Every time these get referenced I think about the alert messages from servers[0] that got sent in the seconds after the first plane hit. It's chilling and makes it all very real for me.
One thing about these messages is that they kind of give a broad snapshot of everything going on in text form. So you get messages from people mixed with background automatic messages from news websites and so forth, with system messages due to infrastructure damage, to all sorts of things.
One thing that's struck me during 9/11, the pandemic, and some other natural disasters I've been around (I wasn't in NY 9/11 but similar ripple effects that day) is this kind of eerie intermediary time when things are breaking down, but people aren't sure whether to go on as normal or might not even be aware of what's going on, etc. I feel like these 9/11 messages capture that really well if you know what you're looking at, and know the timeline of events.
> Knowing they’d been hit, Bragg instinctively reached upward in an effort to pull the “fire handles” — a set of four overhead-mounted levers that cut off the supply of fuel, air, electricity, and hydraulics running to and from the engines. His arm groped helplessly. When he looked up, the roof was gone.
One thing that's struck me during 9/11, the pandemic, and some other natural disasters I've been around (I wasn't in NY 9/11 but similar ripple effects that day) is this kind of eerie intermediary time when things are breaking down, but people aren't sure whether to go on as normal or might not even be aware of what's going on, etc. I feel like these 9/11 messages capture that really well if you know what you're looking at, and know the timeline of events.