For an English assignment I am writing a creative piece about New York City the day after 9/11 (I don’t live in the US). Just wondering if anyone has any personal experiences that they could share? What was the atmosphere like, did it change the way that people looked at each other/acted towards each other? How was the impact of 9/11 reflected in American culture during the days after the event? Do you have any suggestions of snapshots/moments that I could include?

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  2. I knew a few people that lived in Manhattan. It was a dark but unifying time. An acquaintance of my friends lost their father. Everyone reached out to them but you had a wife and two children who no longer had a father.

    They didn’t know he was dead for sure but were pretty sure. So it was just a heart wrenching time. People made them food and came to just be with them.

    I was in college and my next door neighbor in the dorm had a dad that worked in the towers above where the first plane hit. The dude was losing it. You couldn’t call people in NYC and no one was responding to email. It wasn’t until the next day that he got in touch with his uncle and found out his dad was out of the office meeting with clients that morning. His fathers entire office died.

  3. > Do you have any suggestions of snapshots/moments that I could include?

    The people in nearby streets who were absolutely covered in dust.

    The people working to clear the rubble.

    The people in boats bringing food to the people working to clear the rubble.

  4. I were 8 eight years old when 9/11 happen not from New York but from Chicago tell you that All Americans were still in 😱 Scare 😠. Because we Knew that meant we were going to War if also change Airport Rules because United States were Super Lax in our Rules. Their also would a Rise of Xenophobia against Muslims American Communities. Can’t remember a lot but Still see those peoples Falling.

  5. The atmosphere across the country was shock and despair. It was the saddest day for our nation in my lifetime. It seems like asking New Yorkers for personal stories of dealing with enormous trauma, fear, death, and tragedy to then write your own fictional account is just…a little gross? What’s the purpose in this?

  6. I am not old enough to remember 9/11, but it my mother, who’d been on a green card for years (she grew up in India), to start the process of naturalization as an American citizen because she didn’t know if the rules would be tightened in response.

  7. > For an English assignment I am writing a creative piece about New York City the day after 9/11

    European schools never cease to amaze.

  9. This is not a good subject for a creative writing experience. Sorry. It was extremely traumatic for those close the attack sites and beyond.

  10. You’re basically asking for people’s pain and trauma to use as play-doh. Maybe look up newspapers from the days and weeks following? They were full of stories of what was happening.

  11. By total dumb luck I was on a business trip to NYC on 9/11. Obviously I didn’t know the 9/11 attacks were going to happen, it was just stupid dumb luck. The office I was consulting in was within view of the Twin Towers, and I had to watch people in the office crying as the towers collapsed.

    Personally my instinct was “gotta run there and save them!”. Then I thought more maturely about the situation, and re-thought “No, learn your place man. Leave this one to the professionals. You’re just going to get in their way and make things worse”.

    My personal inconvenience (not to minimize the enormity of the tragedy) was that all the flights were cancelled for a few weeks after, and I hadn’t arranged a hotel stay for long enough. It was supposed to be a quick 1-day in-and-out client meeting. Thankfully the client I was consulting with “donated” an office for me to crash in his office until the flights got running again. So I just crashed on the floor in that office for a few days until I could arrange a flight home.

  16. My mom went up there to volunteer the day after it happened. Few days later they didn’t allow volunteers. She passed away since then but I’ll tell you what I remember from what she told me.

    Everything was covered in dust/ash for blocks from ground zero. She took a picture of a destroyed mail truck. She handed out sandwiches and said all the workers who had to clean up the destruction looked shell shocked. Utter disbelief at the task they had before them.

    That’s all I remember

    Edit

    >How was the impact of 9/11 reflected in American culture during the days after the event?

    We were all just shocked. And then my post office got hit with anthrax and it was just bad, we were being terrorized and everything was so scary. And then Mike pence, who was a congressman at the time, lied and said that the anthrax was super strength or some shit. Military grade? He did it to scare us too, and I’ll never forgive that son of a bitch for that. I was scared of planes in the sky for six months afterwards.

  18. Theres a bunch of documentaries and videos you can watch that talk about it. You might not get personal stories, but you get a better understanding of it affected us and how we responded

  19. The city was engulfed in a massive spiral of smoke afterwards. You ever watch a war movie and after a battle the Soldiers are walking the field to deal with the wounded, the dead and destroyed equipment? It felt like that, like shock. Once that faded there was a rally round the flag effect. A sense of total unity and a desire for revenge on those who were responsible. Watch the remarks President [Bush gave at Ground Zero](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7OCgMPX2mE) and it will give you a good sense for how people felt. Bush was not viewed favorably in New York at all prior to 9/11. There was also a sense of needing to be resilient to show that the attack would not destroy our way of life. This [documentary on the 2001 World Series](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9aCMuwybRI) conveys that feeling pretty well from around the 23:00 minute mark on with Game 3, the first game at Yankee Stadium.

    It did change people’s behavior. American flags and bumper stickers were everywhere after 9/11. I’ve never seen Americans so unified before or since. We were also very concerned about additional terrorist attacks in the wake of 9/11, which led to things like the Patriot Act and made selling the war in Iraq easier. Iraq was when these feelings started to gradually fade.

  20. The only time I really felt the nation really came together for a common cause. I lived on Long Island at the time and it seemed like everyone had “their story”.

    I also remember the anxiety everyone had watching Bush go out to throw the first pitch at the World Series. Nobody knew what could happen.

  21. was too young to remember , lived in Jamaica estates queens (yes , the same place trump grew up & actually on the same street … idk if that’s a good thing ) , sky was grey for days … that I slightly remember possibly- she claims the air was dirty for days – she was also pregnant. Both parents worked in bronx/bkn in the hospitals. Mom in trauma as an RN , father as a DO in a geriatric clinic , many people rushed into hospitals out of fear they had to triage fast and appropriately. People were scared , phones didn’t work my parents lost a lot of friends in the tower , their friends lost parents I remember a lot of funerals in my childhood all of a sudden now that I think about it…possibly could have been the cause. My friends dad has leukemia from being a construction worker who ran to the towers and pulled people out , he lives with ptsd to this day.

    How it affected culture : more security at airports , people are more reserved , obviously the unconsciously / subconscious response to anyone of the origin from the attack , discrimination against people that don’t deserve it, somewhat fear in the ones who can remember that time & most likely increased air security in the city(possibly cities everywhere ) and more military presence in the city

    What I remember from school teachers throughout the years : schools in the area went into complete shock, parents went running for their children – those who had parents in the tower were brought to guidance (if known) , teachers couldn’t really comprehend so they put it on the radios and TV and listened to the planes hit / the news in shock , honestly what a scary time.

  22. Way out on the west coast, we were numb, confused, sad, worried— and seething with anger.

  23. I find it interesting that you are writing on something like this, especially since you don’t live here.

  24. >Do you have any suggestions of snapshots/moments that I could include?

    Look up Jules and Gédéon Naudet. Gideon shot one of the few videos of Flight 11 hitting the North Tower and ules shot the ***only*** known video of the tower’s collapse from ***inside*** the South Tower.

    Jules was also just blocks away from the North Tower as it collapsed and we get to see what people on the ground experienced. A howling hell of death and destruction as smoke and dust blotted out the sun, killing those unlucky to be in its wake and then… silence.

    The documentary is seriously an amazing glimpse into what those people on the ground experienced and it likely doesn’t even come close to a fraction of what was actually happening.

    [Here’s a video of a salvage operation of safe deposits recovered from Ground Zero.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RZlW6mdy1Q)

    [This Rolex belongs to the late Todd Beamer, one of the men credited with leading the passenger uprising on Flight 93 in an attempt to retake the plane.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/08/14/fashion/14ZBEAMER/14zBEAMER-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp) Though~~t~~ the attempt to retake Flight 93 ultimately failed, these men and women set the stage for every terrorist to follow these attacks to fail miserably at the hands of their intended victims. The watch was recovered from the wreckage of Flight 93.

    [NYT article for source of Rolex picture.](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/14/fashion/a-moment-in-time-captured-in-pieces.html)

  25. Oof. That PTSD can getting opened today. Good mental health to you today and always, survivors.

  26. Personally I think it’s a great assignment. Think of all the stories that aren’t real, but are based in true events, that help us empathize with those who experienced the events in ways that would be beyond reach by just reciting the hard facts and numbers, such as *Number the Stars.*
    I wasn’t even in NYC, nor do I know personally anyone who died in the towers,even so when I started to think back I got teary, if that is any indication of the impact of that day

    I recall hearing it on the radio in my barracks room while I was getting dressed for formation. I didn’t have a TV, so music on crappy alarm clock radio was it.. The dj reported that a “small” plane had hit one of the towers, and they seemed to think it was some sort of freak accident. I recall thinking, “ah hell, there goes another Kennedy,” which is totally weird, but the Kennedy’s always seem to be dying in freak accidents around that time. Then the second plane hit, and the djs were incredulous. I’d never heard communications professionals break persona like that. Then I thought, “shit, we’re going to war,” and life hasn’t been the same since in some ways.

    What actually happened was unclear to me for a time (no TV), but the audio from Flight 93, among other things, makes me proud to be an American.

  28. On September 12, I took the train into Manhattan from my home on Long Island, heading to my office which was located about 2 miles from the WTC site.

    I remember being surprised at the amount of cars parked in the train lot, more than usual for the early hour. A moment later I realised they belonged to people who hadn’t returned, from the day before. Ghost cars.

    Not very many people on the way in. Most stayed home from work and school that day, in a state of collective shock.

    I got into Penn Station and walked down Broadway, about a mile to my office
    Usually the street was bustling with people and street vendors, but that day the shops were all shuttered, and almost nobody was out. It was a bit windy and trash was blowing through the air. I almost expected a tumbleweed to come rolling through, it was that empty.

    I met one person, walking in the opposite direction, on my mile walk. A woman dressed head to toe in full black robes, wearing a face covering, only her eyes showing, obviously Muslim. I felt an instantaneous white hot rage toward her, and one second later, shame at my prejudicial reaction.

    The towers were still burning, and the air was putrid, , an acrid chemical stench that permeated everything. I could taste it. Literally, taste the destruction. It was disgusting.

    There was none of the usual traffic. No buses, no taxis, nothing but fire trucks and police cars racing with sirens blaring in the otherwise quiet streets.

    I got into the office, maybe 20% of the rest of the staff also made it in. I tried to do a little work. The very first file I opened was a loan applicant who worked at a restaurant at the Towers. Windows on the World, or something like that. I shut the file. I didn’t know if this man was dead or alive (I later learned that he was, only because he was late that day).

    Internet connectivity was spotty that day. Mostly we just talked to each other and watched TV. Not much work got done.

    I took the train back to Long Island at the end of the day. Nothing was on schedule or predictable. There were only 2 other people in the train car, that usually held probably 100+. After the conductor went through and punched tickets, they started having sex, right there on the train, seemingly oblivious to my presence. It was very surreal. I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

    When we got to my stop, I again noted all the cars in the lot.

    I walked back to my house, about 2 blocks. I was exhausted. My husband met me at the door, gave me a hug, told me he could smell the towers in my hair. I took a shower and washed it, which was a routine I adopted for the next few months. The towers burned into December.

    The following day, Thursday the 13th, I went back to Manhattan, again on the train, which was about half full. A lot of people still staying home.

    When we got into the city, the missing people fliers were up everywhere. They were stapled to kiosks, taped to walls, everywhere. I looked and studied as many as I could. I didn’t think I could actually be of help in any way, but I wanted to know their names and faces.

    In the office that morning, we had a department meeting that had been planned prior to 9/11, but the talk was all about what had happened, what was still happening.

    One of my coworkers was furious because “one of them” meaning an Arabic person, had been selling little American flags for a buck on the street and doing a pretty good business. I didn’t judge her for her racism or prejudice as I’d experienced that flash myself, the previous day, but I did call her out on it. I reminded her that we had friends, coworkers, who were Muslim. “I don’t mean THEM” she said. “The others. They’re different.” But as soon as she said it, she realized she sounded like an asshole. She’s actually not an asshole, most of time

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