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I was in Manhattan. When I received a call about what was happening, I went into full panic mode. I tried to call all of my family. My mother works on Wall Street which is a few blocks away from the Twin Towers. My younger sister works on the West Side near the Empire State Building. My youngest sisters works in midtown near the United Nations. Fortunately, my mother and youngest sister had never left their homes. They didn't need to be a work until later. When they saw the news, they stayed home. My younger sister was at work. It seemed to take forever to get in touch with all of them.
My sister walked from the West 30's to Rockefeller Center where she used to work to Grand Central Station in an attempt to get home. That wasn't working so she walked to get to me. When she was near the UN, she encountered what could only be described as hundreds of people running screaming, "They're attacking the UN!" She thought that she would be trampled. I waited for her staring out of the window. I saw what looked like throngs of refugees that you see in a war torn country on the news. I was never so relieved to see anyone as I was to see my sister. She was terrified. She has never been the same. I somehow managed to get her into a cab and get her home.
The people flooded the streets of Manhattan for hours. I don't mean the sidewalks either. I mean the streets because the sidewalk wasn't big enough to handle all of these people. Suddenly at two o'clock, there was silence. There were no more sirens of firetrucks and ambulences and no more people. The only thing that I could hear was the sound of jet fighters in the sky.
The next few days were horrible. Most of my friends and neighbors were safe. Sadly, not all of them. Several of my neighbors who were firefighters were murdered. I knew one of them; he was only 23 years old.
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