It was a beautiful day.
For most of the East Coast, the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, was unusually nice. The sun was bright, few clouds dotted the sky and temperatures ran unusually cool.
Soon, everyone’s lives changed forever.
“It was kind of chaotic,” said Roger Dail, director of Lenoir County Emergency Services. “The reason for that is we’d get reports of obviously what was happening up in New York and D.C. and Pennsylvania, and then we had a couple calls into our center, which turned out to be hoaxes.”
Dail said that as local first responders watched the news come in, they knew firefighters, law enforcement and EMS personnel were running into a situation through which they wouldn’t live.
“And so, us knowing what they were probably doing, we knew there was going to be a heavy casualty rate with emergency services personnel, which is — it’s hard to describe,” Dail said. “A very sad time — it really was.”
Will Jarman was an eighth-grader at Woodington Middle School that day.
He said he was in gym class when he first heard something happened, and when more news came over the public address system, students out on the football field gathered and had a moment of silence.
“We kept on, because we didn’t quite understand,” Jarman said.
He added, “It was scary, because we didn’t know what was going to happen.”
Jarman’s grandfather, William McLawhorn, was an electrician and helped outfit the World Trade Center towers when they were built. He said his grandfather, a usually active man, was stoic in watching the extended news coverage of the attacks.
Jarman also said the actions of first responders on that day led him to his own service.
“That, actually, was why I became a volunteer fireman,” Jarman said. “I volunteer in Jones County, and that had a lot to do with it. And, it’s a little way I can help my community.”
Vickie Wessell, a teacher at Kinston High School, was at Frink Middle School 12 years ago.
“My students had a million questions this day and it was one of only a few times I did not have the answers,” Wessell said on Facebook. “A lot of tears were shed this day at Frink Middle School, by staff and students. Many parents came to pick their children up just so they could hold them and keep them safe.”
Kinston resident Dawn Favreau was living in Connecticut at the time, and knew family and friends might be in harm’s way.
“My husband was working at the nuclear power plant that’s in Niantic, and I wasn’t able to get in touch with him,” Favreau said. “And, that was one of the things I was really, really afraid of. Because, if they’re on lockdown, you don’t know what’s going to be happening if they’re doing all kinds of strange attacks and stuff like that.”
She added, “It was a little nerve-wracking, but we finally did get in touch with everybody. My husband finally did call in, which was a good thing. But, it was heartbreaking to see all of that on TV.”
Area residents that wish to observe the anniversary can attend the 2013 9/11 Memorial Service at the 9/11 Emergency Services Memorial in Pearson Park. AMVETS Post No. 1111 hosts the event, which begins at 10 a.m.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 and Wes.Wolfe@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.
Want to go?
What: 9/11 Emergency Services Memorial
When: 10 a.m. Wednesday
Where: Pearson Park
Host: AMVETS Post No. 1111