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Isabel
Brum woke up on that sunny Tuesday morning like she did every work day. She put
on her work suit for TwinLab in Hauppauge, made a cup of coffee and a piece of
toast with butter, and watched the morning news.
As she
was about to leave, the first plane hit.
She stood
there, staring at the TV in disbelief.
“Oh my
God. How could this happen?” she said.
But she
couldn’t stay home. She had to make her way to work. At the same time, the
first responders were rushing to the scene. The Fire Department of New York, the
New York Police Department, the Port Authority Police Department, and the
Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management all going to the World Trade
Center.
When she
arrived at work, Isabel went to the lunchroom to put her lunch away. In the
lunchroom was a TV, showing the north tower engulfed in black smoke. As she was
about to leave the lunchroom to start working, the second plane hit.
At that
point, Isabel knew this wasn’t an accident.
“When the
second plane hit, I knew, and pretty much everyone knew, that something was up.
Things like this never happen. This has to be a planned attack,” she said.
But she
couldn’t stay in the lunchroom and continue watching. She had to do work.
She
didn’t work on the same floor as the lunchroom, but she would try to peek in
there whenever she had the chance to watch the TV showing the devastating
events happening only 60 miles away.
When it
was time for a lunch break, everyone in the facility went to the lunchroom to
watch the TV. “No one was really even eating their lunch,” Isabel said.
“Everyone was just staring at the TV, shocked that all of this was happening.”
Meanwhile,
her husband Celso, working at a sewer plant in Port Jefferson, found out what
was happening on the radio.
“A guy I
was working with was listening to the radio and heard that the first tower went
down, and he rushed to tell everyone. We all stopped working to listen to the
radio,” he said.
As they listened,
the second tower collapsed. They stood there helpless and afraid. But they
continued working.
Throughout
the day, volunteers and first responders from all the towns nearby went to the
site to help search for survivors. The expressways were closed to allow
firefighters and policemen quick access.
In
Brazil, Isabel’s sister, Vera Carneiro, was desperately trying to call her
family in New York to see if they were alright and to find out more about
what’s going on. Her relatives in Brazil were giving her strange looks because
they didn’t understand the severity of what was happening.
In the
days after the attacks, there were so many questions on everyone’s mind.
“I would
think that that area was an air space that no one was allowed to go. How could
this have happened? You know, when someone dies from being sick or in a car
accident, you know it’s possible. But with that, you just can’t believe it. It
makes you feel numb,” she said.
Many
people around the country and around the world were watching and listening. A
lot of those people doing so while they were working. They stopped so they
could fully take in and understand what was happening before their eyes. But
they had to continue working.
And, yes,
almost everything in and around the city was shutdown. Almost everything stopped.
But after a few days, people went back to work.
They went back to work to show everyone that they are going to bounce back from this tragic event and be stronger than ever.
End Notes
Interview with Isabel and Celso Brum on 10/26/13 and 10/29/13
(2004). The 9/11 commission report: Final report of the national commission on terrorist attacks upon the united states (9/11 report) (Y 3.2:T 27/2/FINAL). Retrieved from Featured Commission Publications website: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/pagedetails.action?granuleId=&packageId=GPO-911REPORT&fromBrowse=true
9/11 interactive timelines. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://timeline.national911memorial.org/
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