand in strong support of President Bush, his Cabinet and the Congress in their efforts to take whatever steps are necessary to bring those responsible for today's massive horror to justice. I urge my fellow New Jerseyans and all Americans to do the same."
Meanwhile, Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco said he anticipates the state being involved indefinitely in helping New York cope with the tragedy.
"Dealing with this situation will remain our top priority for the remainder of the week and possibly beyond," DiFrancesco said.
"I ask the people of New Jersey to remain calm and exercise good judgment. We should be vigilant, but we should all be calm. These are going to be trying times. Now is the time for us all to be good neighbors, to lend assistance as you are able."
Schundler called the efforts of rescue workers heroic, especially those who lost their own lives trying to help others.
"Rather than running to safety from the scene of tragedy, New York City's police officers, firefighters and medical emergency personnel showed the world their courage," Schundler said.
"Indeed, they made the ultimate sacrifice when they ran directly into a deadly firestorm to save people's lives. They are the everyday heroes and heroines we all too often take for granted. Today, we owe them an appreciation which we will never be able to repay. But we will try. "
Schundler said the first concern should be to help the victims of the tragedy.
"We can donate blood to our local hospitals and blood banks," he said.
"We can offer shelter to our friends who are temporarily displaced. We can bring food to the emergency workers and victims on site. And above all else, we can reach out and spend some quality time with those we love."
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Re-strengthening a weakened United, By Miles Benson, 3:03 PM
WASHINGTON - As American leadership at every level moves to cope with the immediate crisis of mounting death and destruction from the disasters at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, an important question will arise: Can national security and civil liberty co-exist?
This issue will be at the forefront, testing President Bush and his administration as they lead a frightened and angry country.
In pursuit of security, experts believe demands will be heard for more intrusive use of wiretaps, searches, detainment and "profiling" techniques to seek out possible terrorists. These could turn on skin color and national origin or ethnicity, and fall particularly hard on Arab Americans and Muslims.
"We will now see ourselves as a battlefield as never before and our sense of privilege, protection and isolation is forever destroyed," said Henry Aaron, a senior fellow and public policy specialist at the Brookings Institution.
"The ultimate impact . . . on the American psyche . . . is going to be profound and will manifest itself in the political system and the way we live our lives. This is not a passing or small event."
In times of national distress, the American public and Congress rally behind the president, who is central to establishing control, reassuring the nation and leading it out of tragedy.
Kennedy assassination
Lyndon B. Johnson did that after President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
"By the time the plane came down in Washington, he was beginning to act not just presidential, but awesomely presidential," recalled Fred I. Greenstein, chair of the Program in Leadership Studies at Princeton University.
Now it's Bush's turn.
"This is his opportunity to really assume the mantle of the presidency," Greenstein said.
While Pearl Harbor seemed the obvious analogy to today's attacks, historian David M. Kennedy was not sure it is the right one.
Certainly there is the common element of stunning surprise, but Pearl Harbor was a calculated and unambiguous act of war by another nation.
As the search begins for perpetrators of today's calamity, Kennedy sees a major danger that American ideals of freedom might be undermined and swept away in a storm of anger, a rush for vengeance, a demand for protection against future attacks.
During World War II, the U.S. interned thousands of Japanese-Americans in what has been seen as a tragic mistake.
The continuing threat is not to "security interests in the usual sense of the term" but to "maintaining civil liberties and an open society and not becoming obsessively paranoid about internal threats," said Kennedy, a Stanford University historian who won a Pulitzer Prize for his book, "Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-45."
As President Bush declared that "the resolve of our great nation is being tested," Kennedy wondered how Bush meant that to be understood.
Leadership tests
He noted that President Roosevelt, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, passed two tests of leadership: He didn't panic, and he maintained confidence in the strength and vitality of American society.
"We need to remember what kind of people we are, what kind of country we are," Kennedy said. "That's in danger too, and that needs to be preserved."
At such a moment, the nation inevitably looks to the president for assurance that the guilty will be punished, that things will return to normal.
"He has to interpret the events for people, identify the cause, and explain the significance for the country," David Hart, an associate professor of public policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. "Does it mean we have to change our daily lives? Change our transportation or communication system in ways that affects us on a daily basis?"
In times of great crisis, the president has great powers, not all of them spelled out in the Constitution. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln suspended the right of habeas corpus, allowing Union troops to arrest and imprison individuals without formally charging them with violating any law.
In this crisis, consequences will come in two types: short-term and long-term, said Stephen Wermiel, a law professor at American University.
"The short-term question is the degree that law enforcement will try to get around the limitations that have existed on wiretapping, searches, stopping people at borders, detaining people at airports and ports of entry, profiling overtly on basis of skin color and national identity.
"I think we'll see that start to happen immediately," Wermiel said. "They will use powers without a lot of concern for what we thought were fairly clearly established civil liberties. The notion of probable cause will be a lot easier to establish than it normally would be. I suspect that any Muslim group remotely suspected of sympathy with groups suspected of terrorism will become a target of wire taps and surveillance and maybe searches."
And the passions of an emotional public will support all that, Wermiel said.
"But I hope we're not going to panic and forget about the tradition of protecting the rights of all Americans on which this country has been built."
What else matters?
"Obviously, an event of such magnitude transforms politics and "pushes everything else off the agenda," said Stephen Wayne, professor of government at Georgetown University.
Swept aside, for now at least, are the debates over prescription drug benefits, Social Security reform, education and the vanishing budget surplus.
The sole immediate concern will be the need for the president "to devise an anti-terrorist system that prevents this in the future," Wayne said.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, '93 attack started here, by Newhouse News Service, 2:59 PM
'93 attack started here 2:59 PM ,Terrorists who are now serving time in prison for their roles in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center planned the attack from Jersey City, a location that provided both a convenient location and place that was so ethnically diverse that it was easy to go about their business unnoticed.
They lived here, assembled and stored chemicals in a local storage locker and then rented a truck, loaded the 1,200-pound bomb on board, and drove it into New York to a garage at the World Trade Center and set off the charge. The bombing killed six people and injured more than 1,000.
The mastermind of the bombing was Ramzi Yousef of Jersey City. An electrical engineer of uncertain nationality, Yousef was a fugitive for two years before he was captured in Pakistan in 1995 and was returned to the United States for trial. Officials said he organized the plot and built the bomb.
"These defendants (Ramzi Yousef and accomplice Eyad Ismoil) bombed the World Trade Center because of their own prejudice and their own hatred for Israel, for the United States and for the people of the United States," Assistant U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin said when the two were convicted on Nov. 13, 1997, of conspiracy in the World Trade Center bombing. Four other Islamic extremists had also been convicted of conspiracy in the case.
"Yousef was a terrorist. He came here to kill and to spread fear among the people of the United States," he said.
Dassin said Yousef quickly joined his co-conspirators in Jersey City, where they ordered chemicals.
They also rented a storage shed to accept deliveries and an apartment to serve as a bomb factory.
Yousef's fingerprints were all over bombing manuals explaining how to construct an explosive from urea-nitrate, the key ingredient authorities said was used to make the 1,200-pound bomb used in the attack.
Fingerprints, telephone records, eyewitnesses and even a photograph from an automatic teller machine placed him at the storage shed and the bomb factory.
Ismoil was accused of driving the bomb-laden truck into the Trade Center's garage.
Afterwards, Yousef bragged about the attack even as federal agents returned him in handcuffs and leg irons to the United States, prosecutors said.
His oral confession was described to the jury by Secret Service Agent Brian Parr, who said Yousef insisted no notes be taken and even ate a diagram he had drawn of the Trade Center when he feared agents would take it.
U.S. authorities had also tried unsuccessfully to link Yousef to Osama bin Laden, who they believe has funded terrorist groups in the United States.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, You can't get there from here, By Jeffrey Gold, Associated Press writer, 2:55 PM,
NEWARK - Hours after the attack on the World Trade Center Towers yesterday, mass transit, roads and bridges to New York from New Jersey were largely closed.
Plans for this morning were still undecided last night, as smoke from the rubble was visible throughout much of northern New Jersey.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced last night that its facilities, including Newark International Airport, were secure and prepared to reopen after getting clearance from government and law enforcement officials.
The airport was evacuated yesterday.
NJ Transit trains resumed service from New York after 3 p.m. along the Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast Line and Raritan Valley Line.
"There's absolutely no schedule, it's 'load and go,' " spokesman Mike Klufas said.
The agency was using all available trains to head west from Newark and Hoboken, and was adding buses at those terminals.
Bus service in and out of New York was suspended, but NJ Transit buses within New Jersey continued operating.
The Red and Tan Lines have canceled, for today, its 99S route from Jersey City and Bayonne to Manhattan.
The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail was not operating north of Marin Boulevard in Jersey City.
NJ Transit's Access Link service for the disabled in New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia was suspended indefinitely.
Amtrak trains on the busy Boston-New York-Washington corridor were stopped at 10:40 a.m., but resumed at 2 p.m., spokesman Rick Remington said. All Amtrak trains outside the Northeast Corridor continued to run.
PATH train service from Journal Square in Jersey City to Newark resumed in the afternoon.
PATH resumed service into and out of its 33rd Street station in New York about 5:30 p.m.
PATH service to the Trade Center, however, was likely to be down for some time: the tracks went under the buildings.
The New Jersey Turnpike's eastern spur was closed to New York-bound traffic, and the Hudson Bay extension was closed in both directions.
All northbound traffic on the turnpike's main road was halted at exit 11 in Woodbridge, reopened in the late afternoon, and then closed again at 6:45 p.m.All Hudson River crossings into New York were closed.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Forge new tactics vs. terrorists, By Earl Morgan, Journal staff writer, 2:52 PM,
My day started today with a call from my wife telling me that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. I knew that things in the U.S.A. may never be the same.
A colleague at The Jersey Journal put it best: "This is one of those occasions marking the end of innocence."
He said the death of John F. Kennedy may have been the last time anything had happened that affected us like this.
He had a point. The assassination of JFK was the first hint in modern times that fortress Americana was not impregnable, that it can fall prey to the ill-spent geopolitical passions that plague other societies across the planet.
Before that, the U.S.A had seemed immune. Assassinations and political murders happened somewhere else, in banana republics and far-off places in Asia and Africa with exotic names.
The World Trade Center bombing in 1993 was a symbolic shot across the bow, a warning of things to come. Despite the deaths they inflicted, those bombers proved to be a group of bunglers who were scooped up in due course by the FBI.
But in our innocence we believed terrorism - the sort of thing that happens in, say, Israel on an almost daily basis - couldn't happen here, not in America. After all, any country, any terrorist cell or anybody in the world would know better than to challenge the might of the world's remaining superpower. Well, apparently there's someone out there who hasn't gotten the message.
Getting into the head of someone who would be willing to strap on explosives and kill himself as well as other people is hard for many of us to imagine. A story in the Sept. 10 edition of The New Republic magazine, written by Joshua Hammer, describes a visit to a Palestinian town called Jenin, where suicide bombers are trained by radical Islamists.
The circumstances and politics that produced the clashes between Israel and Palestinians are hard for many Americans to follow or fathom. It all seems so far away.
And yet, the same motivating factors prompting young men to martyr themselves in a holy war by bombing a fast-food restaurant or disco in that part of the world may have been in play today.
Hammer's article describes a process to train suicide bombers that is, to say the least, chilling.
But the results speak for themselves, as the death toll rises, bombing after bombing.
For sure, the so-called missile shield touted by George Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would have done nothing to save the World Trade Center or the Pentagon. Terrorism is about circumventing the technology western nations employ to assure their security.
The front page of today's New York Times included a story about the smuggling of high grade uranium or plutonium that can be used to build nuclear devices by anybody who has the price.
Terrorists don't have air forces or missile bases from which to launch an attack, but it is possible to build a device small enough to be concealed in a 50-gallon drum that could be left on a dock, put on a ship or brought in on a truck. A missile shield would be useless in preventing that sort of national threat.
That some way has to be found to deal with the new and growing threat is obvious. The danger is that some may want to turn the country into a security state, to double, triple or quadruple the number of security cameras already watching all of us and maybe nibble a little at civil liberties here or there in the name of national security.
If that should happen, the terrorists could claim a victory because that is what they want.
That someone, somewhere is going to pay for today's acts of destruction is a given.
The U.S. intelligence and military resources will be focused on that task. No matter what the supposed terrorists thought they were doing or accomplishing, attacking the United States is a risky business. Someone is going to suffer the consequences.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal 'As close to war as you can get'; Hudson's emergency workers provide relief to weary and wounded, By 2:51 PM,
While federal agents chased a tip that a truck in the Jersey City Heights was carrying chemical weapons, Hudson County emergency personnel tended to the wounded that poured across the Hudson River all day on ships landing from Weehawken to Bayonne.
Throughout the county, emergency officials furiously worked to cope with the tragic aftermath of America's worst terrorist attack, where potentially several thousand people perished.
Agents at the Newark office of the FBI said they were swamped with tips and chased down every lead possible, but were not prepared to make any announcements pending a high-level meeting of agency officials in Washington, D.C.
During the tragic drama, FBI agents were present at the Doric apartments at 100 Manhattan Ave. in Union City for most of the day and into the early evening, local officials confirmed. It could not be determined why the federal agents were at the high-rise building near Hoboken's 14th Street Viaduct.
Only moments after the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center's south tower, Hudson County's Office of Emergency Management began to implement its emergency measures.
Immediately after the crash, Jerry Cala, Hudson County's emergency management deputy coordinator, began calling in off-duty emergency medical personnel in preparation for wounded.
"This is as close to a real war as you can get," said Cala, who knew that numerous New York City emergency personnel continued their efforts to save lives today even after having lost brothers to fires, explosions and collapses.
Cala said 27 New York City firefighters and police officers were taken to Jersey City hospitals for treatment.
Around 10:30 last night, CNN reported the New York City fire chief and deputy fire chief were among those killed.
Later, CBS reported two men were arrested in a truck laden with explosives as it headed toward the George Washington Bridge. No further details were available, including whether the truck was in New Jersey or New York.
At about 9:30 a.m., after a second plane hit the north World Trade Center tower, OEM officials declared a state of emergency in Hudson County - allowing them to close roads, make emergency purchases of items such as food, water and gasoline, and to commandeer equipment such as buses and building space.
All off-duty firefighters and police officers were called in and area medical personnel were asked to report to work. County and federal courts were closed, Cala said.
The walking wounded arrived on ferries, tugs and whatever else was available, landing in Hudson County ferry stations on York Street, Exchange Place, Hoboken and at the Caven Point Army Reserve Center.
From there, more than 600 wounded commuters were transferred by ambulances responding from as far as the Pennsylvania border and taken to triage centers at Caven Point, Liberty State Park and the National Guard Armory in Jersey City, or to hospitals as far as St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston.
Many of the wounded suffered from burns and scrapes and cuts sustained from explosions, but the seriously wounded were taken to medical facilities in New York.
Officials commandeered buses from NJ Transit, Jersey City and the Vo-Tech School in Jersey City, using them to move the wounded and stranded from the waterfront to hospitals and staging areas. Jersey City's Newport Centre Mall was closed to business, but remained open in case it was needed for emergency efforts, Cala said.
By mid-afternoon the National Guard had set up a field hospital in Liberty State Park's northern end near the Central Railroad Terminal, where a staff of 50 doctors, nurses and paramedics provided treatment including surgery, officials said.
The National Guard also set up a temporary morgue in Liberty Park to accept the dead, which New York emergency personnel had been trying to send across the Hudson since early morning, Cala added.
A nerve center for emergency coordination was established at the fire station on Summit Avenue near Laidlaw Avenue, where fire, police and OEM officials manned 16 phones, two fax machines and a direct radio link to the New Jersey State Police Office of Emergency Management. They also maintained contact with the Governor's Office and the FBI.
At the A&P Supermarket on 18th Street in Jersey City, police gathered en masse waiting for their next cue. All over the city, police blocked roadways to keep lanes open for emergency vehicles and stop onlookers from congregating on the waterfront where they would hamper emergency efforts, Cala said.
OEM officials were also trying to find a way to get New York residents back home from Jersey City locations at Caven Point, the Jersey City Medical Center and St. Francis Hospital. Many were in the area of the World Trade Center and had been taken across the Hudson on boats to get them away from the disaster.
Last night, the OEM opened shelters for these stranded people in Ferris High School in Jersey City, Weehawken High School, Bayonne High School and Hoboken High School.
At about 4 p.m. yesterday, Jersey City sent four fire trucks into Lower Manhattan to assist the New York City Fire Department, which had lost a number of firefighters and as many as several dozen fire trucks when the towers collapsed, crushing them under debris.
Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham said as New York City police and fire department personnel tired, more Jersey City personnel would be sent across the river to lend a hand, Cala said.
"This is a tragedy worse than Pearl Harbor and as one of New York's closest neighbors, we plan to give them as much help as we can," Cunningham said. "I am positive they will need our help and we are ready to send it to them. This is going to take days just to get to some of the seriously injured."
At the Liberty Science Center, a number of stranded people milled about yesterday trying to figure out a way to get home.
Michael Jones, 34, lives in Manhattan's Battery Park City on the eighth floor only 100 yards from the Trade Center. Yesterday, he wandered through Liberty Science Center covered with soot from the explosion. When he heard a blast and felt his building tremble yesterday morning, he said he went to the window and saw something that he said would change his life forever.
"I saw people on the street looking up and when I looked up I saw one of the World Trade Center buildings had a huge whole in it. I thought, 'Oh my God,' " recalled Jones. "At first I thought it was an accident, but then a second plane slammed into the building and a ball of fire erupted and I thought, 'This is going to be bad.'
"Then, it was like a movie, the building crashed to the ground and dropped debris on buildings in the area and on all the emergency personnel, their vehicles and people standing in the streets. It was thunderously loud and filled everything with dust like a fog.
"I wrapped my T-shirt around my face and ran from the building to find my wife and 6-year-old daughter, but the police were pushing every one southward toward Battery Park. When I got there, I boarded a ferry because I thought if I got to Jersey, I could try to track down my family. I will never be the same."
Jones eventually contacted relatives who told him his family was OK.
Other roads that were closed yesterday included the Newark Bay Extension of the New Jersey Turnpike, Route 3 eastbound because the Meadowlands Sports Complex was being used as a staging area for emergency vehicles, the Pulaski Skyway, and the Wittpenn Bridge between Jersey City and Kearny.
Cunningham held a press conference at Caven Point about 4 p.m. at which he detailed what steps the city was taking in the wake of tragedy and the efforts of the Fire, Police and Public Works departments.
Jersey City Council President L. Harvey Smith later commented:
"Jersey City will be touched by this tragedy because so many of our citizens go to work in New York every day. This has reached into every facet of our lives. You can only imagine what people go through in Israel and Ireland; now it's gut wrenchingly real."
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal Rush to help the wounded; Hudson County police departments out in full force, By Beth Kissinger, Journal staff writer, 2:49 PM,
Police, fire and emergency personnel from all parts of Hudson County rushed into emergency mode yesterday after the World Trade Center terrorist attack, scrambling to keep their own people safe while aiding injured and stranded people entering their communities.
A county-wide state of emergency was declared yesterday, said Hudson County Sheriff Joseph Cassidy, and Hudson communities followed suit, enacting their own emergency plans.
While Jersey City was busiest, other Hudson communities put their law enforcement and emergency teams at practically full force.
The busiest places were on the waterfront.
Weehawken was destination for ferries carrying injured and panicked people from Manhattan. Those arriving were able to undergo triage near the ferry terminal and got transportation to local hospitals. Police said thousands of people, mostly uninjured but frightened, passed through Weehawken yesterday.
"I'll take this nightmare to what our buddies are doing to the east," said Jeff Welz, co-director of the North Hudson Regional Fire & Rescue, comparing what the township was doing to New York police's massive rescue effort.
"We're as busy as hell. We have a lot of resources."
About 100 people were treated at triage sites near the ferries and PATH stations in Weehawken, Hoboken and Jersey City, with ambulances from across the state working, Welz said.
In Weehawken, 30 ambulances worked the waterfront, with approximately 10 in Hoboken and about 100 at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, Welz said.
Bayonne sent emergency personnel to MOTBY to treat and transport the injured, who were ferried over from Ellis Island, said Bayonne Police Director Mark Smith. Patients were being treated at Bayonne Hospital - which also sent nurses to Ellis Island for triage - with the most seriously injured patients sent to the Jersey City Medical Center and University Hospital in Newark, Smith said.
Smith said he saw people with serious orthopedic injuries, completely covered with debris and soot.
"It was a pretty heart-wrenching scene," he said. Smith's entire 240-person force, plus all fire department and emergency personnel, were called in to assist.
Bayonne Fire Chief Thomas Lynch said he had 60 firefighters on duty yesterday and ready to go to New York if needed.
Meanwhile, Bayonne High School was being opened last night to give stranded people a place to get a meal and a bed for the night, Lynch said. Today's classes for the high school have been canceled.
Various roadways were closed, including the Bayonne Bridge and the New Jersey Turnpike extension, with traffic clogging up Route 440 (the old Route 169) and police directing cars to alternate routes, Smith said.
In Kearny, Route 7 eastbound toward Jersey City was also closed until about 6:15 last night, said Kearny Police Lt. Steve Durkin.
Union City, meanwhile, transformed its recreation center on Fifth Street into a hospital.
Late yesterday afternoon, city spokeswoman Gale Kaufman said she expected injured victims to arrive at some time during the night, as volunteer doctors from the community and counselors from North Hudson Community Action Corporation were on hand to help those injured or traumatized by the attack. An emergency command center also had been set up inside the city's municipal court, she said.
In Hoboken, emergency workers treated people in a triage unit set up near Hoboken Terminal, with those with lacerations and mild trauma sent to St. Mary Hospital in Hoboken, said city spokesman Michael Estevez.
Police blocked off entrances to the Lincoln Tunnel and the Hoboken PATH station, both of which were shut down. The city also sent several emergency vehicles into Manhattan to assist emergency personnel there, he said.
Athletic fields at Stevens Institute of Technology and Hoboken High School were cleared to prepare for medical helicopters while Hoboken High School was readied as a place to shelter people for the night.
"We're bracing for a rough night," Estevez said.
A piece of luggage found near the PATH station in Hoboken yesterday caused a scare, with people running from the station, police said. Officers later determined that the luggage was not suspicious.
In West New York, Police Director Joseph M. Pelliccio called in his entire department after the attack, with a five-man unit assisting Port Authority police. Police closed all of Boulevard East and River Road. The Red Cross had provided the town with beds in case it needed to house stranded commuters in Hudson Hall community center or the town's recreation center, Pelliccio said.
In North Bergen, Chief Angelo Busacco said police alerted houses of worship, the operator of a transcontinental gas line, telecommunications companies and schools to be mindful of potential dangers. Also, municipal court and the violations bureau closed and evening youth recreation programs were canceled.
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Knives on planes
While most Americans are familiar with safety procedures designed to protect them on airplanes, many don't know that passengers are sometimes allowed to carry knives on board. As published on the Federal Aviation Administration's Web site: "FAA guidelines allow knives with blades up to 4 inches. However, state and local laws may restrict the carriage of smaller knives in a public airport."
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Phone lines congested, By Heather Fleming Phillips, Knight-Ridder News Service, 2:48 PM,
WASHINGTON - As news of the World Trade Center and Pentagon disasters spread, millions of people in both cities did what comes naturally - they tried to phone home.
But the flood of calls early yesterday to and from New York and Washington clogged phone lines and the airwaves throughout the East Coast, frustrating millions of people trying to check in with family and friends.
"I saw that I had missed a call from my mom on my cellphone, so I just tried to call her to let her know I was safe," said Heather Fehn, a sales representative from Reuters America who works about 50 blocks from the World Trade Center. After dozens of tries on her Verizon Wireless phone, she gave up. She eventually reached her mother through her office landline phone.
Joel Coburn, who was visiting Washington from Michigan, for a pharmaceutical conference, was outside the Capitol when the story broke.
"I saw a plume of smoke and thought a plane had crashed at Ronald Reagan Airport," just a couple miles from the Pentagon. Using his Nextel wireless phone, Coburn tried to call his wife 10 to 12 times but got busy signals. "It took an hour and a half to leave a message," he said.
The lines stayed jammed on both landline and wireless phones until late afternoon. Verizon Communications, the local phone company serving the East Coast from Virginia to Maine, responded by urging its customers to use the phone only in emergencies. Cingular Wireless and Sprint PCS also asked customers to stay off the phone.
Because of the clogged phone lines, many residents went to the internet for information, which was also congested.
Telecommunications equipment and antennas that transmitted millions of calls every day were housed in the World Trade Center towers in New York, which toppled after being hit by two hijacked planes. Verizon had some equipment located in the building, though it said overall it had no "major disruptions" in service.
Sprint, the third-largest U.S. long-distance company, said the loss of equipment in one of the towers blocked 75,000 long-distance calls.
AT&T, the country's largest long-distance phone company, said its long-distance network suffered no damage. Yet, an unknown number of AT&T business customers in New York lost local phone service provided by the company because of damage to equipment.
Yet, the biggest problem for most companies was the sheer volume of people on the nation's communications networks.
Verizon reported double the number of calls on both its wireless and landline networks in both Washington and New York. The company generally handles 115 million calls a day in New York and 35 million in Washington, said spokesman Peter Thonis.
September 10, 2011, The Jersey Journal, Best friends from Bayonne remembered among heroes of Flight 93, By Stephanie Musat/ For The Jersey Journal, Published: Saturday, 4:00 AM, Updated: Saturday, September 10, 2011, 1:17 PM,
Jane C. Folger was full of worries. Patricia Cushing kept calm. The two evened each other out and formed an unlikely pair after Cushing married Folger's brother, Thomas.
The sisters-in-law were close. Closer, Jane's son Robert Folger jokes, than a married couple.
They lived a few blocks apart in Bayonne. Their children grew up together. They shopped together. After Jane's husband and Pat's brother died, the two became closer.
"When the two decided to go on a trip to San Francisco, Jane worried about earthquakes. She was convinced that it was going to be dangerous but Pat calmed her down.
"Knowing our aunt Pat was with her, there wasn't a worry in the world," Robert said. "She was such a calming influence."
The two rescheduled their flight so they would get to San Francisco a few days sooner. But they never made it to California. The two were on Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania as a result of a terrorist hijacking on Sept. 11, 2001.
Patricia CushingThe two friends and the other Flight 93 passengers were portrayed five years later in the Academy Award-nominated "United 93."
After their deaths, their lives became public. At first it was hard for their families to talk. They didn't want to reveal Jane's and Pat's names -- they're listed as "additional heroes" in a Senate bill proposing the passengers and crew receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the "highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions" awarded by Congress.
September 10, 2011, The Jersey Journal, We Remember: The Jersey Journal's special section on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, 9:30 AM, The Jersey Journal marks the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with a 44-page special section in today's edition.
The section looks back on the events of the day and talks with people around Hudson County who have been affected.
First, we spoke with relatives of some of the scores of residents who died in the attacks.
In our Lives Interrupted section, relatives recall their loved ones and talk about some of the ways their own lives have changed over the last 10 years.
There were the best friends from Bayonne who died together on Flight 93, the Hoboken man whose memory is honored with a scholarship, the bond trader whose sister led the fight to create the Empty Sky memorialthat is opening today in Liberty State Park. And so many more heart-wrenching stories.
We also spoke with survivors of the attacks, people who were at the World Trade Center that day and live with searing memories.
They include two Port Authority workers who made it out of the Twin Towers just in time, but who lost some 30 friends and co-workers in the attacks; a Jersey City resident working at a nearby office tower who took powerful photos at the scene; and a New York Waterways ferry captainwho became a rescue worker as thousands of people tried to flee.
NY Waterway ferry boat captian recalls the 9/11 attacks as viewed on the Hudson RiverRichard Thornton has worked as a NY ferry boat captain for 21 years and in that time he witnessed the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the NY blackout, the "Miracle on the Hudson," and the 9/11 attacks all from a direct view on the Hudson River. He recently sat down with the Jersey Journal to talk about his memories of September 11, 2001. (Adam Holsten & Kate Kowsh)Watch video
People from all over Hudson County remember and reflect upon the terrorist attacks on 9/11Where were you on 9/11? (Adam Holsten / The Jersey Journal)Watch video
Enlarge9/11 memorial plaque at the Guttenberg Town Hall, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011. Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey Journal9/11 Memorials in Hudson County gallery (13 photos)
Plus, we look at larger issues, likesecurity and commuting, that affect hundreds of thousands of us every day.
Archives
EnlargeSeptember 11, 2002. Jersey Journal copy stand 9/11 covers. Andrew Miller/The Jersey JournalJersey Journal 9/11 Front Covers gallery (7 photos)
EnlargeNY Waterway ferries transported the injured to a triage that was set up at the Colgate ferry stop at Exchange Place in Jersey City across the Hudson River from Lower Manhattan where smoke billows after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey JournalImages of 9/11 from Hudson County gallery (51 photos)
If you were here that day and in the days that followed, dozens of articles and pictures will bring you back to the day in powerful ways.
If you were too young at the time or living far away, you will be affected by the immediacy only first-hand, first-day accounts can hold.
On Sept. 11, 2001, the Journal produced an extra edition with stories and photos from the events as they were unfolding.
Among the stories:
Liberty State Park became a triage center.
United and American Airlines sent out announcements confirming their planes had been hijacked.
President Bush vowed to "hunt down''those responsible.
New York City postponed its mayoral election.
The Sept. 12, 2001, edition, with the headline Forever Changed, looked at the many ways people in Hudson County were affected by the events across the river.
Hudson County, as one of our headlines read, watched in horror and mobilized to help.
Emergency workers talked about their experiences.
Hudson County schoolchildren who watched the events from their classroom windows described the surrealism.
Clergy members struggled to ease fears.
Despite the magnitude of the coverage in our paper and worldwide, we know there are so many more stories out there to be told. We invite you to share yours in our comments sections or by sharing photos and videos on NJ.com.
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, A journey through hell, 2:45 PM,
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Horror will remain in students' minds, 2:44 PM,
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Muslims are scapegoats for attacks, 2:58 PM,
The Jersey Journal, Worst fear realized; a nation must come to grips that it can happen here, 2:54 PM,
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Kids watched from windows, 2:42 PM,
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, World expresses outrage, 2:34 PM,
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Nato: U.S. can count on us, 2:33 PM,
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Israelis shocked, celebration in Gaza, West Bank, 2:27 PM,
September 12, 2001, The Jersey Journal, Mexico frets border closing, 2:30 PM
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