ACA’s Communications Director and Editor-in-Chief of Collector magazine Anne Rosso May joins members in sharing their experiences during that fateful day.
9/10/2021 8:00
This is an excerpt from a Collector magazine article written by Anne Rosso May featured in the September/October 2021 issue.
For most of the nation, the horror of 9/11 unfolded over radio and TV news reports. The internet was around in 2001, of course, but many websites, unaccustomed to accommodating breaking news traffic and working within the confines of dial-up, struggled to load as users frantically searched for information. Cellphones were around, but cell networks across the East Coast were quickly overloaded by mass quantities of calls as well as destroyed subscriber cables.
I was working at ACA International that day. I remember sitting in my cubicle and watching someone wheel in a giant TV on one of those rickety carts most often seen in 1980s elementary schools. My co-workers and I watched the towers fall and were stunned.
The Federal Aviation Administration paused U.S. air traffic for three days after the attack, but even as airports began to reopen people were nervous about traveling. More than 100 ACA members had been planning to attend ACA’s national legislative conference in Washington, D.C., in mid-September. ACA canceled the conference to ensure the safety of its members and staff.
As the nation pauses to remember the 20th anniversary of 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and to honor the nearly 3,000 Americans who lost their lives, we spoke with several ACA members about their memories of the day. We share them here, along with a reprint of the original Collector magazine article that we ran a few months after the tragedy.
The following are members who contributed to the article:
- Anita Manghisi, IFCCE, president and CEO, Independent Recovery Resources, Patchogue, New York
- Eric Najork, president, CBHV Collection Bureau of the Hudson Valley, Inc., Newburgh, New York
- David Peltan, Esq., Peltan Law, PLLC, East Aurora, New York
You can read this story in the latest September/October edition of Collector magazine.