09/12/2026
This a memory Jean-Jacques wrote about his Setember 11, 2001.
Someone ask me about 9/11
I don't live i NYC anymore so it over.
Deb wake me up at around 9h15,saying some problem at WTC on TV.
get up and can see on TV one of the building is on fire.
Go out to the roof(at the time living on 35 street and Lex and perfect view of downtown)
At this point the sky was perfect blue(happen 2 or 3 times a year)
My vision of downtown is unbelievable and know i can see 2 buildings on fire.
go back to the apartment and see one building collapsing.
Deborah is dress and ready to go working and explain her what i think is
happening:
Fast answer from Deb:
Better I rush, if not this " bastard" is closing down the subway.
I tell her i will call to let her know what is going on. Service was spotty (in the next hour no cell phone/internet. Service was out.(antenna was located on top of WTC that collapsed)
I start calling my friend to see if anyone they knew was downtown to put eyes on it for me, but nobody was! Lucky Thought! I was working in WTC.
in May 2001 for Euro-Trader to set up their cafeteria kitchen, so I used my work pass to get past all the police blockades. Watching more updates on TV and saw downtown was closed at Canal street.
Decided to bike all the way down to see was going on, at least try.
Biking is always part of my life and still is.
Took Broadway all the way to 23rd Street ,turned left to the East River where now exists a pathway called the East River Green Way,
I pasted over the Williamsburg Bridge, no trace of any police, just riding to check out Brooklyn Bridge where i can see thousands of peoples walking outside of the city.(learned later the subway was closed)
i past a street sweeper refueling of water and the driver was crying and screamed, "We got Attacked!
I turn right on John Street, Now it was 3pm, the weather was beautiful,the sky was so blue!
more i was riding toward the site, everything was cover with grey powder, like a dirty snow. It was a movie set, not the downtown I recognized it
All I can see is smoke raising into the sky that eventually created a this dense smoke cover
I tried calling Dede to give her the update. For every call that went through, I tried 10 times before.
My last call was to my friend who is a trauma surgeon to see if he was coming to NYC for helping hospital,
His Quick answer: There will be no survivors!
Now was on Dey Street, on my right side i can see two persons walking with they blue jacket and the yellow letter of F.B.I. with the rest of W.T.C. in the backdrop.
My eyes and nose were burning .
i decided make my way back uptown.
Passing Vesey street was lines of refrigerated trucks. I assume waiting for bodies.
Thursday i was on 23rd & Lex, walking home, I'm watching swarms of people in front of the Armory, posting pictures of their love one. It resembled an open arena of Zombie looking people that haven't slept in days hoping to hear info on their loved ones. I found out the mayor mandated all who lost someone to meet at the Armory on 26th Street. THIS was really one of the most shocking moment of my life.
The Saturday, my friends, Melissa & Eddie, got married in Brooklyn and a friend gave us a ride back to Manhattan and decided to check in on in his apartment. With his drivers license explaining he lived on Gold St.
he was cleared to pass through the barracades. We got stopped 3 times within 4 blocks of what looked like a war zone...terrifying . Flattened cars piled on top of each other.
3 month later, I woke up in the middle of the night for bathroom, I heard a plane flying on top of my apartment, the same terrifying fear I felt that day went through me like a lightening bolt.
I will never forgot.
Or may be the reason I moved to Oregon subconsciously .
