Mrs.

Laurie-Ann Wyse

ENGL 400A British Literature A 18-19

22 January 2018

The Unforgettable Attack

Andrew left early for work this morning, as he said that he had a lot of work and

wanted to get it done. Usually he would leave for work at 9 am but this morning

he left at 7:30 am. Only, if he did not leave this early then this would not have

happened to him. Anyways, after Andrew left for work, I woke up our kids to get

them ready for their preschool. It was about 8:30 when I got all the three kids

strapped in the car and we were ready to leave. As we were driving my eldest

son, Alex said that he could see smoke coming out of the big tower which was

the World Trade Center. I quickly pulled the car to the side and took a moment to

look at the huge amount of smoke coming out of the World Trade Center. As

shocked as I was I quickly opened the news on my phone and was surprised to

see that an article was up about it already. It read that the pilot had fallen asleep

and the plane accidently crashed into the World Trade Center. The World Trade

Center was the place that Andrew worked at and as far as I remember he worked

at one of the top floors and that is where the plane had crashed. Even though,

my heart was about to break, I drove to the World Trade Center which was only

fifteen minutes away from where I was. As, soon as I reached I heard that

another plane had crashed the South tower and the one before had crashed into

the north tower. The first attack, yeah attack not an accident, was at about 8:46

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 am and the one that happened right before I arrived was at 9:03 am. Apparently,

the plane was hijacked by an Afghani group called Al-Qaeda which everybody

knew was led by their leader who is Osama bin Laden. There were nineteen men

who had hijacked four domestic American planes. After, hearing the whole story

from an officer that I ran into, I quickly ran to the entrance of the World Trade

Center. However, the police officers would not let anyone in as it was quite

dangerous because of the huge fire that had now started at the top. The officers

assured me that they will find Andrew as firefighters were already in the building

and searching for survivors. I saw my surrounding and could see hundreds of

people running around like crazy, some wounded and some looking for their

loved ones. Near the World Trade Center building was a group of reporters from

every single channel like BBC and CNN. They were filming the whole attack so

that people far away could also see it live. I heard that people from other

countries were watching on television as the second plane crashed and were

crying and praying for America and its citizens. After a little while the doctor

assistants were going around and giving everybody face masks to protect people

from the toxic air because the smoky air was not good for our health. I took a

mask for myself and for my three children. As, I went to see my children that

were waiting in the car all the people were being told to clear the area as they

were expecting the buildings to fall anytime now and because the area was not

safe anymore. It was hard to leave as Andrew was not found yet but I had no

choice. Soon after I left the World Trade Center building collapsed down and

even damaged a few other buildings along with it. After a long day, I went back

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 home and opened the news, the attack news was everywhere. I read one of the

articles which named all the survivors from the attack in the World Trade Center.

I quickly opened that file and searched for Andrew’s name. That document was

about five pages long with hundreds of names, I could not find Andrew’s name

until I reached the last page, where his name was one of the last names. The

article said that most of these survivors may be at the hospital which is about a 5

minutes’ drive from my house. It was about 10pm that I read this article, I knew it

was late but I still went to the hospital. I went to the emergency center where the

patients from the attack were. I saw Andrew right at the back in the emergency

room, as soon as I saw him I ran to him and got tears in my eyes because one of

his legs was broken but I was happy to see that he was alive. At that moment, he

was unconscious and the doctor came and asked me if I was Andrew’s guardian.

After replying yes, the doctor told me that because the building fell on Andrew his

leg bone broke. The doctor told me to be happy that he is even alive and that it is

a miracle that he did not die after the building collapsed on him. I knew at that

moment that God was with us in this terrible time and that he had saved Andrew

from dying. The doctor told me that Andrew was one of the last people to be

found and he was pressed under a whole floor but since he was still slightly

breathing the firefighters decided to take him out. The doctor also mentioned that

he had burns on his hand because of the huge fire that got started in the building

after the first crash. The smoke from that fire can still be seen and if I predict it

may take 3 months to go away. On the night of 9/11, President Bush gave a

speech to lift up everybody’s mood and to remind the citizens of America that

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 they are strong and that a terrorist attack cannot break America apart. President

Bush also outlined that their top priority was treating the injured and helping all

that were in need. There was a rumour that after the 9/11 President Bush’s rating

went up because of how involved he was in helping the nation come back

together. Near Andrew’s bed was a television that showed how many people had

dies today because of the attack. It was estimated that a total of 2,977 people

were killed in New York. I have never heard of so many deaths before, now I just

pray that God be with America like he has.

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Citation

Bergen, Peter L. “September 11 Attacks.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia

Britannica, Inc., 15 Nov. 2018, www.britannica.com/event/September-11-attacks

“September 11 Terror Attacks Fast Facts.” CNN, Cable News Network, 4 Sept. 2018,

edition.cnn.com/2013/07/27/us/september-11-anniversary-fast-facts/index.html.