By the time the second plane appeared on 11 September 2001, Amy Chin was already running away from the World Trade Center plaza, where smoke and papers were billowing down from the north tower.
“Then the sky turned orange, and it was the second plane hitting the south tower,” said Chin, then the head of a Chinese arts organization.
She made it to her office on the edge of Chinatown, and was inside when she felt “the windows shuddering and sucking in”, while outside, a huge gray cloud rolled up the avenue. It was the first tower falling.
Chinatown, just 10 blocks from Ground Zero, filled with heavy smoke, debris and stunned-looking people covered in ash, making their way north. In ensuing days, it also filled with posters of the missing – one face after another, their fates unknown – and national guard troops and police, stopping people and vehicles from entering what became known as the frozen zone.
What followed felt unprecedented at the time, but is all too familiar today…