On September 11, 2001, my PR company had just marked its first anniversary. 

I had been working on client accounts from my home office in central New Jersey, just 45 minutes from the World Trade Center. 

The Towers were amazing; I had worked in Tower No. 2 after graduating from college.  

And then the unthinkable. 

These are 11 news and PR-related events that happened on or after that clear, sunny morning that I reflect on today:  

1.  TV and radio broadcast antennae on top of the towers knocked major NY/NJ stations off the air. People were asking what happened to the damn Emergency Broadcast System warnings. 

2. One of my clients was scheduled to host their annual networking party on the rooftop of the Hyatt Hotel in New Brunswick. Close to 1,000 people were expected that night. The organizer called me at 11 a.m. wondering if we should postpone the party until the following evening. My thought: There’s no way in hell I’ll be on any rooftop tonight. As we began to grasp the enormity of the events, the networking party was rescheduled for October. 

3. Another client, a commuter ferry service that runs between the Jersey Shore and New York City, had several boats in the water when the planes hit. They were among the first on the scene to bring people out of lower Manhattan to NJ. Later that day, the ferries were transporting volunteers and emergency responders from New Jersey to New York.  They also brought medical supplies, water, food, and other items that businesses had donated. 

4. Novice PR reps were trying to call news outlets in the tristate area to pitch stories. Any clues this was not a routine day and the phone lines would be better served with emergency calls?

5. When the WTC towers fell, a WCBS radio news reporter covering the carnage at Ground Zero was running down the street with her tape recorder. She was unsure if she was working a story or trying to save her own life. In the pandemonium, she was thrown under a parked car and briefly lost consciousness. When she came to, she remembers clutching her black, Marantz tape recorder. 

6. For days and weeks after 9/11, the only pitches and stories reporters listened to had to be related to the terrorist attacks. There was no other news. Period.

7. I was doing PR for a local United Way chapter. Months after the attacks, one of the most difficult stories that transpired was that of experienced social workers, therapists, and religious leaders who were so emotionally consumed with counseling and supporting survivors and their families, that they too, needed professional help. But who could they turn to? No one had been trained for this.  

8. When I picked up my kids at their elementary school on 9/11, they were puzzled because they didn’t have any doctor appointments or advance notice that we had to go somewhere. At the time, they didn’t know that I simply needed them home with me. They watched goofy videos for most of the day. When they wanted to switch to the TV, I panicked. No mother wants her children to see this.  

9. When the cell phone lines allowed, my husband Andrew was able to randomly call me. His office in midtown Manhattan had been evacuated, and because he worked in IT and disaster recovery, offsite backups were the priority. After the tech part was complete, Andrew went to donate blood. He was shell-shocked after watching the planes fly into the World Trade Center. When he arrived at a midtown hospital to give blood, a TV reporter told him there were no injured people inside. No need for blood donations. There weren’t any survivors being brought in to the triage. Andrew finally got home from the City at 10 p.m.

10. The night of 9/11, one of my neighbors was standing on his front porch smoking a cigarette. He had worked at the World Trade Center and had gone downstairs for a smoke. He was interviewed by the media who reported how a cigarette saved a man’s life. 

11. A guy I knew from high school and later reconnected with in our new community of East Brunswick, worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. He was killed on 9/11. Two of his three children went to school with my kids. His wife would go on to be one of the four “Jersey Girls” who demanded that government officials in Washington, D.C. investigate how the terrorist attacks may have been prevented. 

On September 11, 2001, so many reporters and news professionals I had worked with and knew were covering chaos.  There was no Twitter or citizen journalism.

Today, we remember the innocent people who were killed on 9/11.  

Their faces and lives are the stories. Never forget.