Thought the world was ending

By Angie Holmes: As I was admiring the sunflowers along Highway 7 on my commute from my home in Leavenworth to my job in Atchison, Kan., a DJ on the radio made an odd announcement:

“A plane has hit the World Trade Center in New York City. This is not a joke. Something serious is going on.”

When I got to work at the Atchison Daily Globe, a small daily newspaper, my coworkers were in a state of confusion, but the wheels were rolling on how to cover this life-changing event.

We didn't have a television in the office and had limited Associated Press wire service, so we were listening to radio reports and checking websites.

At one point, the sports editor said, “The Pentagon has been hit.” For the first time in my life, I truly thought the world was going to end that day.

We managed to get the paper out by the 11:15 a.m. deadline, give or take a few minutes. The front page was dominated by a photo of a burning tower we purchased from our parent company in St. Joseph, Mo.

That afternoon while the rest of our small staff was working on local angles to the national tragedy, I went about my normal duties as features editor.

I felt useless as I worked on a story about a local restaurant and designed pages with items such as meeting announcements and honor rolls. Later, my boss told me I was performing an important service t0 our readers – letting them know that life goes on. That lesson has stayed with me as I continue to write stories about everyday people with everyday lives.

Our office sat right next to a gas station, typically a place for me to fill my coffee cup. But that day, lines of cars wrapped around the block, waiting to fill their tanks with gas. The scene fueled my thoughts that the world was ending.

By the time I got home that night, I had been bombarded all day with information about what happened, but I still hadn't seen the television coverage. The planes hitting the towers, people jumping out windows, the towers collapsing. I watched it over and over, taking it all in.

The new world was a reality the next morning as cars were backed up for what seemed like miles as tight security measures were being put in place at the entrance of Fort Leavenworth, a historic military base that just days earlier, I drove through with ease.

Adjacent to the fort, armed guards stood at the gates of the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, where several involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing were incarcerated.

After work, I went for a walk in my neighborhood to clear my mind, but it was eerily quiet. I had never realized all the planes that flew overhead on the direct flight path to the Kansas City International Airport, which was about 10 miles away. The sudden silence was anything but peaceful.

Over time, traffic began to flow freely and planes filled the sky again, but the memories of that week in September are as vivid as they were 10 years ago.

Editor's note: Angie is now a features reporter and food columnist for The Gazette.