I was there

By Jayme Busta: It was a beautiful day in New Jersey on Sept. 11. A co-worker and I made our trek from the hotel to our site in Jersey City. We were there the whole week to do installation of telecom equipment. Our site was right across the bay from the World Trade Center buildings, and we had a great view of them. They stood so tall and were beautiful!

While working, we heard a loud boom, which we thought came from the new building being built across the street. However, we noticed people gathering on the corner and looking back toward Manhattan. We were curious what they were looking at, so we made our way around our switch bays. What we saw was a huge hole on the side of the north tower. We heard rumors of a small plane hitting the tower, but it was apparent that it was a huge plane that struck it.

We also had a site on the 11th floor facing the Statue of Liberty. We had two employees located on that floor, and we were talking about what had happened. I remember one of them kept saying, "Damn terrorist did this." We hung up the phone, and about 10 seconds later, it rang and I could tell it was the 11th floor. When I answered, one of them just kept saying, "Second! Second!" and we realized that the second building was hit. They watched the plane come in from the south and hit the building.

At this point, we knew this was a terrorist strike. We were at a loss for what just happened. We called home to our loved ones to let them know we were OK and what was happening. The two guys from the 11th floor came down to the second floor and brought a telescope with them. I took a look at the towers and just remember the huge fires in both of them. I scanned toward the top of the building and couldn't believe all the people hanging out the windows to get fresh air. I couldn't look anymore. I was in total shock!

The second building collapsed, and we were ordered to evacuate the building. So we head back toward our hotel and noticed fighter jets in the air circling around. They were too late; the damage was done. As we got close to the corner where our hotel was, we heard a huge thunder sound. We knew the other building had collapsed. As we came around the corner, the other building was gone!

Near our hotel, they were bringing people from across the bay, to get them out of Manhattan. I remember the bewilderment and shock in all the people's faces. They set up a triage area in the parking lot to handle the injured. What surprised me was that there were not a lot of injured people. Either you made it out alive or you did not.

On Thursday, we managed to travel to the upper side of Manhattan. People were just walking around like zombies in total shock. One thing that stands out from that day is, when a firetruck passed by heading toward downtown, people were cheering and clapping their hands for them! I also remember a police escort for a Home Depot truck loaded with 5-gallon buckets and heading to ground zero.

We finally left New Jersey on Friday and drove back to Cedar Rapids. I was so relieved to make it home and see my family. I knew thousands of people would never get the chance to see theirs. The whole experience changed my life!