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Fellow Rotarians,

I would like to share with you my own experience of the great tragedy in New York City on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, a date that will be remembered forever.  

I was downtown on jury duty and I was sent home at 10:00 AM, because of the World Trade Center Explosions. On my way home, at Franklin Street and Broadway I saw scared people running away when the first tower crumbled. We were three quarters of a mile from the World Trade Center (WTC). The subway was closed, so I had to walk home. When I came to the intersection of Prince Street and Wooster Street in Soho, 1.2 miles from the WTC, I saw the second tower crumble in front of my eyes. I stood next to a TV camera from NBC that recorded the catastrophe. You can find a street map showing the location of the World Trade Center and the locations where I was when each tower fell down.  

It felt like being in a terror movie. It was real and unreal at the same time. People looked scared, people were crying. They could not use their cell phones, so they lined up at pay phones to find out about their loved ones. People with Walkmans reported the latest news. People in cars played their radios loud, with people around them listening. There were police, ambulance and fire truck sirens non-stop. 

I spoke to a man, who worked in the building next to the WTC. The windows crashed in his office at the first explosion. The second explosion came when he was outside the building with derbies falling over him.  

50,000 people normally work at the WTC. I don't believe that everybody had entered the building at the time of the explosion, but it is still possible that 20-30,000 may have perished.  

I will let you know what has happened to our Rotarians as soon as I find out. I know that at least one of our member's offices was in the World Trade Center. He is still missing. 

During the day, I was busy with the PTA website at my son's school, helping parents with stranded children  

I went outside later in the evening. It was very quiet, hardly any traffic, very few people. One man, selling ice cream across the street from my home, told me that he saw the first plane pass our neighborhood in Greenwich Village at a very low altitude. Shortly thereafter, he heard the explosion from the World Trade Center. 

The explosions at the World Trade Center have generated great emotions among us Rotarians. I have enclosed letters that I received from caring Rotarians.  

We plan to provide additional information at our website www.rotaryclubhistory.org/ and at the website of the Rotary Club of New York at www.newyorkcityrotary.org/. 

Rotary is a great fellowship! 

Matts Ingemanson

Editor “Rotaryclubhistory.org”

ICO, Rotary Club of New York (NY6)