Reply #173: I also work for a Telco [View All]

[dave29]

I just sat down at my desk, and was checking the news on the internet, because the office was already abuzz with the attack. The second tower had just been hit. I remember very distinctly hearing that there were still planes in the air that were not accounted for, and that one of them was heading south from Dallas (I live in Austin, TX).

I immediately called my wife (who was sleeping) - and told her to get me her sister's number, because she worked at a Government building here in Austin, and I wanted to make sure they were evacuating. I got ahold of her and they said they were not letting them leave, which aggravated me, but there was nothing I could do about it.

I then walked into our operations center, which looks a bit like NASA. We had huge screen showing the towers. I walked in just as the first tower fell. There were about 50 of us watching, staring in disbelief.

I remember very vividly feeling thousands of people die, and noticing that tears were suddenly streaming down my face. I had this horrible crushed feeling in my stomach. After a few moments of stunned silence... one of our managers said... we need to get to work (we had to make sure phone service was working as best as possible)... and we all tried to focus on the job at hand.

I walked back to my desk and a co-worker was saying he had just talked to a cousin who had witnessed people jump from the towers while walking away from them.

Everything just became a haze for the next few days.