It sort of reads like a surrealist antijoke through modern eyes.

  • sbv@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    It was apparent.

    I worked in Ottawa, Canada. I had to walk the last few blocks to work that morning because my bus driver stopped to listen to the radio. The driver played it loud so the passengers could hear. At work, I was in a crunch to get stuff done for a conference in October or November, but it was cancelled on that day, so I took the afternoon off.

    TV and radio channels were exclusively talking about the attacks, the rescue/recovery efforts in New York, and reactions from around the world. I mean exclusively. Literally nothing else was getting coverage.

    News websites were unresponsive because so many people were checking them. I’m not talking about CNN and US sites, I’m talking about the CBC, BBC, and Globe and Mail.

    I’m pretty sure there were flyovers by military craft, but I remember the skies being otherwise empty. Ottawa didn’t get a tonne of air traffic, but it was noticeable.

    The attacks sucked everything out of the public consciousness. Even in other countries, TV, radio, and online coverage switched to the attacks immediately. People changed their daily activities because of it.