HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 As the nation prepares to mark 25 years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a Plant City resident who survived the collapse of the World Trade Center is sharing his story.<\/p>\n
John Victor Jacobson was working for his family\u2019s construction company just blocks from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks, and thousands more were left with physical and emotional scars.<\/p>\n
Jacobson still keeps reminders from that day, including the card he said he used to get into New York.<\/p>\n
When the towers came down, Jacobson said he ran from the debris.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got around the corner of the building by two feet and missed the debris field, but I was still buried by all the ash and rubble that was there that did hit me,\u201d Jacobson said.<\/p>\n
Jacobson survived and said he stayed in New York in the days that followed. He said he helped with work that included putting in drywall and repairing subway infrastructure damaged in the attacks.<\/p>\n
Over the years, Jacobson has returned to ground zero several times, documenting how the site changed and how the attacks changed him.<\/p>\n
Jacobson said he continues to live with the effects of Sept. 11, including PTSD and damage to his teeth. But now, his focus is also on what he is building in Plant City.<\/p>\n
About a year ago, Jacobson started creating a farm far from New York City. The property includes goats, sheep and llamas, with more work still to be done.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe animals and this ground below my feet are what gives me sanctuary and solace,\u201d Jacobson said.<\/p>\n
Jacobson said the work of caring for the land and animals has become part of how he moves forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod gave me this to make me whole again, because I\u2019m not whole, but I will be one day,\u201d Jacobson said.<\/p>\n
Jacobson has also documented his memories of Sept. 11 and his visits back to Ground Zero on social media. He said he hopes sharing his story helps others understand the lasting impact of that day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 As the nation prepares to mark 25 years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[274,276,6076,139,135,137,136,278,835],"class_list":["post-396119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-top-stories","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-lizbeth-gutierrez","tag-orlando","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}