h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ashley coming in and saying something about New York, and not really understanding what was going on for quite a time. I remember watching the events unfolding in the BBC canteen and the Russian section of the World Service's office. Most of all I remember thinking 'This is it, we are going to war and that is going to be the end of it'.

Going home was strange because for a lot of the journey you have an excellent view of Canary Wharf. I think everyone on that train was struck by the thought that that could be next. My family congregated in the sitting room and more then anything there was just this overwhelming sense of shock and dread.

I later found out that several of my friends had lost friends and relatives that day. My brother was auditing a dealing room in the City when it happened and reported the wave of shock that went round the room as the dealers on the phones to New York realised something was wrong.

I was in school when it happened. The principal gave a brief (too brief in that case) announcement giving us a bit on what happened, but not nearly enough. They wouldn't let us turn on tv's. We had no clue what was happening. what's even worse is that they let the elementary school students watch it on tv, but they didn't trust the highschool students in seeing it. That still doesn't seem right in my mind.

Something similar happened in my school - though there was no official announcement. I heard from my Irish teacher as he came back from his coffee-and-fag break that someone had crashed a plane into the WTC. Had to wait a further three hours for more details. My most vivid memory is hearing a live radio broadcast on the way home of Rudy Giuliani telling people in Manhattan to leave their offices and walk calmly towards one of the bridges - it gave me goosebumps.

I think that was it. Disasters happen all the time, but rarely does the media get you so close to the action. Certainly working in the BBC we were in the middle of media overload! Everyone stopped work to stare at a TV screen.

There is a broadcasting convention that when you are covering a disaster you don't record the sound as this makes the pictures less distressing. It as the audio coverage of the attacks that made it so immediate, so close and so terrifying. Though from what I have heard since, what they showed was nothing compared to what they didn't show.

For me it wasn't so much the huge loss of life, but the smaller individual stories.

The people jumping out of the buildings are just about the worst, what a decision to make. Then the firefighters, I have a lot of friends in the emergency services and it really brings home to us what a dangerous job they have.

But the thing that affected me the worst was the Irish woman (and I'm sorry that I don't remember her name) who's brothers were in one of the buildings and got out, but she and her 4 year old were on one of the planes.

I still wake up in the night in a cold sweat thinking about her and her daughter, how I would have reacted. My daughter was 4 at the time, and things like this really show us how precious and precarious our lives are.

I remember the sense of unbelief. "The World Trade Tower" just fell someone said. I didn't believe them. Getting off work I saw the cars lined up at the gas pumps. People were saying, by tommorrow the price of gas could be five dollars a gallon. It took stern words from the Michigan Attorney General before prices stabilized at the pumps. I remember the first trip to the airport. The police would not let anybody in without first stopping at a checkpoint, and for months nobody could use the lot closest to the terminal.
Even today a year later Security in some quarters is more visible than it was pre-911

I was at work. Suddenly there was beeping all around the office as people were getting text messages and emails. I tried to get on the BBC news website and couldn't, there was a real hubbub as people tried to find out what had happened. I finished my day at work at the usual time having spent a very sombre afternoon not really working, went home and watched the news for about half an hour in total shocked disbelief. When they showed the people jumping I switched off because I couldn't bear to see any more. Like many others I thought that would be it, there would be a huge war. It was a very frightening thought.

I personally knew four people in the twin towers, all of whom got out safely. My company lost staff on the planes and in the towers.

A year on and I am seeing some of the footage for the first time. It is shocking, but I am slightly sickened by the fact that the anniversary has become a media event - that is what stopped me watching it last year and will keep it off of my screens this year too.

I am just as frightened for the world as I was on 12th september last year, if not more so.