I was at work, when a co-workers wife called and told us of the first plane. We found a TV immediately in the next room, and I watched the second plane hit the tower. That was the end of our productivity that day, we watched the news until quitting time. The boss didn't care, he was right there with us. We still took care of business, but in a very subdued mood.
I remember that evening, after getting back to corbin, there was a run on gasoline, and even somewhat at the grocery stores. The gas station I patronized, was limiting purchases to 10 gallons per car. He was out at the pumps himself, with his wife inside at the counter, and they used walkie talkie's to start each pump purchase. He had a firearm on under his shirt, trying to hide it, but I didn't blame him. He had been out there since around noon, and stayed until he ran out of fuel in his storage tanks.
We went to the grocery that evening, and you would have thought a snow was coming. The shelves were quite worked over. Not a panic, but much concern over not knowing.
On the way to work the next morning, a bright day, I looked up at the vapor trails of a flight of a large plane. Knowing all flights were grounded, I knew it was a military flight. It was a huge plane. It was too high to identify of course, but I knew it was there for our safety.
Thanks for starting this subject. I was downtown and had not heard about the first crash into the Trade Center As I went up in the Times Tribune Office I saw employees gathered around the TV set and suddenly we saw the second plane fly into the other Trade Center building. Everyone was shocked.
I have a cousin from Harlan, Dr. Neville Carmical, who lives close to the Trade Center building but he had gone to his office in North Manhattan early that morning. I hurried home and watched the rest of the news in our family room.
My wife and I got very nerveous because our daughter and son-in-law work downtown close to the FBI Building, and our granddaughter goes to school about 2 miles from the Pentagon. Our daughter tried to call us on her cell phone but it didn't get through. It took many hours for her and her husband to get to their daughter's school. The school did a great job with the kids and went through their emergency drill. The school was ready to take care of the kids as long as it would take for their parents to get to the school.
Our prayers and best wishes are still with the victims, the injured, and their families.
I worked in a doctors office here in corbin then, and the news came about fast. Both planes had hit before we got to a tv. When we did, we were in shock. I started trying to get ahold of my husband on my cell, but the circuits were busy forever. The doctor let us use the office phone to call our families, just to let them know what happened.
It took me an hour to get ahold of my husband, as his work was hectic then too. We finally talked, and it sort of calmed me down.
I called my daughter at Eastern, and she was upset, and all the students were gathered around all the tv's. She came home that night, just to be home.
We heard all the gas stations wouldn't get any more fuel, and we were getting all kinds of calls about gas rationing, and the grocery stores were being cleaned out. We were sort of panicing. I called my husband again, and he said, "As long as we have toilet paper and coffee, we're fine", trying to calme me down.
Around noon, all the afternoon patients were canceling. The doctor canceled the rest of the day, and we went home.
I filled my car that afternoon, and they weren't rationing gas then. By the time my husband came home, the station by our house was rationing it, $15 limit.
We stayed in front of the TV all night, on the phone too. My daughter got home around 6pm, and my other daughter was already here. We just say, and watched, and were together. We said little that evening. After awhile, the phone calls quit, as I guess the others were just watching too.
My husband was put on call that night, and had to stay in uniform in case he had to report to work. That made it somewhat more surreal, but, that was his job. All was calm.
