Twenty years is a long time, a generation. But the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City can still feel very fresh for those who watched it unfold, in person or on television. The fireball from the second plane strike. The billowing black smoke. The collapse of the Twin Towers, one by one. Amy Eddings says she still remembers the acrid smell of burning plastic.
She covered the World Trade Center attacks and the aftermath for WNYC, the public radio station in New York City. Andrew Meyer, news director for Ohio Public Radio member station WKSU, did the same for WBGO in Newark, New Jersey. The two talked recently about what they experienced and how that day still affects us.
Andrew, what did you do when you heard reports of a plane flying into the North Tower of the World Trade Center?
"I had just come back from a run. I turned on one of the local stations, and I was seeing the smoke coming from one of the towers. And it was just a short while later that I was watching on TV as the second plane flew into the second tower. And I was just stunned by it. And of course, you know, as a reporter, it was, 鈥淎ll right, time to start covering this story.鈥� And so I got on the phone with my news director. I said, 'I鈥檓 heading in, I鈥檓 going to Lower Manhattan.' And he said, 'No. Come to the radio station, don鈥檛 go into Lower Manhattan." In reflecting back afterwards, certainly twenty years later at this point, I realize that his instructions may have kept me out of harm鈥檚 way."
For Amy Eddings, "I heard that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center from Alan Hevesi. He was a candidate for mayor. It was the mayoral primary. I was covering him that morning. I took the subway into Lower Manhattan. By this time the second plane had already hit, so when I finally got a visual of the towers, I couldn鈥檛 understand how what I thought was a small plane could have created such damage. You can hear my confusion talking to this one witness, Tony Houston."
In that interview from the scene of the World Trade Center, Houston describes how he and his wife heard a low-flying jet and then a boom, saw the second jet fly into the South Tower and what they witnessed as people jumped from the buildings.
"I tried calling into my newsroom on my Blackberry," Eddings said "but cell phone service was terrible, couldn鈥檛 get through. So, I started looking for a pay phone. This is really dating us! And I found a pay phone, right at the corner of Church and Vesey, which, if you know the World Trade Center complex, that鈥檚 right at the northeast corner of that giant, 16-acre complex. So, very, very close."
"I got on the pay phone and I actually called NPR, down in Washington, D.C. I called the producers of 鈥淢orning Edition.鈥� They put me on hold. While I was waiting, a police officer came by and said, get out of here. I said, okay, I鈥檓 going, and I stayed. Waiting, waiting, waiting. He circled back and the officer said, if you don鈥檛 leave now, I鈥檓 going to take your press pass. Just at that moment, the producer of 鈥淢orning Edition鈥� came on and said, 鈥淥kay, we鈥檙e going to put you through now.鈥� And I said, 鈥淚 gotta go,鈥� and I hung up."
"And I started walking north, looking for a pay phone and of course, there were 10, 15 people at each one. And I finally gave up, walked to the station, which was in a city-owned building. It was being evacuated. And they weren鈥檛 going to let me in. But WNYC鈥檚 president at the time, Laura Walker, saw me and grabbed me by the arm and said to the security guards, 'She鈥檚 with me.' We went up in the elevator to the WNYC studios and saw on one of the TV screens there the South Tower coming down. And I had this moment when I thought, 'A lot of people just died.'"
At that moment, Meyer was 12 miles away in Newark, New Jersey. "I had arrived just outside of the station at WBGO, which is just down the block from the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. If you stand on the lawn in front of NJPAC, you have a clear line of sight to Lower Manhattan. And at that point, one of the towers was gone! And I was starting to talk to people and I came up to one gentleman. And his face was just absolutely pure white. And he very quickly shared with me, his wife goes through the World Trade Center on her way to work every day. And their child鈥檚 day care was in the base of the World Trade Center. He was frantically trying to get through to her."
"There are these moments, when you鈥檙e a reporter, you have to make a choice. What should I really be doing in the moment? I put my mic down, I put my recorder down. I said to him, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 her phone number?鈥� And for I don鈥檛 know how long. Five minutes, ten minutes. We kept trying to dial over and over and over again to get through to her. We never did. I have to this day no idea whether or not his wife was okay, his child was okay. I have no idea whatever happened."
Eddings says it鈥檚 that kind of stuff that haunts her to this day: feeling like she could have done more.
Meyer continued. "I wouldn鈥檛 say it took away that instinct to rush to a story. But I certainly have a little more common sense in considering when I鈥檓 in a situation which might be a little dicey 鈥� and I鈥檝e been in plenty of those since then 鈥� just how to make sure that I鈥檓 protecting myself at the same time. Nine Eleven wasn鈥檛 just a day. It鈥檚 been 20 years of involvement in Afghanistan as a result of 9/11. I鈥檓 not sure there鈥檚 an end point for 9/11. I think it鈥檚 something that, not just you and me, but I think this country is going to be dealing with."
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