Newton County native recalls being in NYC on 9-11
Sarah Boggan Dodd remembers it just like it was yesterday.
It was a glorious mid-September day in New York City. Not a cloud was in the sky. It was a perfect beginning to the day.
“The weather was just perfect,” she said. “It was just such a great start to the day.”
That day was Sept. 11, 2001. Little did she know of what was about to happen.
As she was waking up that day, terrorists had already boarded plans in Boston, Newark, N.J., and Washington, D.C., that they would soon hijack and use to attack the heart of America.
Dodd, who is the daughter of Dr. Austin and Iris Boggan of Decatur, first learned of the attacks from a friend calling her that morning.
“They told me to turn on the news and see what was happening,” Dodd said. “Because they hit the North Tower first, it knocked out all of the TV signals except for one station. All I could see what just one camera shot of the Twin Towers. And I immediately felt sick.”
While Dodd worked mainly with video production at that time, she did a lot of temporary work that could take her to lower Manhattan, even in to the Twin Towers. That day, however, she had not been called in to do any work that day.
After the initial shock of seeing the towers had been attacked and the collapse, she immediately started trying to check on her friends to make sure they were OK. She also tried to call her family in Decatur to make sure that they knew she was alright, but the phone lines were down or jammed due to the high volume of calling.
“It’s just a scary situation because I needed to check on my friends to make sure they were OK,” Dodd said. “I also don’t know what my parents were thinking. My dad had a procedure that day, and I’m sure it was unsettling for him to see the attacks and not know if I was OK.”
It took a while, but finally she was able to check in with her niece, Natalie, and was able to get a message to them that she was fine.
Dodd said it was difficult to be in New York. Normally, she would want to document that day by taking photos, but she didn’t feel up to it.
“I just couldn’t do it,” Dodd said. “I figured that there would already be plenty of photos to document the day. I just couldn’t do it that day. I tried to go outside with my camera, but I just couldn’t take the photos.”
One of the images she remembers is people walking up the street covered in dust. People were talking with them and asking if they had seen people.
She also remembers when firefighters, police officers and ambulances coming from the scene.
“When they would come by, everyone just started applauding them,” Dodd said. “New York City isn’t really a patriotic city, but they were on that day. You started seeing flags being flown everywhere. It was great to see that.”
In the days following Sept. 11, she also remembered the scenes from the subways.
“You started seeing pictures of people being posted and asking ‘have you seen so and so’ or loved ones trying to find if their loved ones are still alive,” Dodd said. “It was haunting to see all of those pictures of loved ones who were missing.”
As the 20th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, Dodd has been thinking back on those days. She’s been watching documentaries including “9/11 One Day In America” on the History Channel, which she says is one of the best reviewing that day.
“I hope that we never have to live through something like this again,” Dodd said. “I used to never worry about a terrorist attack, but now, I think about it wherever I go. I think about it at the airports when I go through security. In some ways, I almost think we’ve relaxed the security too much. It’s just something that’s a part of my life now.”
