In concluding a weeklong series of special reports marking the fifth anniversary of the attacks, we go behind the scenes for a look at how we regrouped after getting over the initial shock and began covering one of the biggest stories ever.
As you might expect, for a time, the newsroom, usually a beehive of activity, was at a standstill
"I don't think there was a word said in the newsroom for four or five minutes," recalls Jeff Hart. "I think we were kind of all in shock."
Hart says the initial thought, at seeing the first World Trade Center tower on fire, was that someone had lost control of a plane and "what we were seeing was a horrible accident." But, then, "there was the horrifying pictures of a plane hitting the second tower."
And, not long after that, "as everyone tried to grapple with what we were seeing, Will Carswell was (at) his desk, and he comes in and says 'the Pentagon's on fire' and we didn't beleive him. It just couldn't be possible that all this was going on at the same time."
But soon reality set in - and everyone realized they had a job to do.
Derreck Booth was Assistant News Director at the time and was in charge of the newsroom that day. At time time the attacks began, he was on a break and heard what was happening on his car radio as he drove back to the office.
"We all immediately started thinking 'who do we know from here who lives in New York or Washington and how are folks in this community going to be impacted?'"
All resources were poured into that one story for the next day or two - and it was several days before things began to return to normal.
It was no different for us than for the rest of the country.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/9/104177