9/11 Remembered

All of us have our own 9/11 stories. I was a college sophomore then when the attack on the twin towers happened. I recall that we were taking an accounting examination at the cyberlib section of the main library of Silliman University. It was about 8 PM or so when I finished the exam and went straight home. When I got home, everyone was glued onto the TV screen. Apparently, there had been an air mishap as a plane hit one of the World Trade Center towers. It was incredibly eerie. How could such a tragedy happen? Later on, we were shocked both in grief and horror as another plane crashed into the other tower. Then another crashed on the Pentagon. The drama and disaster was unfolding before our very eyes. Then another plane that was reportedly on its way to the White House, crashed on a field. It was clearly a terrorist attack.

As several floors of both towers were burning, panic was all over the streets. You can see papers and documents and other debris "flying out" of the buildings. Some of these stuff were actually people who had no choice but to jump off from their windows. It was really horrific. Then the towers came crumbling down while the whole of New York was seemingly covered in smoke and ash. Those amazing (in a bad way) series of events will forever be etched in my memory.

I can't believe it has been 5 years. A lot of things happened since then. Things were discovered and some questions were answered. I've watched numerous documentaries on this, from National Geographic Specials to Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911. Apparently, the tragedy would have been avoided if US officials (especially Pres. Bush) were paid more attention to intelligence reports.

Anyway, as I recall the events of 9/11, here are some cool before and after images of the tragedy which I found on the Internet: