NEW YORK, NY. (NEWS1130) - Abbotsford's Jay Nevin and his sister watched the tragedy unfold from the rooftop of an apartment building in Greenwich Village. Thy pair had visited the twin towers less than 24 hours before the terrorist attacks.
"I took photos first with two towers, then with one tower and then one with no tower."
He says the catastrophic event made the city that never sleeps eerily silent. "There were no taxi cabs, no horns, no buzz of humanity, just people walking along like zombies and in shock."
Nevin adds within a couple of hours staff at a nearby hospital were waiting to treat hundreds of casualties and there was also a line-up of people ready to donate blood if needed.
"There was no thought of crime. The city literally came to a standstill. The one part that didn't was the constant drone of sirens."
He explains there is one thing he'll never forget about his visit.
"The shear size of those buildings when we went up there, and not just the height, everybody thinks about the height but the bill of structure that tall, the footprints are incredible. It would take you five or 10 minutes just to walk around the base of those. Monday afternoon they were there and we were in them and then Tuesday afternoon they were gone. And it's just incomprehensible."
News1130 on Sept. 11
September 11th is one of those days everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when news broke of the terrorist attacks.
News1130 Morning Show Anchor Dianne Newman was live on the air during 9/11. "I remember it being a defining moment for the entire world. The world changed on that day."
She says the confusion hit as soon as she looked up at the television and saw smoke billowing from the World Trade Centre.
"When the first tower was on fire it looked like an accident. But when the second tower was hit it was deliberate and that changed everything," she says. "Then all of a sudden there was another plane crash in a field in Pennsylvania, and then a plane crashed into the Pentagon, and that just created so much uncertainty. Nobody knew what was happening."
Newman adds the assassination of JFK has also stood out in her memory. "It was a day that lived in my mind as a defining moment in history; 9/11 was the same."