Out of a clear blue sky

That Day

By Rick Horowitz

In retrospect, it must have been United 93 they were talking about, the one that went down in Pennsylvania. But we didn't know that at the time. All we knew at the time -- we were in Pennsylvania that morning, in Pittsburgh, awaiting the start of a journalists conference -- was that the World Trade Center had been hit, and the Pentagon, and there were all these rumors about other planes still up there -- other hijacked planes -- and other targets.

Including one we could see right outside our windows.

I'd been in my hotel room that morning, working with the TV and the radio off, unplugged from the Web, so I hadn't known anything about anything until I ran into a friend near the elevator.

"Did you hear?" she asked.

Three words I'll never forget.

So we glued ourselves to TV screens, except for when we glued ourselves to telephones, trying to break through the endless busy signals to reach relatives in New York, trying to make sure they were OK. The hotel set up extra TVs in the lobby, and in the common areas, so that people marooned far from home could watch together. I found myself playing messenger, relaying the latest news to colleagues who were already in meetings and couldn't get to a TV.

And I remember hearing one particular piece of news: There was a plane, somebody said to somebody -- a hijacked plane, circling the Pittsburgh airport.

In retrospect, as I said, this must have been some garbled retelling of United 93, which had already crashed in Shanksville, not all that far from Pittsburgh. But we didn't know that at the time. What we knew -- or thought we knew -- at the time was that there was a hijacked plane still up there, and much too close for comfort.

Then came another piece of news: They were evacuating the USX Tower.

USX Tower -- it had once been called U.S. Steel Tower, and would be again -- was the tallest building in Pittsburgh. A genuine skyscraper, 64 stories high, and a perfect symbol of American industrial might, the envy of the world. Which that morning seemed to mean: a perfect target for terrorists.

And just across a plaza from our hotel.

It was a voluntary evacuation, the TV said -- at least for the moment. But it was an evacuation nonetheless. As soon as I heard the announcement, I ran off to find the man in charge of our conference: Tom Waseleski, an editor with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

When I found Tom -- the least flappable of men, and a precious resource on a day quickly filling with turmoil -- he was on a phone just outside a meeting room, trying to keep ahead of the chaos. I waited until he'd finished his call, and then I told him what I'd just heard about the evacuation at USX.

"Does this have an effect on us?" I asked him.

And Tom Waseleski considered my question for a moment, and then perfectly seriously, he replied, "Well, depending on which way it falls, it could."

And that's when I knew how much the world had changed.

Posted 9/8/06. For the best in commentary, click to "Rick's."

Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist, TV commentator, writing coach and public speaker.

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