I was asleep and awakened by the phone ringing. When I answered a friend was hysterical crying screaming sobbing incoherantly at me. I went to town to see a tv and watch the calamity for myself. As the 1st building collapsed, I doubled over as though punched in the gut, with the horror of it all.
Later I found out 2 of the firemen, brothers, who were killed, had lived across the canal from my childhood home and I had babysat them. I had a friend gather a bit of the fallout dust for me which I shared with friends who also lost people that day. Watching those buildings get hit, and then each drop like a stone, are images that will stay with me forever. Where, in God's name, were our defences?