It’s the 20th anniversary of that day, but for some, what simply became known as 9/11, seems like it happened yesterday. That infamous Tuesday morning began under a cloudless, crystal blue sky. The weather was so beautiful that Mother Nature was certainly no harbinger of the tragic events that were to come.

The count from the catastrophe

The hard numbers are reminders of the terrible loss of lives that day. Altogether, 2,977 people were reported killed in the attacks, not counting the 19 hijackers. That includes 2,605 Americans, most who had died at the World Trade Center in New York City. Suicide mission plane crashes killed 265. The firefighter toll was 344. Law enforcement officers numbered at 71. One hundred and twenty-five people perished at the Pentagon. The number of injured was 6,000 victims.

As of the last report on August 2013, 1,140 people who studied, lived or worked in Lower Manhattan have contracted cancer from the toxins that had permeated the air near ground zero. At least 10 pregnancies were also reported lost as a result of the events of that horrific morning.

United Flight 93 crashed into a grassy field in Shanksville, killing everyone on board, but due to the heroism of a few American passengers, more lives were saved from another suicide mission headed directly for Washington D.C.

Tales of terror

Some very fortunate people were spared from being included in these statistics and count Steve Knudsen of Saylorsburg as one of them. On that morning, he was going to work as an insurance attorney to his office on Water Street, about four blocks from the World Trade Center.

“I was living in Rutherford, New Jersey, and I was accustomed to coming off the PATH train at the World Trade Center around 8 a.m., just minutes before the first plane hit the north tower,” Knudsen said. “I checked my schedule that day and I had two meetings in the Bronx, so for the first time in three years, I decided to drive into the city instead of taking the train.”

That decision could quite possibly have saved the life of this father of seven. As he drove toward the George Washington Bridge, he turned on the radio and heard that a small plane had crashed into one of the towers. As he continued to listen, the next reports coming in were accurate and emotional.

“I heard a reporter shouting, ‘A big plane has struck the north tower! There’s lots of smoke. Things are falling from the top, like pieces of paper towels or something!’?”

Fifteen seconds later, Knudsen could hear tears coming through the radio as a second plane hit the south tower.

“I was driving on Route 80 where you could get a good look at the Trade Center and I saw the smoke coming out of the building,” he said. “When I got to Fort Lee, I found out the GW bridge was closed so I had to turn around and head back home. I tried calling my office and my wife, but I got no answers. Nobody was prepared for this kind of thing.”

Tom Byrne, a 31-year resident of Jonas, was working in his Citigroup office on Greenwich Street, about 2,000 feet from the World Trade Center. His two-hour routine of traveling to his job began that Tuesday morning by catching the 4:55 a.m. bus from Effort to New York and getting to his office at 7 a.m.

“I was settling into my work when I got an email from an adviser in Boston that a plane had just hit the Trade Center. We put CNBC on the TV and we saw a hole in the north tower. Then our boss told us a second plane had hit the south tower. We were told to evacuate the building immediately.”

What Byrne saw next has left an indelible mark in his mind for the past 20 years and for the rest of his life.

“We got on the street but we had no contingency plan. What were we supposed to do? I headed toward West Street from Greenwich and that’s when I looked up at the south tower and saw people jumping out of the top of the building. It was like they were doing swan dives.”

Byrne and his boss then walked toward Canal Street when they heard what he described as a roar.

“Someone shouted, ‘Look!’ The top of the north tower buckled straight down like an accordion.”

Former Palmerton High School graduate Peter Yansza was working as an Air Force Intelligence Analyst on 9/11 in the Drug Enforcement Administration building, which is about 700 yards away from the Pentagon in Washington.

“A co-worker said a plane hit one of the twin towers, and my gut reaction told me it was probably a small private plane or a Cessna.”

After CNN on the TV reported that a second plane had hit the towers, Yansza took the news more seriously. A few minutes later, he heard the roar of a jet plane approaching the Pentagon area.

“Even then I thought it was just an overflight funeral from Arlington that was a common occurrence above our office, but then I felt a shudder in the building and people started screaming. I was on the eighth floor and when I looked out the window, all I could see was a thin line of smoke and we were told to evacuate immediately.”

Stephen Williams from Kresgeville was on the ferry from Staten Island to his job as the director of Patron Information Systems for the New York City Ballet.

“I could see smoke coming from one of the towers and I took pictures with my digital camera from the harbor,” he said. “When I saw another plane approaching the Trade Center, I thought it was going to drop flame retardant on the building and that everyone had gotten out safely. When we were told that a second plane had hit the towers, there was a collective scream on the boat.”

An aftermath of rolling emotion

Knudsen, married for 33 years to his wife, Sandy, has been a man of faith his whole life.

“I truly believe it was God’s sovereignty that spared my life that day,” he said.

In the weeks and months after the attack, Knudsen went through a roller coaster of emotions.

“I felt this rage at the enemy. I wanted to commit some kind of act of revenge, but then I got to realize that what happened to me that morning was sacred. By not being in New York at ground zero that morning, I could feel God’s mercy had kept me away.”

On this 20th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in American history, Knudsen believes that as hard as it is to bring it all back to remember, everyone should watch the videos of what had happened that day. “We should hold our loved ones close and we must never forget,” he said.

After Byrne had gotten home, he later found out that he had lost three friends who died in the World Trade Center.

“One was someone I had grown up with and another was Harry Blanding, who died in the south tower. He lived in Effort and we had played on a softball team in the Poconos. He was my friend for seven years.”

In the aftermath, Byrne tried to volunteer at the Javits Center, but there were so many people there doing whatever they could to help, he was not needed.

“I saw such selflessness in everyone after 9/11. Nobody cared who you were. There was an honest kindness and respect for each other and it was a shame that it had to be a tragic event that brought us all together as one people.”

He had gone to a group counseling session, but he came away with an attitude about life that had actually hurt his relationship with his family.

“I felt no sympathy or empathy for any problems my kids were having. It all seemed so trivial to me compared to what I had experienced on 9/11.”

Very recently, Byrne was told that three people he had worked with had cancer and one had died. They had no symptoms for years, but doctors had diagnosed their cancer was caused by the toxins from the fallout of dust that had lingered near the site until December.

“There were water trucks spraying to try to keep the dust down, but that smell was like burnt electrical cables and industrial metal,” Byrne said. He now has the worry that he might get cancer, too, and intends to see an oncologist in the near future.

Yansza, now living in Cincinnati with his wife, Heather, had to return to work to remove classified intelligence information.

“When I saw this big, damn hole in the Pentagon, I had no consideration for my own safety. I mean, the Pentagon is always a target, but after a while, it all hit me and I felt this incredible anger about the attack.”

Williams experienced a collective grieving wherever he went. “I’ve never seen people come together like they did during the aftermath and I haven’t seen it since.”

What matters now

Four men’s lives were spared on that unforgettable day in September. For Steve Knudsen, now 61 years old, and after raising seven children, he intends to adopt a 2-year-old foster child with his wife, Sandy.

“God wasn’t done with me that day,” he said. “My mission here on earth was not complete.”

Tom Byrne, who had witnessed a police officer run into the Trade Center to never return and “people jumping from incredible heights rather than burning to death,” had not given a public interview about his direct experience with the horrors of 9/11 until now.

“The years passing had made it all fade from my conscience,” he said. “But now they have come back clearly to me. I’ve become a changed man. Material things don’t matter and money means less to me. What matters is I strive to be happy each day and to not gripe about the little things that go wrong.”

Yansza donated blood during the aftermath. He is concerned about today’s milestone anniversary.

“We certainly should keep an awareness that an attack like 9/11 could happen again.”

Much of one’s personal life can be lost from memory in 20 years. For Steve Knudsen, Stephen Byrne, Peter Yansza and Stephen Williams, remembering in vivid detail the tragic events that occurred on a beautiful Tuesday morning in September of 2001 has given them reason to live from this day on to the fullest.

Williams believes America needs to find something that it has lost since the aftermath of 9/11. “It’s time we stop standing back to back and start standing shoulder to shoulder again,” he said. “We need a sense of national unity right now, but I hope it won’t have to happen because of another horrible event that ends the lives of so many people.”