NOTE: This account is rather graphic, be warned

Thank you to all of you who reached for me these past 24 hours to check on my welfare, I really appreciate it. Please don't read this unless you are prepared for a graphic eyewitness account.

For those who don't know, I live on the 17th floor of an apartment building two blocks south of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. I was home yesterday morning when I heard, and felt, a loud boom. I ran up onto the roof, looked up into the sky and saw the north tower of the World Trade Center on fire. I simply could not believe what I was seeing, huge flames and smoke pouring out of what was the signature landmark of NYC. There were pieces of the building -- and pieces of human flesh -- all over the roof of my building, I could only guess that it was a bomb. A headless, legless torso was visible on the roof of the building next door.

Standing there for a few minutes I heard a growing roar from behind me. To my disbelieving eyes I looked up to see a United 767 flying very low and very fast turning toward the WTC. I stood simply in shock as the plane disappeared into the south tower. A split second later a tremendous explosion blew out both sides to the building practically directly overhead. I ran for cover in the stairwell as shards of glass and debris cascaded down. I came back out and saw now both towers engulfed in flames. It was unbelievable, a large passenger airline flying at full speed into the World Trade Center's south tower. It was horrific, stunning, shocking, and mind-boggling. What in God's name was going on?!

Watching the flames grow, I saw a shape falling from the north tower; it was a person jumping to avoid the inferno. And then another and another plummeting down to their death. Horrifying beyond belief, I felt utterly helpless. Those poor souls, torn between burning to death or jumping.

I ran down to my apartment, turned on the TV to see that the Pentagon had also been hit. With other planes still unaccounted for I began to quickly pack a bag to get out of there although there were rumors on the local radio station of chemical weapons and car bombs nearby so I hesitated, not sure where I would be safest. Never did I imagine it could get any worse, but it did.

While on the phone in my apartment talking with my sister I heard an approaching roar. It sounded like another plane coming in, only much louder and closer. I saw people down on the street running and could only assume it was a plane coming in much lower and nearer the ground. The ground began to shake terribly. All I could say to her was, "Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God..." I thought the end was near. And then there was a tremendous explosion that rocked the building, I saw a huge plum of smoke and dust approaching my windows. It was coming at me with such force I was sure that it would blow the windows out. I ran into the hallway for cover. Suddenly all the power went out and everything went eerily quiet and dark. I went back into my apartment thankful to see that the windows held, only there was nothing to see outside, it was black as night. I had no idea that one of the 110 story towers, a staple of the New York skyline had collapsed.

It was time to get out. I finished packing my bag and started down the stairs with a number of fellow residents. Half way down we felt the ground shake again and heard another tremendous boom, the other tower was down. A fireman in our lobby told us to stay inside, that it wasn't safe outside. The windows were totally covered with soot so we had no idea what was going on outside. After awhile, curiosity got the best of me and I snuck out a side door, the front doors being blocked by debris. I was ill prepared for what I was about to see. Six inches of dust and debris covered everything, visibility was less than 50 feet. It was totally silent, no sirens, no running people, nothing. A few fireman and police officers and local residents walked aimlessly around seemingly unsure what to do next. Fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars were overturned, burning and unrecognizable. A stretcher, partially crushed, stood poised behind a burning ambulance's open back door awaiting paramedics who would never return. I walked through a neighborhood that I knew very well but found myself totally lost, I literally didn't recognize anything. I couldn't get near where the towers were, the streets were blocked with burning vehicles and debris. Out of the haze a middle-aged woman walked up to me with a bag full of water bottles and said, "don't drink it, use it to wash the soot out of your mouth."

Returning to my building I found it deserted so I decided to go back upstairs feeling that I now had time to pack a few more items. The power was out but I still had dial tone [although I could occasionally get through on my cell, I had much better luck with the standard phone network]. Friends and family from all over were desperate to find out my condition. I logged on and sent out pages and emails and called my family and some friends to tell them that I was OK. Curious and still full of adrenaline I stayed on in my apartment building for a number of hours, occasionally going up on the roof to peer through the smoke and haze to see stunning sites of what was left of the towers. Huge pieces of the sleek steel outer shell arched crazily upward, stuck in a 30-foot pile of rubble. Another building continued to burn one block away (on the other side of the Marriott hotel which blocked much of the blast when the towers came down).

During the afternoon I watched fireman beginning the process of recovery, moving ladder trucks into position to spray water on the remaining fires, organizing into groups to begin combing the rubble for survivors. By late afternoon a front-end loader appeared to begin clearing debris. In the early evening dump trucks began showing up.

With no power and with the gas still on I figured it was time to finally get out. I needed to get to New Jersey where my sister and her family live. Walking down the middle of the street I trudged through soot and debris three blocks west to a spot on the Hudson River where large tugboats were evacuating people to Liberty State Park. Several other people were on the big boat, some with bikes, one with their dog. As we pulled away from Manhattan my perspective changed. With power in the buildings out all that could be seen was a huge plume of white smoke illuminated with bright quartz halogen emergency lights. Noticeably missing were the majestic twin towers.

Arriving on the New Jersey side there were dozens of police waiting to help us off the boat. Another 50-75 people were on a supply line loading supplies onto other boats headed back. Everything was clean, there was no dust, there was a sense of normalcy. I even saw some people joking as they always do in a group situation. It was then that I realized that everything I witnessed, an airliner full of passengers plummeting into the side of a building, people leaping to their deaths, body parts on the building roof, two of the world's largest building reduced to ashes, was all too terribly real, it hadn't been a nightmare. The surreal, adrenaline-induced haze I had been in suddenly disappeared replaced with overwhelming sorrow, I broke down and sat sobbing on the dock.

Eventually I found my brother-in-law, his stepfather being a volunteer firefighter who was allowed into the staging area near where I was put ashore. I waited for them to finish their work and road back with them in a fire truck. I finally got to my sister's house around 1:30am. As I lay down in bed the images of the day played through my mind. And as I drifted off I saw the headless torso on the neighboring building roof, now covered in six inches of debris, buried along with thousands of others on this horrific day.

Thank you for listening, perhaps getting this story out somehow will help my own -- and perhaps everyone's -- healing.

-Peter