See 9/11 coverage and photos from Star-Telegram archives

Stunned passengers at D/FW Airport’s Terminal A watch television at one of the terminal’s stores. Television sets in the terminal were turned off and passengers were not told of the morning’s events while in flight. Passengers crowded the bars and stores with TV sets to learn more. All outbound Tuesday flights were cancelled after multiple terrorist attacks utilized hijacked commercial airliners.

Ian McVea

Star-Telegram file

9/11: National day of tragedy staggered North Texans. Archive coverage from the Star-Telegram

This account was published in the Star-Telegram on Sept. 12, 2001, the day after the terror attacks.

Like the rest of the world, North Texans were staggered by the chilling image that left the nation frozen in disbelief Tuesday: the World Trade Center crashing in a rain of glass and steel, the death toll unimaginable.

Texans joined hands, whispered prayers – and some armed themselves, bought supplies and waited. Calls went out to loved ones as TV images seared the collective consciousness.

Those who thought that they had already been through the worst were shocked at yet another national tragedy. The Rev. Jim D. Chandler of Bedford wept as he remembered the loss of a sister in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

“I just feel for everyone who doesn’t know where their loved ones are right now,” said Chandler, senior minister at William C. Martin United Methodist Church. “Six and a half years ago, when we got through to Oklahoma City, there was my sister’s voice on the answering machine. And, of course, we got some bad results.

“They talk about closure,” he said. “Closure has to do with windows and doors, not human beings.”

‘It looked like Armageddon,’ TCU student Steven Meier, right, said as he watched the destruction of The World Trade Center in New York on TV Tuesday morning in his dorm room. He and fellow TCU students Vaune Wilson, left in orange, and Ken Sterling, far back left, all decided to give blood to help the injured. Phlebotomists Jorge Lopez, front center, and Joseph Green, center face turned, help take blood inside the remote Carter BloodCare vehicle at 5429 Hulen St. in Fort Worth. Jill Johnson Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Others who understood the human toll stood in long lines to help in the only way they could.

Victoria Collins of Fort Worth was still waiting to give blood after an hour at HEB BloodCare Donor Center off West Airport Freeway in Bedford.

“Our nation is suffering,” said Collins, who said she also gave blood after the Wedgwood church shootings in Fort Worth. ”You see people that are suffering. You can’t comfort them or hug them, but at least you can give blood to somebody.”

The American Red Cross organized blood drives throughout the Fort Worth-Dallas area, said Anita Foster, spokeswoman with the Chisholm Trail Chapter. Foster said Carter BloodCare planned a large blood drive at Reunion Arena today.

At Carter BloodCare in Arlington, hundreds waited for hours. Supervisor Eva Norwood said she expected to have more than 200 pints given by the end of the day – eight times more than usual.

Guests and employees from the Radison Hotel, background, console each other and discuss the day’s events on Sept. 11, 2001, after the hotel was evacuated due to bomb threats which may have been connected to this morning’s terrorism at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The building was soon cleared. Ron T. Ennis FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM

Others prepared to defend themselves and hoarded supplies as if for a siege.

“People claiming that they hadn’t touched guns in years came in and bought ammunition today,” said Jason Lamb, who works in customer relations at Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World. “It’s pretty weird.”

Lamb said the store had been selling everything from shotgun shells to rifle cartridges.

“It kind of goes in waves,” he said. “And right now it’s dove season, so all we were selling was shotgun shells, but right now, we’ve sold a lot of other various ammunition.”

Departure screens at DFW International Airport on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. M.L. GRAY Fort Worth Star-Telegram file

At Sack N Save Warehouse Food Store on Airport Freeway in Bedford, Donald Jones was stocking up on groceries.

The 51-year-old Grapevine resident shopped with his wife, Janice, 50, for canned goods, rice and flour.

“We’re getting staple-type goods, things that don’t perish that you can retain for a while,” Jones said. “We’re more or less going to weather out the storm. We are stocking supplies because at times like this prices go up. We are making a deposit and drawing interest off it.”

He estimated that the supplies would last three or four months.

“We don’t know what the outcome of this is going to be, but I think we realize it’s going to be bad,” he said.

Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth heightens security after closing the base Tuesday after terrorists attack the United States. Carolyn Mary Bauman Star-Telegram

Grim-faced Fort Worth officials condemned the attacks but did their best to reassure residents that they faced no immediate danger here.

“Today is a very tragic day in the history of the United States,” Fort Worth Mayor Kenneth Barr said at an impromptu news conference outside City Hall on Tuesday morning. “It’s going to be months before we really know the full impact of these attacks. But I want to be very clear … there have been no credible threats locally.”

Barr said the city is prepared to do whatever is necessary to help the victims, and he urged residents to do the same.

Long lines of American Airlines ticket agents tried to deal with even longer lines of stranded passengers at DFW International Airport on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. M.L. GRAY Fort Worth Star-Telegram

At Arlington City Hall, the day’s City Council meeting ended early, and Mayor Elzie Odom urged calm in a rare, live cable television broadcast.

“We need to pray for our national leaders to help them deal with the loss of lives in those cities,” Odom said. “No longer can we say it only happens in other places. It can happen here.”

Prayers for President Bush were made during a debriefing Tuesday afternoon for Colleyville city leaders.

“I pray you give him supernatural strength to lead him through this dark, dark day,” said Frank Harber, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Colleyville.

Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk likened the catastrophe to Pearl Harbor.

“This is truly a national tragedy,” he said. “For many of us of my generation, this is probably as close to the experience that our parents and grandparents went through in Pearl Harbor.”

Schools in most of Tarrant County continued with classes, although many allowed parents to pick up students early if they preferred and offered to excuse absences today. Like Kirk, one Haltom City resident recalled Pearl Harbor as he talked about the attack. But, said Tom Ha: “Pearl Harbor was a military base. Here, they attacked right in the middle of the heart. … This is like a nightmare.”

Ha said he closed his insurance business for the day and was keeping track of developments at his office.

Others monitored the tragedy through loved ones who were closer to ground zero.

“I heard from my daughter who works in the Capitol when they closed it down,” said Roy Brooks of Fort Worth, whose daughter works in Washington as a legislative assistant to Rep. Martin Frost, D-Dallas. All Capitol offices were evacuated after the attack in New York and at the Pentagon.

Brooks, administrator for County Commissioner Dionne Bagsby, said he was concerned as a father but could manage “as long as she calls periodically.”

Others coped through unity and prayer, with dozens of vigils and services scheduled across Tarrant County for Tuesday and today. Worshippers flocked to Mass in larger numbers than usual at St. Patrick Cathedral in downtown Fort Worth.

For everyone, the moment the tragedy struck will become a dark memory handed down for generations.

Carol Nixon, center, raises her hands to the heavens during a prayer vigil at Rising Star Baptist Church in Fort Worth to pray for the victims involved in the terrorist attacks on the east coast at on Sept. 11, 2001. Alison Woodworth Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Mary Long was dropping her daughter off at a junior high school when KSCS/96.3 FM broke in with the news.

“By the time I arrived back home, the second plane had hit,” said Long, a Bedford resident. She watched television until 10 a.m., then took a portable radio to work so she could listen to news reports.

“I don’t know what to think,” she said. “It’s sick. I’ve been crying all morning.”

Dwaine Saalman, a furniture salesman from Dallas, was on a flight from Florida to Dallas when the airplane was diverted to Bush International Airport in Houston. Passengers heard the news in the airport lobby.

As information poured in, uncertainty mounted, he said.

“What’s next?” he asked. “Is there a string of car bombs that’s going to go off tonight at rush hour?”

Tiffany Truttmann, 18, of Euless, said she heard about the attack when she got home from a class at Tarrant County College.

“I wanted to take a nap, and as I was falling asleep, the phone rang,” she said. “It was a very good friend … he told me to turn on the news.”

Truttmann did, then called her mother.

“It doesn’t feel real yet. It feels like a dream,” she said. “When I was driving down the road, I looked over and saw people on their cellphones or with their radios blasting. They were listening to the news with these ghostly looking stares.”

Cortnie Stuerzenberger, 20, was at her Bedford home preparing for class at Tarrant County College when her mother told her about the attack.

Stuerzenberger, whose boyfriend’s father is an American Airlines pilot, was immediately concerned for his safety.

“For the rest of my life, I will remember,” she said. “When my children read about it in history, I will tell them where I was and what I saw on TV.”

D/FW Airport Department of Public Safety officer Derek Goodley walks his explosives sniffing dog through Terminal A of the airport . The airport was closed and all outbound Tuesday flights were cancelled after multiple terrorist attacks used hijacked commercial airliners. Ian McVea Fort Worth Star-Telegram