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Saxywildcat
Member
05-30-2005
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 6:31 am
I thought that with today being the 5th anniversary of 9/11, it'd be interesting to see where everyone was when they heard about the news? What were you doing? I was a sophomore at Kansas State U. I had an 8 o'clock class, and then a 9:30. My 8 had barely started when the first plane crashed. I went through my entire first class without ever hearing anything! Then, I bike over to my 9:30 class and I walk in and everyone seems to be in shock and they are talking about something. I sat down next to a friend from band and asked him what on earth happened. Ray tells me that two planes had flown into the World Trade Center. I don't remember if a building had collapsed by then or not, but it was so unreal. My 9:30 class was Human Development and we spend most of the time using what happened to discuss what can happen to these people to make them want to do something like this. That whole week was crazy. We didn't have normal marching band rehearsals. In fact, our football game for that Saturday was postponed. I dyed my hair purple that week as well. It really is hard to believe that it's been five years already. That means that coming up in November, it will have been 5 years since I first called my birth mother. Wow.
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Ginger1218
Member
08-31-2001
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 6:38 am
I posted this elsewhere, but will put it here too I was already in work on 9/11/01, I had gotten there at 6:45am. I work a block away from Grand Central Station on the 44th Floor. I was complaining that it was going to be a bad day because we lost some work and we were going crazy looking for it. Then one of my co-workers called from a train en route from NJ. She said a small plane hit the WTC. I ran to the conference room and looked out the window, - being so high up it looked like it was across the street. I saw this huge hole in the side of the WTC. I went back to my office and then heard that it was a commercial airliner. We all were still thinking it was an accident. I went back to the conference room window and saw an explosion (the second plane came from the south and I was facing from north) and didn't realize it was another plane, and stupidly thought that the fire from the first building somehow affected the second building. (I was tired and stupid I guess) I ran back to my office and found out it was another plane and then we knew - we knew we were under attack. The phones started to go out sporadically, and then they told us they were evacuating my building. I was able to get down in the elevator - and all I could think of was to get to my sister's office and we would get home together. She worked on 14th St. and 7th Ave. closer downtown. When I left my building (others walked home across the bridges) because all traffic out of Manhattan was closed) no trains, buses, tunnels, bridges closed) - it was a panicky feeling. Strangely a man was getting out of a taxi in front of my building and other people were trying to get in, I just walked in the cab) and we proceeded to my sister's office) - I got as far as 14th St. and 7th Avenue and then everyone was staring up in horror - it looked like the old Japanese horror films with Godzilla and people staring in horror and screaming. I ran the rest of the way. We huddled in my sister's office crying - I couldn't get in touch with my boyfriend, phones were not working (cell especially) regular landlines on and off) and after 5 hours they opened the Midtown Tunnel and one of my sister's coworkers drove 5 of us home. We passed army trucks and uniformed soldiers with machine guns in the city. I never saw that before here. It was horrific. It took us almost 5 hours to get home. We were in shock. One thing - on the way home we really had to use a bathroom, we stopped at a gas station and they would not let us use the bathroom, I was furious - I would never use that station again. I saw the workers there smiling at the TV - they were happy. I lost a friend - she was one of the first bodies discovered - and a family friend's son who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald - his body was never found. Please stay safe today everyone.
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 7:15 am
OMG, Ginger....how sad. I would like to drive my car into that gas station. (sorry, but I would) A month prior to 9/11, while my friend was in NY, I had a dream that we were picnicing in a large park, but in my dream I knew we were in NYC. I have never been to NYC as I live in CA. As we were visiting and talking they sky went dark and there were huge explosions, the sky filled with smoke and fire, and people everywhere were running and screaming. I knew someone had done something terrible downtown and I knew people were dying. I knew someone was responsible for it and I knew it was done out of hate and evil. All of this from a dream. Then, a month later to the day... I couldn't sleep that night. I wasn't working at the time, and my sleep schedule was all backwards, so I went into my mom's room (I was 20 and still living at home as my fiance (now DH) was in the marine corps). I crawled in bed next to my mom and she was watching CHiPs, and we were laughing at Eric Estrada's pants when the phone range. It was my Gramma and she asked if we were watching TV, my mom replied "yes" and my gramma asked what she thought. MY mom told her that she though Eric Estrada's Pants were too tight to ride the motorcycle. Frustrated my gramma said to put it on the news and my mom changed the channel. All we saw was a building smoking, and it took us a minute or two to figure out what building it was. Then it showed both buildings and we realized it was the twin towers. Wow, what was happening? At first, we too thought it was an accident, and then as we watched in shock the other plane flew into the other tower. I screamed "did you see that?" my mom nodded and said "this is no accident" tears began to form and I just kept saying "oh my god" over and over and my mom began to pray. I immediately called DH, and when he answered the phone, instead of saying hello, he said "I can't talk about what is going on, I have to get to formation, but I'll call you when I can" and he hung up the phone. So the military was on alert immediately. They knew exactly what was going on while the rest of the world thought it was an accident. My friend had been in NY city the month prior and showed me pictures of herself at the WTC's. I went over to her house (which was next door) still in my PJs and when she opened the door, not awake yet, I told her to turn on the TV and she did. She was horrified and said "I was just there, I was just standing right there, I just walked down that road where those people are running" Then we got news of the pentagon and the plane in Penn. I will never forget how I felt that morning, how horrified I was, the sorrow, the anxiety, the fear, and most of all the anger....
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Nancy
Member
08-01-2000
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 7:24 am
I was staying in a hotel in new york(on my first trip ever to new york city) to celebrate my birthday. I had gotten up around 830 or so as i had planned on taking a bus tour of the city(which would have take us to the wtc) but had overslept. I did not have the tv on so had not heard anything at all. As I got on the elevator, a couple of workers were on there as well, I heard them comment on being on the roof and seeing all the smoke but not really knowing anything i had no idea to what they were referring. In the lobby, the t.v. was on and a heard about the first plane hitting. still not all that concerned yet, I got on the bus to go on the tour where, the driver mentioned our tour would be a little different as some roads were blocked. after the second plane attack we stopped the tour and came back to the hotel. I remember trying to reach my family to let them know i was ok(being a single person alone in new york) finally reached them around 1pmish. Then i found a cyber cafe and emailed my boss at work and got online to post HERE at tcvh that i was ok as well. It was such a strange experiance, and today also being my birthday, seemed so weird to be celebrating it as well each year after(particularly in 2002).
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Kaili
Member
08-31-2000
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 7:46 am
You know what's interesting to do, especially if you've been here a long time? Go to the archives and read through that day...I did it about a year ago. Weird read- very raw & emotional. I was in college at the time- it was the first day of the new year/semester but I didn't have class until 11-something so I was up and watching the news in the morning. I called my mom because she doesn't watch TV and gets her newspaper in the mail a day late. It was a beautiful, sunny day (unlike today which is cool and rainy). In between I was here on TVCH- I don't think I posted much though. I don't remember. Sometimes still I think I post a lot more than I do because I'm always here reading. Anyway... I parked my car at school (south end of the stadium lot) but stood with the door open listening to NPR for awhile and watching people walk by. I was near dorms and wondered how many of the "kids" had a clue what was going on because they looked like they rolled out of bed and out the door to go to class. I went to my class even though I didn't want to. It was a computer class so no one did much excpet read news online. Then I had a Russian History class and the professor, who had just moved from Greece, mostly talked withn us about international relations and foreign views of the US. I really don't know what happened the rest of the day because I was kind of in a daze. I suppose I probably watched a lot of news. (Happy b-day Nancy)
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Babyruth
Member
07-19-2001
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 7:49 am
Can anyone post a link to those specific archives?
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Kaili
Member
08-31-2000
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 7:54 am
I'm trying to figure it out- I got the Aug-Dec 2001 General Discussions one open now but I think I need News & Views. I was just looking at a thread called 'Soaring Gas Prices'... Babyruth Thursday, December 06, 2001 - 06:06 pm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arrgh- Paid $1.15/gal in Ann Arbor, MI tonite I'll keep looking....
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 7:55 am
I was at work talking to some co-worker friends about BB when one of them got a call saying a plane hit the tower so she turned on the radio and we all thought it was some kind of accident. Then the 2nd one hit and everyone just stopped and pulled out radios and mini tvs. It was so surreal. I immediately went here because I knew there would be information here even though I had not long before that joined. I remember it like it was yesterday. Everyone was afraid because we're a federal agency and then people started leaving en masse to pick up loved ones. I also left to go and get my kids who were in Elementary school. Everyone was there picking up their children.
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Kaili
Member
08-31-2000
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 7:59 am
Okay- you want this.... The War on Terrorism 2001 September - December Then save that file, extract it, and it starts here with this: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ClubHouse: Archives: OMG Check your TV NOW Plane crashed into World Trade Center: Archive 6:38am - 11:21am: Archive through September 11, 2001 Laisey Tuesday, September 11, 2001 - 05:57 am Sorry for the OT post It continues from there...lots of reading.
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Urgrace
Member
08-19-2000
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 8:04 am
Since I had to be at church for my weekly lesson, and it was my turn to bring a dish for the breakfast social before class, I didn't even have my tv on that morning. Funny thing is the radio station on in my car didn't say anything either as I drove across town. When I got to the church kitchen someone asked me if I'd heard about the Twin Towers. Since I didn't know what she was talking about I said, "Do you mean where are they?" She then told me about the plane (the first one). I thought what a tragic accident. It wasn't until I got home and turned on the television that I had any comprehension of the events. I was glued to the tv for hours, similar to when JFK died, only this time it was even more surreal and incomprehensible. The events of the day just kept building and getting worse. I was in shock and mortified for all the people directly associated in the crashes and burning buildings and even the loved ones at home getting news of their loved ones. Not long ago I was in a store at the check-out when a woman turned to me and said, "You still remember!" I was wearing one of my pins with a flag on it. My flag magnet on the car got so washed out from the sun I had to remove it. We always fly our flag on the house. Did before 911 and will until someone arrests me for it. eta: The empty skies were an everyday realization that this had happened. I'll never forget a few months later finally seeing an airliner that was being escorted by military jets!
((((((Hugs to my TVCH family))))))
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Mack
Member
07-23-2002
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 8:20 am
For my wife and I this is always, and always will be, an up close and personal time. On September 11, 2001 we were at work in the Pentagon. We were personally lucky in that neither of us was hurt in any way though we were only 500 feet from the initial point of impact and 200 feet from the exit "wound" on the C Ring. We lost a number of friends that day and have stayed away from the documentaries and recent movies. We've since even left the DC area and now live and work in Texas. Each year gets better and better but we'll never forget.
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Babyruth
Member
07-19-2001
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 8:37 am
Thank you Kaili!
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Vacanick
Member
07-12-2004
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 9:14 am
I had just got to work when the first tower was hit. All the way to work I had listened to a CD and had no idea what was happening. We had a little tv in the breakroom and everyone was huddled around it. When I first saw it I thought they were watching a movie. It was unbelieveable. I worked for a large credit card call center at the time & they immediately took us off the phones. We waited a couple hours and they let us all go home, with pay. I went home and picked up my son from kindergarten and went to my parents house. I felt the need to be near the people I loved most. That call center held a moment of silence on 09/11 for the next 2 years in rememberence. I loved that!
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Dovez
Member
08-27-2005
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 9:32 am
We were awakened by a call from our son... a freshman at NYU. They'd been called out of classes and he was standing where he could see both towers. As he was talking he saw the second plane fly into other tower. We told him to get to dorm and call us from there. Then our other line rang. It was our other son in DC at the Capitol Building worrying about welfare of other boy. As he was talking he hesitated and said that they were being evacuated as a plane was coming into DC. Seconds later on television we saw the Pentagon. It took us 8 hours to communicate with eldest son in DC. We could only reach youngest in NY via occassional emails...12 hours later.
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Chilliam
Member
09-06-2006
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 9:59 am
I live in NY and luckily I had taken the day off on 9/11/01 because I used to take the PATH train underneath the towers to work in NJ. It was a horrible day. One thing that always stands out in my mind is that about three weeks after, I was walking up 6th avenue in the Rockefeller Center area in the middle of the day on a week day and everyone was just walking in silence looking straight ahead with a dazed sad look on their faces and I thought to myself "wow, this really happened!"
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Retired
Member
07-11-2001
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 10:59 am
Wow, Mack and Chilliam. Sounds like close calls for both of you. I was home rejoicing I had just retired and didn't have to go to school. Was watching Good Morning America on a TV with rabbit ears when they broke in with the news (got great reception being in NJ). Then the TV went out so had to go into the other room and watch the coverage on cable. My sister lives in the Village and was hysterical but I was able to reach her. Was a very surreal day for sure. At the same time this was all happening, my downstairs neighbor of 33 yrs. was sick and delirious. We neighbors finally talked her into going to the hospital via the rescue squad to get checked out. She died 4 days later of septic shock....very unexpected. A former student of mine died at the WTC and I know people who know people, etc. My heart goes out to all affected. I also came here for news and comfort. Thanks for the link, Kaili. It's surprisingly how much the weather today in NJ is like it was 5 yrs. ago.
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Babyruth
Member
07-19-2001
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 11:13 am
I was at work, in a meeting that began at 8 AM. We left the room for a break at 9 AM and found nobody at their desks...they were all huddled in groups around radios in the cubicles that had them. Nobody was speaking--they were all listening intently and in shock. Then someone told us what was going on. One of my coworkers immediately grabbed her purse and headed for the parking lot...her daughter worked in a building across from WTC, and my coworker was heading home to try spend the rest of the day trying to reach her by phone and email. (She eventually did reach her and she was physically OK). Like most of my coworkers, I went straight home. Ms Sweetpea stayed at work but kept in touch by phone. I turned on the news. Also turned on the computer and came to TVCH, which like the TV, I stayed tuned in to all day. Called my family members to see if anyone knew if my older brother was supposed to be in Manhattan that day for work. He was not. Thought of my other friends in NYC. Like much of the world, I watched the TV, horrified and in shock as the events of the morning unfolded.
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Schoolmarm
Member
02-18-2001
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 11:16 am
It was the first day of teaching for my fantastic music methods class. I turned the TV off just as the Special Report came on, and had the local radio station on while driving the three blocks to school. I was clueless, and set up the morning classes. My university students knew about the first plane hitting and didn't say anything. After teaching for 2 hours, and we were putting the room back, one student asked about whether I had heard about it and what do you do if you are the "real teacher". I related the story of what I was doing when Challenger exploded and my class was late and crying because they had watched it. I told them about the Indiana University performance of the Britten "War Requiem" that was schedule on the day of the Oklahoma City bombing and that, at the time of the performance, we thought that WE would be going to war. I reassured my students that nothing would happen to us in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania. Famous last words. Then I went home and discovered that my phone didn't work. Shanksville is two hours south of where I lived. I believe that I spent much of the next several days transcribing the local news here at TVCH. My fabulous students now are REAL teachers and I hope that they don't have to deal with a day as tragic as 9/11/2001.
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Gradstudent
Member
07-10-2005
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 12:56 pm
I lived near Baltimore, Maryland on 9/11/01. I was having a lazy day and was sitting on the sofa doing homework (still in my pajamas) with the TV going in the background. I glanced up as Katie Couric was talking on her morning show, and noticed that it was almost time for it to be over. Just a minute later, she mentioned the breaking news that a small plane had crashed into the North Tower - and they were all speculating on how that could have happened. The TV had my full attention then, and I saw the second plane coming across the screen. I guess my brain just couldn't adjust to what was happening, though, because I remember thinking - "Wow, those guys are good. They already have a re-enactment of the crash ready to show us." I'll bet it took a full three minutes for it to sink in that it was in fact another plane hitting the second tower. (Even with the people on TV in shock and talking about what was happening.) Then I got a call from one of the ladies at church. One of the other ladies who I visited often was down in DC having her baby and she could see the fire and smoke from the Pentagon out the window during her delivery. The hospital would not allow any visitors, so she went through the birth with no family with her. Later, she said that she was so terrified while watching all that smoke... When the plane went down in Shanksville - which was about an hour away - I was just numb. I lived about 2 miles away from the National Security Agency and was certain that it was going to be next. We later found out that several of the hijackers had lived in our area for a time, with one of them being the next door neighbor of a family on our church. (They were all questioned heavily by the FBI and other officials.) Those were frightening times. I know I will never forget. I'm sure no one will.
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Maris
Member
03-28-2002
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 1:35 pm
As I got off the elevator at work a coworker he just saw a a plane fly overhead low over our roof and it crashed into the World Trade Center. At that moment the phone rang and it was my husband, he worked across the street from the World Trade Cener and he told me the same thing and that he saw a piece of the plane crash against his building and land on a truck, it smashed the truck. People were scrambling to get the guy out of the truck, all strangers but working to get the guy out. We gathered in a conference room, turned on the tv and at the same time looked out the window and we could see the smoke billowing out of one of the towers. I was on the phone with my husband and it was chaos, he was watching people jumping out of the towers, a lingering memory for him was of a woman in a white suit. His own building staff were on the intercom telling everyone to stay put, not to move. The second plane crashed, that is when you could hear the intercom and someone screaming get out of the building now. He hung up and I went back to watching the tv. About fifteen minutes after I spoke with him the tower fell, we didn’t realize it because all we saw was smoke. There was smoke everywhere, and a white dust in the air which lasted what seems like weeks but was probably only a week. Our phones went out, we had no way of contacting anyone, our cellphones went out too. I had no way of knowing whether my husband got far enough away fast enough to get out of the path of the falling tower. Meanwhile back in queens, where I live, my sister had enough presence to run over to the grammar school and take my son out, all the other parents who could did the same thing, the children were brought home. My son was 9 at the time so he didn’t really understand the magnitude of what happened other than nobody knew where anybody was. He went to his grandmothers house. By two oclock the subways were in service and I walked up to 34th street (looked up and ran a bit as did everyone else as we approached the empire state building, every building was a potential death threat), we got on the train and every single person on that train held their breath as the train went through the the tunnel under the east river. It was the scariest ride of my life. I sttill hadn’t heard anything from my husband. At six o clock that night he came limping in the door, he had walked from the World Trade Center home, he had gotten four blocks when the tower collapsed and he said they heard the roar and they just ran down church street as fast as they could. The most he suffered from the experience was an injured foot which laid him up for two weeks. He ended up working from home for 9 months till his building was cleaned out and repaired. It didn’t just end there, that night we heard that a school friend of my husband’s who was a chief at the fire department died. One of my closest friends cousin died, a guy who I grew to know over the years because he never missed one of the boys soccer games. A fiancée of a friend of mine also died, he was a firefighter. The latter two were missing and all the found of one of them was his credit card. I turned on the tv and saw a friend of mine holidng up a picture of a missing relative. I worked in a bank on a trading floor for many years and I got to know the Cantor Traders, all of them jokesters and it is hard to believe that they are all gone. There are things from that day that will always be clear as anything, one was that taste in my mouth that I had for two weeks, a metallic taste, horrible. Another was the endless ambulances we saw for weeks on end, which were preceded by a fire truck as they drove by our building to go to the ME’s office, you knew they contained someone or a part of someone. The block would stand still when those ambulances went by, some people would salute. My son wouldn’t sleep in his bed for a month afterwards, probably because his bed was next to the window which looked out to the city skyline and the smoke lingered in the distance for days. It was another clear day in New York today, crisp, bright blue and September 11, 2001 is as vivid to me today as it was then and today was a hard day for me.
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 1:40 pm
I work in an elementary school close to Ft. Hood and a majority of our kids are military kids. The kids were in classes and I remember being called to the office and informed that we were going on immediate lockdown. We didn't know what happened at first, but we did go all out getting that school secure. I remember the internet being slow as all get out and we couldn't get to cnn or msnbc. I finally went into the library and hooked one of the tv's up to the cable that we used to record reading rainbow. All staff that did not have kids were gathered around that tv wondering how we were going to tell the kids (Pre-K to 4th Grade). Of course they knew something was up because of the lockdown, but we had had drills, and at that point they weren't sure if it was another drill. We finally got some direction on what and how to tell the children, and parents started coming in to pick their kids up. At that point all of my kids had cell phones and had all called me at least once asking if I knew what was going on. I remember picking up the phone to call my mother instinctively before remembering that she'd died a couple of weeks before. Wow, so many pop memories of that day ...
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Cindori
Member
07-25-2003
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 1:52 pm
I was far away from home, and I was afraid. I boarded an airplane for the first time two days prior, and due to the events of that day I was unable to fly home as scheduled. Where I was and my fear, confusion, . . everything surrounding it pales in comparison to the WTC, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon. On my way home, I drove near NYC and could see the smoke . . and the freeway heading into downtown was deserted . . . it was surreal. But on that road trip, it was like everyone I encountered was traveling together. Everyone was bonding, strangers were nicer. There weren't many smiles, but there was unity. Where I was wasn't important. I didn't lose anyone that I knew personally, but I was personally affected, like most of us were. My mom thinks that the events of the day need to be reshown so that no one forgets. I understand what she means, in a way, but I don't need that to remember - and I don't want to see it. It still hurts too much. I can't watch it. I remember it. I remember how it felt, vividly. Throughout today I've paused a few times to remember those that were lost. I know I'll never forget.
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Twiggyish
Member
08-14-2000
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 1:55 pm
Thank you all for sharing.
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 2:08 pm
I know what you mean about the roads being deserted. After the events of that day, my mom and I drove to Chico to pick up a TV she had bought. It was a gloomy day, kind of overcast. It hung like sadness over the horizon. There was barely anyone on the road that day and all my classes had been cancelled.
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Vacanick
Member
07-12-2004
| Monday, September 11, 2006 - 2:16 pm
AS OF MOST RECENT DATABASE UPDATE, 08/08/2004 1:26:29 AM: CONFIRMED DEAD: 2948 REPORTED DEAD: 24 REPORTED MISSING: 24 TOTAL: 2996 Today we must remember! Thank you so much for sharing your stories!
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