Below is an excerpt from my friend Nicole's journal during the days that followed. She was working at the World Financial Center across the street from the Tower's and watched the whole thing out her office window (including the 2nd plane strike) before fleeing in a panic herself. She was nice enough to share this with me this year and I got permission to share it with you! ".....I seriously could not believe my eyes. the fire was huge. it looked like about the 80th floor and up was on fire. i figured it was some type of gas equipment inside the building that had exploded and caught to other parts of the building and it had spread quickly. there was huge black smoke just billowing out... i remember looking at Terry in the most serious way when we were in the conference room and saying THERE ARE PEOPLE DIEING UP THERE........i felt so helpless, there was nothing i could do but Terry also pointed out that it was early enough that she hoped maybe people were not at work yet. i almost started crying when i thought about how sad it was. no one knew what was gonig on and we wondered how such an enormous fire could break out. there were no announcements coming over the Merrill Lynch system or anything. I dont think most people even knew about it at this point it was the most bizarre, unexpected, completely incomprehensible site i have ever seen in my life. the 1 WTC was huge and it was on fire, around all sides, etc...my heart was definitely racing but i just couldn't believe it. i was really worried that the fire would spread to ours and other buildings.....standing around watching this in absolute shock and total disbelief then loud screams A PLANE HAS HIT THE THE OTHER BUILDING, ANOTHER PLANE HAS HIT THE SOUTH TOWER. we were screaming and panicking. we couldn't fathom that a plane had hit the first tower but then when we saw this with our own eyes the second one hit it was all too real. this was not a joke and i didn't know when or where the next plane would hit....the terror was occurring all too quickly and at that point i seriously felt my life could be at risk. no one knew what was going on but i then ran back to my desk and grabbed my black purse from under my desk and i started running, i was booking it in my navy suit with heals wonering if i was going to live that day. the main emotions going through my mind were fear, total confusion - trying to digest too many incomprehensible things at once....initally i felt this evil feeling - that we were hated and being attacked, i felt very hopeless and out of control....mark callori was the only man with us, he was leading us off the floor and he said to anne and me YOU'VE GOTTA BE STRONG!!! he kept trying to reassure us that were were going to be okay but that we had to be strong if we were going to make it.........that probably scared me more than anything is that no one knew what to do, no one knew what was going on, etc. so we went out the back exit to the 250 vesey street exit. it was just absolute chaos. people just screaming, running no sense of order, people trying to use their cell phones and they weren't working, stuff falling everywhere....so we are literally running and the whole time we are running i kept having this thing in my head saying that these things are the signs of the times - the evil will become more evil and the righteous will become more righteous. this thought came to my mind as clear as anything and it was as if all things i had ever learned in the gospel were just flooding back to me. the only thing that brought me some peace was when i sang "I AM A CHILD OF GOD" in my head over and over. in scary moments like this, it comes down to your core beliefs and what really matters to you and what is most important...i was in a state of total chaos and disbelief but i also knew if that if it was my time to die that i had tried my very hardest to live a righteous life and although i was not perfect, i had tried to do the right things. Of course in my mind i had no idea the towers were going to fall..."
I LOVE YOU, NEW YORK.
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