Back Stories: September 11th Terror Attacks Shrouded In Uncertainty
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – When the September 11th terror attacks struck, WCBS reporter Peter Haskell tried driving toward the World Trade Center but got caught in bad traffic.
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He pulled off at Chelsea Piers, where they had a media area with makeshift television studios.
"I go inside this cavernous studio, and they're bringing in stretchers, and they're bringing in IV poles, and they're bringing in bandages and all kinds of medical supplies. And they're effectively setting up an emergency room there," he recalls. "As time went on, it became clear nobody was going to show up."
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He watched as ambulances and fire trucks raced by on the West Side Highway.
"Then there's this sound – way up in the upper atmosphere it seemed – of fighter jets flying by. And somebody next to me says, 'Are they ours?' And instinctively I said, 'Yeah, they're ours.' What did I know? After I said that, I thought about it and I said jeez I sure hope they're ours," he says. "We had no idea what was going to happen next. And that was the uncertainty that followed for weeks and months."