Most days I listen to NPR while I drive to work. I had been listening for a few minutes when they announced that reports were coming in that a small plane may have crashed into the WTC. I remember thinking, 'gee, that sucks'. I arrived at work just as they were starting to get confirmation that a plane did crash, and that it was not a small plane. The first hints that something big was happening.
Got to work and asked my co-workers if they had heard anything about it. None had. I fired up CNN on a TV in our office, just in time to witness the second plane crashing. Needless to say, we were all speechless. My manager immediately left to inform upper management of the situation. The word spread quickly among our 200+ employees (most of which do not really have access to the outside world at work) and within an hour we had a couple of TV's set up in the various breakrooms for people to watch & learn what was going on. When the Pentagon got hit, tensions really increased. At that point, everyone knew that this was a day we wouldn't soon forget. We spent most of the morning glued to CNN.
As the magnitude of the situation was just starting to really sink in, the rumors and 'local affects' started happening. That made it all worse, and on a much more personal level for everyone. The price of gas doubled in my town over lunch. I ran out to grab a sandwich for lunch, and the gas stations and grocery store looked like something out of an apocalyptic movie; long lines, police controlling traffic, some stations out of gas, etc. It was insane and scary. And the knowledge of that just made everyone even more nervous as to what would happen next. There were so many employees at my business that were freaking out that they let people go home early if they wanted. Many did.
I've never seen or felt an amount of public panic like that. I hope I never do again.
