I was dropping my kids off at daycare and heard on the radio that a plane had hit the first tower. At that time, the theory was that it was just a small plane. When I got in my car, I tuned to the local ABC affiliate radio station and they were watching the ordeal on TV and reporting what they saw. They were speculating what size the plane would have to be to do that kind of damage when the second plane hit. Immediately the DJ exclaimed “That’s it – we’re under attack”. Traffic slowed down, but kept moving, it was obvious that people were getting the news all around – it was a very surreal scene. Then the plane hit the Pentagon – I just kept saying out loud “What the hell is going on”. As I turned the curve to head south into Minneapolis, I could see planes in the distance in their approach patterns, but because of what I was hearing, I was wondering if they were headed right for the building I worked in.
When I did get to work it was chaotic. Two people had relatives that worked in the NY area and were frantically trying to call them while one woman wanted t leave (we worked in the tallest building in the city). Someone brought a TV into one of the conference rooms and a group gathered in there to view what was going on. Shortly after the first building collapsed the reporter on the news announced several buildings around the country were being evacuated, including the Capitol, the Sears Tower in Chicago, the IDS building in Minneapolis…wait, that’s THIS building! We sat around looking at each other wondering what to do, and a minute later the announcement came over the PA system to evacuate.
