The air was caked with dust and debris. Scores of people sprinted down Wall Street, covering their faces with their shirts while trying to catch their breathe. The World Trade Center had been hit, and the United States was under attack.
It's been 14 years since the deadliest terrorist attack in American history. In the end, the hijackers killed 2,977 people. Two thousand seven hundred and fifty-three people lost their lives after American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the World Trade Center; 184 were killed when American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon; 93 died when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a Pennsylvania field.
The catastrophe burned in the minds of Americans from coast-to-coast, but the attacks literally hit home for John Kentzel-Griffin and Larry Griffin-Kentzel of Rock Island.
"When we saw the clip on the internet, we thought it was just an accident," John remembered, watching the video from his Manhattan office.
Minutes after the second plane collided into the building. John, along with thousands of people, swarmed to the streets.
"I remember when the second tower hit there were people running down Wall Street, where I worked, screaming that the towers collapsed," John remembered.
"I had to walk through blocks of that debris cloud. I had to put my shirt over my head just to breathe right," added John.
At that same time, John's husband Larry was terrified. He couldn't get in touch with his spouse of nearly two decades. To calm down, Larry remembered taking a shower, but leaving the doors open just "waiting to see a flash."
"A lot of people didn't think terrorism occurred, I knew right away," Larry said.
Because city buses and subways had been shutdown, John walked about 12 blocks before he arrived home. Larry remembers John was covered in grey ash, resembling a statue. John recalled being itchy from the debris.
"I still itched after three or four showers," John said.
The couple, who moved from New York City about a year after the attack, said their lives have changed forever. Larry points to his chronic renal insufficiency as a result of breathing in the asbestos and fiber glass that lingered in the air.
John, who was a computer programmer analyst, was laid off two months after the attacks. He currently works temporary data entry jobs.
As the couple sat inside their living room and reflected on that day 14 years ago, both acknowledged that their lives would never be the same.
"We're getting by," John said, pausing before adding, "but nothing is the same after this."