WRAL anchor shares 9/11 reporting memories

mhm Yeah mm back now on W

Orioles 10 o'clock news on Fox 50

A beautiful shot of one World Trade center today in

lower Manhattan a picture perfect day in new york ironically

very similar to september 11th 2000 and one when terrorist

attacks killed thousands of people in new york Washington and

pennsylvania And dozens of people in Catawba County gathered to

remember those killed on the 11th anniversary of the September

11 attacks

A section of steel beam recovered from the World Trade

Center was on display participants of the ceremony were encouraged

to view a section of the beam and touch a

piece of history

Ironically both you and I we're working that day

You were in new york

I was in Washington when those planes hit

What was your most vivid memory

I can still remember that morning watching tv and seeing

the plane going into the building and not knowing what

exactly was going on

Then I got the call from my job saying are

you heading into work and just like that You know

you throw on some clothes and your head in and

I do remember my mother in law crying and begging

me not to go to work because I dropped my

three year old daughter off and she said please don't

go you don't know what you're getting yourself into

None of us did right

But it was our job and I was considered a

first responder with all the police the fire the doctors

the nurses we had to tell the story we had

to share it with the world with new york

what was going on remember back then there were no

cell phones like that took pictures or recorded video we

didn't have laptops we didn't have ipads we were it

And with the just the gravity of the situation there

maybe it's a good thing that we didn't have all

of those because I mean we remember the horrible images

of people jumping from the tops of these buildings just

hopelessness

It was tough

I got down there right before building seven came down

and I do remember my photographer saying to me oh

no Here it comes

And I said you know what's going to happen and

he said look up and it was like literally raining

soot and ash on top of us and we were

covered in this white soot

They gave us masks to wear

Actually there's a picture of me reported in September 11

care had dark hair at the time and we were

right outside City Hall and you can see the street

there behind me is just covered in that white thick

ash and you can see there are police officers there

behind me and all the cars there

It's so emotional just to look back on that day

for me and just to know you know I was

there for hours and I was there for months and

months and months after that every day I was assigned

pretty much to ground zero but there was so much

that happened in new york after that

There was the anthrax scares

There was a plane crash and it was just such

a dark time in new york

It was so tough on everyone that was living there

at that time

I was um I was a little different

I was the one year of my career I spent

in sports and this was the day I was off

and I saw the plane hit both of these planes

in new york and the plane hit the pentagon and

then I lived near Dallas airport

So and there was a rumor that airplane was circling

the airport

We thought it was gonna ditch into the into Dulles

airport somewhere else

So I went to the airport and just trying to

go there and just trying to be part of it

And I think we all became journalists again whether you're

covering sports whether you're a meteorologist whether you're a reporter

this was the biggest news story of our lives and

we all jumped in and and started going for me

the biggest story I've ever covered

And I hope I will never cover anything like it

again

Really

It's a lot to take in

You know

Yeah it is especially spending as much time as you

did down there day after day after day

So yeah it's tough

It's tough to you know on a day like this

the memories just come flooding back and you just you're

you're back there even though it was 11 years ago

I can't help it

But all day today I've been back there

Yeah well we're glad you're here with us

Thank you Gerald

And I'm glad to be with you

All right

Mhm

I want to go right over to Greg right now

And uh real quick Greg you had mentioned that you

when you and your son were in new york recently

you all had an experience where tour guide was very

informational basically

Kind of gave you all a nutshell of Of just

what this memorial and what this anniversary means to New

Yorkers if I'm remembering correctly one of the buildings we

went through in the financial district was the American Express

building

And there's a uh I think there were 11 people

in that area that were killed in that event

And so they made a circular pool with 11 isosceles

triangles

Isosceles triangles meaning two sides are the same

And then above that they have little places where drops

of water come out of the ceiling And I'm sorry

each one represents a tear

Mhm

It drops into that tribe had just about every five

seconds

So things like that you know I wasn't even there

but uh it made an impression uh is this a

tease is supposed to be a teaser Greg

I understand your feelings right now but we are going

to leave you right now We're going to take a

quick break

And as we go out to this break we're going

to leave you with this stunning shot from new york

city

Very beautiful

Yeah