As hundreds of residents gathered Tuesday morning along the Hudson County waterfront to watch the tragedy unfold across the river in lower Manhattan, concern turned to horror, grief and then sickness.
Commuters wandering past Hoboken’s Pier A Park as part of their daily routine to get to the train station that morning altered their path and began sprinting across the lawn to catch a glimpse of one of the World Trade Center towers on fire after a plane crashed into it.
"I can’t believe what I’m seeing," said a visibly shaken Robert Morgan of Hoboken. "It’s like a movie. My aunt is in that building. My God."
Just then, the sound of a large explosion darted across the river. At 9:03 a.m. a passenger jet that had been hijacked from Boston crashed into the second World Trade tower. Morgan’s aunt had escaped, but he didn’t know that then.
"What’s going on here, what’s going on here?" yelled Barbara Sabado of Garden Street. "I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s Armageddon; it’s the worst thing that I’ve ever seen."
It wasn’t Armageddon, but at that point, there was no telling whether it might come close. The confirmed terrorist attack that morning included the hijacking of four planes, two of which crashed into the World Trade Center, one that went down near Pittsburgh, Pa. and one that crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
As U.S. forces began to secure the air space over Manhattan, Hudson County residents worried about their safety and that of their relatives in lower Manhattan.
"We’re are at war," yelled a man loud enough for everyone to hear. "What are they going to hit next?"
Observers crumble to their knees
At the park, a photojournalist stepped away from his camera in ghastly shock over what he saw through his lens – people falling from the top floors of the north tower.
In Secaucus, Mike Altilio, a staffer at the Secaucus Housing Authority, had heard the news in his office and rushed up to the roof of the Lincoln Towers, the 12-story senior citizen building and one of the highest in the county.
"I was looking at the tower of the World Trade Center smoking when I saw another plane flying towards New York from the direction of Newark," Altilio said. "I remember thinking to myself, ‘What is that idiot doing?’ and a few minutes later I saw a ball of flame."
Shortly after 10 a.m., the south tower crumbled to the ground. A thunder of screams rushed across the pier, some coming from residents who at that moment were trying to call relatives in the tower on their cell phones.
Some people dropped to their hands and knees to cry.
Some vomited.
Others prayed or hugged complete strangers.
Several impromptu prayer circles formed on the lawn as neighbors grabbed hands.
"The only thing that I could think to do is pray, pray for the victims and their families," said West New York resident Natalie Wilson. "We also have to pray for all those people who are here in this park and parks like this who know people that work in those buildings."
Not long after the south tower fell, the north tower fell at 10:28 a.m. and similar cries of terror came from the crowd.
"There’s no way you can ever prepare to see such an amazing building tumble to the ground," said resident Juan Gomez. "We’re sitting here only miles away and we are witnessing thousands of lives come to an end right before our eyes. We are all going to be changed forever. That’s for sure."
Hoboken police started to clear the park so it could be used as a possible staging area for the injured. By 11:15 a.m., it was nearly empty.
Anger and shock at schools
Further up the river, at least 300 parents, grandparents and other relatives were lining up outside of Public School No. 1 on 62nd Street in West New York, demanding to take their children out of school after a bomb scare was called into the school.
"Something can happen to them," said Claudia Salinas, who was waiting on line to pick up her three nephews.
"They can’t guarantee that there are no problems," said one parent who had just found her son. "I’d rather have my child in my home."
Principal Lawrence Riccardi made sure that the parents or other relatives singled out each student before leaving the building.
"We wanted to make sure we knew who the students were going home with," said Riccardi.
According to Police Director Joseph Pelliccio, the bomb scare was called in at 10:55 a.m. The caller said there was a bomb near a mailbox outside the school building.
"There was nothing to either one of the [bomb scares]," said Pelliccio.
There were false bomb scares at other locations around the county that day, taxing the already-busy emergency forces.
Elsewhere in Hudson County, students of Jersey City’s Dickinson High School witnessed the second plane hitting the World Trade Center from their classroom windows during first period.
Alex Cruz, a junior, was worried about his grandmother who works in a building adjacent to the World Trade Center. Andy Rodriguez, sophomore, said five students in his class were "crying because their parents work in the World Trade Center."
Enrique Encarnation, a senior, volunteered to enlist in the armed forces if necessary. "If Uncle Sam needs me," he said, "I’m there."
Mark Kohler, a junior, was concerned. "If there is another war," he said, "there are bombs that could destroy the whole world."
Refugees ferried to Hudson County
By 11 a.m., Hoboken’s emergency management coordinator, Police Lt. James Fitzsimmons, was well on his way to helping establish a triage center in front of the PATH station. Around noon, flocks of people from downtown Manhattan started emerging from the Hoboken ferry terminal. Their suits were rumpled with ties missing, and they were covered in layers of dirt.
They were hosed off by emergency management personnel and handed a blanket to dry off. Volunteers assisted the personnel in their duties and gave water to the commuters.
While some refugees lived in New Jersey, others resided in New York and had no way to get home.
"I just ran," said broker Michael Sandjaby, who lives in Nassau County and had worked on the 14th floor of 110 Wall St. "People were crying and running down the street. There was a lot of panic, but people were helping the injured and those who had fallen. Everyone was covered in ash and dust, and when I saw the ferry there, I got on it, ’cause I knew anywhere was better than there. But now that I’m here, I have no idea how I’m getting home."
There were hundreds like Sandjaby wandering the streets with blankets over their shoulders and no transportation home.
"I don’t think anyone’s going to feel safe again," said Ringwood, N.J. resident Molly Simmons in front of the PATH station. "It was like it was out of some horrible movie."
Donald Hoffman, a securities broker on the 26th floor of the World Trade Center’s north tower who lives in Glen Gardner, N.J., also experienced the disaster firsthand. "It was unreal, something outside of reality," Hoffman said. "We heard [the first plane] hit, and the building shook violently and swayed back and forth. We knew something wasn’t right and headed straight for the stairs. On the way down we were passed by firefighters that were headed up. There’s no way they could have gotten out."
Hoffman added, "Once we were outside, we ran. It only seemed like minutes, and then building fell behind us. Dirt, dust and debris were everywhere. As far as I know, everyone on my floor got out. But I worry about those firefighters."
Escape from New York
At the Jersey City ferry terminal, Oral Capps, a managing partner at Forecasting and Business Analytics, LLC, in Texas, was recovering from a harrowing escape. He and his wife Debbie, who had come to the area for a business conference, had been in separate towers.
When the first plane struck the north tower, Capps was in the middle of a breakfast meeting.
"I saw the chandelier shake," he said. "The last time I saw a chandelier shake like that was when I was in San Francisco during the earthquake. I saw that second plane go into the second tower. The hardest thing in witnessing the plane hit the building was having to see people fall off the building."
Seconds after disaster struck, Capps called his wife, who was in a Marriott hotel room. She immediately came down. The pair hid out in the basement of a nearby day care center until the south tower collapsed and there was a blackout. The pair then boarded a school bus that took them to Battery Park, where they reached the ferry.
When they arrived in Jersey City, the couple reported that they planned to take a bus or a train to Delaware, where Capp’s grandmother lives.
Meanwhile, in Hoboken at around 2 p.m., a temporary bus station had been set up on Observer Highway, but there were still many people residing in Manhattan or the other boroughs who would be forced to spend the night in Hudson County.
"Heck, I live in Manhattan, but the EMS told me to get on this ferry so I did," said Wilson Cutter, who lives on 70th Street and Amsterdam Avenue and had been on the 32nd floor of the north tower. Like many, he escaped onto a ferry without knowing where it was headed. "Now it looks like I’m not getting home any time in the near future," he said. "But at least I’m safe."
There was no transportation back to Manhattan that day, and Cutter ended up spending the night with 130 others at Weehawken High School, one of several high schools that were set up as temporary shelters.
"I’m here for the night, it looks like," Cutter reported at 10 p.m. "But hopefully I can make it home because I have a lot of things to figure out."
The last two people in the shelter at Weehawken High School left by ferry to Manhattan at 8 a.m. the next day.
"As fast as they came in last night, they left this morning," said Weehawken Councilman Robert Sosa. "We just wanted to make them as comfortable as possible. That was our goal."
More than 60,000 people had been taken from New York to Weehawken by ferry on Tuesday. Cruise ships on the river also helped.
Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner reported an eerie sight late Tuesday night: 100 to 200 cars that were still parked in the ferry terminal parking lot, which is normally empty by then. Those may have represented residents, he said, who’d commuted to New York in the morning and had not come back.
While a death toll was not available by press time this week, officials in Secaucus reported Thursday that they knew of at least four residents of their town who had died in the tragedy. A Weehawken official said he knew of at least three families who were waiting for word on relatives.
Slowing down at twilight
By Tuesday evening, the frantic pace slowed down in Hudson County, and restaurants and liquor stores were filling up with patrons.
In Hoboken, residents walked through the streets with cases of beer.
"Look at my shelves," said Daniel Lugo, the owner of Garden Street Liquors on Garden and Newark streets. "There’re buying cases, all kinds of liquor. It’s ridiculous. I might close up early."
Lugo said he understood why sales were so brisk. "A lot of people are depressed," he said.
At 8:30 p.m., there were more than 100 people gathered at Sinatra Park in Hoboken, sipping beer or mixed drinks and gazing at the smoky melange that was downtown Manhattan. Some were listening to handheld radios as President George Bush addressed the nation about the tragedy.
"Never in a million years would I ever think I would be sitting on Sinatra Park listening to the president speaking about the terrorists that just blew up the World Trade Center," said new Hoboken resident Trey Hooker. "It’s going to be many, many days before I’m ever going to believe that it is real."