New Yorkers speak of horror and loss

"I have a sense it's a horrendous number of lives lost." -- New York City

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

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"This is perhaps the most audacious terrorist attack that's ever taken place

in the world. It takes a logistics operation from the terror group involved

that is second to none. Only a very small handful of terror groups is on

that list." -- Chris Yates, an aviation expert at Jane's Transport magazine.

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"Today we've had a national tragedy." -- President Bush.

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"My mother is going crazy. I just hope (my brother's) all right. He's my

work-out partner. He's my hangout partner. I'm just in shock now." -- Edwin

Cruz, 34, whose brother, Richard, works in the World Trade Center.

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"Every single American, no matter where you live, the whole country's on

edge." -- Linda Wilson, 42, of Denver.

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"I heard a 'boom.' People were jumping off the buildings everywhere. They

were just jumping." -- Serena Mays, a construction worker on the

Williamsburg Bridge, which leads into Manhattan from Brooklyn.

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"Everyone was screaming, crying, running, cops, people, firefighters,

everyone. It's like a war zone." -- Mike Smith, a New York fire marshal.

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"It's just sick. It just shows how vulnerable we really are." -- Keith

Meyers, 39, of Westerville, Ohio.

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"There are no words to describe adequately the enormity of these attacks on

the United States or the depravity of these attacks on the United States or

the depravity of those who are responsible for them." -- Sen. John McCain,

R-Ariz.

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"It looked like a ticker tape parade because there were parts of the

building floating down with the dust." -- Matthew Low, 29, of Manhattan.

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"I just can't believe what's happened. God, my heart goes out to all of

these people, believe me. I just hope there is justice." -- Martha Ridley,

whose daughter died in the April 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

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"The fact is that there is a level of sophistication and coordination that

no counter-terrorism expert had ever previously anticipated, and we don't

have a group that we can immediately identify that has this kind of

capability." -- Anthony Cordesman, a terrorism expert from the

Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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"I just saw my two towers fall. I'm devastated beyond belief. In many

respects this is significantly worse than Pearl Harbor, and we don't know

who the enemy is." -- Lewis Eisenberg, chairman of the Port Authority of New

York and New Jersey, which operates the World Trade Center.

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"It was like nighttime during the day. There was smoke, there was debris.

This is so devastating, so frustrating. What can you do? It was a feeling of

helplessness." -- Ajay Kapoo, a software engineer who saw the World Trade

explosions from his office two blocks away.

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"I just felt like I went into a trance and a dream. It was just

unbelievable." -- Steve Hyatt, 55, of San Antonio, who was at Denver

International Airport.

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"It's so scary ... it could happen to us. They could be hitting all major

cities at this point. How do you know?" -- Christie Nitsch, 39, from

Columbus, Ohio,

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"You can't put into words what's going down. You don't ever think about

somebody that would actually attack the U.S." -- Tom Fickard, 29, of

Shreveport, La., a passenger at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

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"Whatever the lowest floors of the fire was, they were jumping from them. I

guess their choice was that you burn to death or you jump." -- B.L. Ochman,

who lives five blocks from the World Trade Center.

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"This is the second Pearl Harbor. I don't think that I overstate it," said

Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.

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"All of a sudden there were people screaming. I saw people jumping out of

the building. Their arms were flailing. I stopped taking pictures and

started crying." -- Michael Walters, a freelance photo journalist in

Manhattan.