The Eye of the Storm Story

Quote 1 -
"In the movie "Armageddon," the asteroid pierced New York buildings sending shrapnel out the other side. That, remarkably, is exactly what it looked like from the street, when the first plane hit the north tower of the World Trade center."

Having seen this movie, this is an excellent choice to use, because it explains really what happened through a "fictional" Hollywood movie...which seemed to come true during this time.

Quote 2 -
"In the blackness, he tried his radio: "Mike! Mike! Where are you?" No answer. Again, and no answer. My hand was on his trembling back, the better to brace myself, and I thought about asking him how long these blackouts and ash clouds could last. Then I realized the full ridiculousness of the question. How would he know? How often does a 110-story building collapse to the ground. I honestly wondered whether I'd survive long enough for the air to clear."

This quote, was one that stuck out to me, maybe because he says how big the building actually is, a 110-stories, and how the massive building had so much of an impact, literally, when it collapsed onto the ground...I remember when watching this in high school, I was thinking more of the people inside the building and yards away from the entrance, not really who where blocks away. Reading this, it shows the account of what was going on semi-away from the area, and it was still just as bad. The repercussions of the fall where immense for blocks, to even miles away.

Quote 3-
"If there's only one sight I'll remember from the destruction of the World Trade Center, it is the flight of desperation -- the headlong leap from the top-most floors by those who chose a different death than the choking smoke and flame. Some fell swinging their arms and legs, looking down as the street came up at them. Others fell on their backs, peering upward toward the flames and sky. They dropped like deadweight, several seconds, hopeless and unhelpable. Always the same end. Some crashed into the Plexiglas awning over the entrance to the North Tower. Others hit a retaining wall. Still others landed on lampposts and shrubbery. After the 80-floor drop, the impact left small puffs of pink and red drifting at ground level. Firefighters arriving on the scene ran for cover."

This quote is probably the most powerful graph of the story. Reading this, and the rest of the story, it seems like it is straight from a book or movie...it is frightening this is from an eye witness who was watching all these deaths while the buildings where on fire, then came down. The way he talks and describes it makes it far more real to me, and I live in the Midwest, obviously a very long ways away.