Another Day That Will Live In Infamy...
...another day that will forever be remembered for a tragedy of untold proportions. September 11, 2001. It is a day now etched into the memories of a billion or more people around the world. Around 9:00a.m., two United and two American Airlines passenger liners were hijacked, resulting in two jets crashing into the World Trade Center in New York City, one hitting the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and another crashing in rural Pennsylvania (now thought to be because of passengers attempting to take back control of the plane and acting to direct it away from another target). Though initially the WTC towers held up to the hits, they eventually succumbed and imploded in on themselves. At the Pentagon, one of the building's sides had a hole blown through its outer three rings.
The death toll now stands at nearly 6,000, but it is only through a matter of luck that many many more weren't killed... In the case of the Pentagon, the area hit was already partially evacuated due to reconstruction work (appx 100 killed, including those in the aircraft), and in the WTC, there are many reports of people not going in to work, being late for work, or other circumstances. Early estimates had put the death toll at over 10,000 because considerably more people were expected to be in the buildings. As the cleanup effort moved on in the days afterward, rescuers found few bodies, and far far fewer survivors in the rubble, and the number of bodies found is not expected to change at this point. More than likely, the intense heat and hundreds of thousands of tonnes of debris falling down simply incinerated the remains... Even now, over a month later, there are fires burning underground as a result of the tremendous amount of heat and friction produced on that day.
It is expected to take months of daily work to clear the rubble and allow for a final damage assessment. The imploding WTC towers rained amazing amounts of material down on the surrounding buildings, causing heavy structural damage to those in the immediate vicinity, knocking out utilities to those blocks around, even collapsing two other buildings in the WTC and World Financial Center complex. Other buildings, though currently they are structurally sound and in no danger of collapsing, are so heavily damaged that they will have to be brought down and rebuilt. People on the scene described the area immediately after the incident as looking like a bomb had gone off, or that a tornado had come through. A fine layer of concrete dust had settled on everything within about a 10 block radius of the WTC complex, turning that area into a dusty gray fog as the particles lingered in the air.
:::Next, the leadup to and execution of the retaliation against Afganistan's Taliban and Osama bin Laden:::
>>end transmission<<
...another day that will forever be remembered for a tragedy of untold proportions. September 11, 2001. It is a day now etched into the memories of a billion or more people around the world. Around 9:00a.m., two United and two American Airlines passenger liners were hijacked, resulting in two jets crashing into the World Trade Center in New York City, one hitting the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and another crashing in rural Pennsylvania (now thought to be because of passengers attempting to take back control of the plane and acting to direct it away from another target). Though initially the WTC towers held up to the hits, they eventually succumbed and imploded in on themselves. At the Pentagon, one of the building's sides had a hole blown through its outer three rings.
The death toll now stands at nearly 6,000, but it is only through a matter of luck that many many more weren't killed... In the case of the Pentagon, the area hit was already partially evacuated due to reconstruction work (appx 100 killed, including those in the aircraft), and in the WTC, there are many reports of people not going in to work, being late for work, or other circumstances. Early estimates had put the death toll at over 10,000 because considerably more people were expected to be in the buildings. As the cleanup effort moved on in the days afterward, rescuers found few bodies, and far far fewer survivors in the rubble, and the number of bodies found is not expected to change at this point. More than likely, the intense heat and hundreds of thousands of tonnes of debris falling down simply incinerated the remains... Even now, over a month later, there are fires burning underground as a result of the tremendous amount of heat and friction produced on that day.
It is expected to take months of daily work to clear the rubble and allow for a final damage assessment. The imploding WTC towers rained amazing amounts of material down on the surrounding buildings, causing heavy structural damage to those in the immediate vicinity, knocking out utilities to those blocks around, even collapsing two other buildings in the WTC and World Financial Center complex. Other buildings, though currently they are structurally sound and in no danger of collapsing, are so heavily damaged that they will have to be brought down and rebuilt. People on the scene described the area immediately after the incident as looking like a bomb had gone off, or that a tornado had come through. A fine layer of concrete dust had settled on everything within about a 10 block radius of the WTC complex, turning that area into a dusty gray fog as the particles lingered in the air.
:::Next, the leadup to and execution of the retaliation against Afganistan's Taliban and Osama bin Laden:::
>>end transmission<<
posted by Benjamin Hunt at
10/20/2001 01:06:00 PM
