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Phillip Santiago, a freshman at New York's High School for Leadership and Public Service, was sitting in his ninth-floor classroom, trying to pay attention to the lesson.

It was a gorgeous morning. Phillip looked out the window, and saw paper flying everywhere. Strange, he thought. But then, when your school's in downtown Manhattan, strange sights aren't all that uncommon.

In another classroom on the 10th floor, Matthew Rivera, a sophomore, thought he smelled something burning. But again, in Manhattan, strange smells aren't so unusual, either.

But then something terribly unusual did happen.

"It sounded like an explosion," says Matthew, 15, "and the floor shook as if it was an earthquake."

"Everything started to shake," adds Phillip, 14, "and everybody started running for the door."

Of course, it wasn't an earthquake. It was a commercial jet, hijacked by terrorists, crashing into the World Trade Center, just three blocks away from Phillip and Matthew's school.

On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four planes, crashing two into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field, likely because of the heroic efforts of several passengers (see "He Was a Hero" on page 45.)

Matthew and Phillip, church buddies and best friends since preschool, hadn't heard or felt the explosion when the first jet crashed into one of the twin towers. But they definitely heard and felt it when the second one crashed into the tower closer to their school. Immediately, students scrambled for their backpacks, and were soon running for their lives.

"This is unreal"

Students and teachers headed toward the lower tip of Manhattan, ending up with thousands of others in the Battery Park area, about 10 blocks away from the World Trade Center. Most of them were staring upward in disbelief.

Matthew and Phillip, who weren't together, were stunned by the sight: Twin towering infernos, the upper floors of both buildings swallowed up in flames.

"I couldn't believe what I was seeing," says Matthew. "I told one guy, 'This is unreal. This is the stuff that you would see in a movie.'"

Phillip couldn't stop staring either. As he looked closer, he saw something he'll never forget.

"I saw what I thought was debris falling down," he says. "But then I realized it was people jumping out. You could see their bodies floating down like snowflakes. It was hard to believe it was real."

But the horror was just beginning.

Moments later, first one tower, then the other, came crashing down. More than a million tons of steel and concrete—110 stories soaring more than a quarter of a mile into the sky—simply collapsed in a heap. Massive walls of dust, debris and smoke surged in all directions through the canyons of Manhattan's streets, sending thousands running for refuge.

"We heard something that sounded like thunder," Phillip says. "And all of a sudden, this wall of white stuff started coming toward us, darker and darker as it got closer. Everybody was scared, and started running."

"People started running in all directions," adds Matthew. "The smoke was coming everywhere, so we didn't know where to run. Everybody was going crazy."

When the smoke and debris overtook them, they couldn't see and could hardly breathe. That's when Matthew thought he might die.

"I was just thinking, God, help me, please help me!" he says. "I just wanted to get out of there and get to a safe place."

For Matthew, that safe place was his church—Primitive Christian Church, where his father, Marcos Rivera, is the pastor. Matthew rounded up the few students and teachers who were with him, and led the way to the church. "We covered our mouths with our T-shirts so we could breathe," he says, "and we just walked through the smoke."

As Matthew approached the church, he saw familiar faces walking into its doors, and he began to feel a sense of relief. But not until he met his father at the front door did he feel completely safe.

"My dad hugged me and he started crying," Matthew says. "He said he was scared and that he was very glad to see me." Matthew, covered with ashes and bits of concrete, said a prayer of thanks on the spot.

Meanwhile, Phillip, a friend and two teachers were also trying to get away from the deadly cloud of dust and debris.

"It was like breathing in fire and smoke," he says. "We were running, and we had to stop and make ourselves cough some of that stuff up, because it was very bad."

They thought they might not make it. But Phillip prayed, "God, show me the way," and almost instantly got an answer: An unlocked parked car. Phillip opened the door and told the others to jump in. Then he jumped in and shut the door behind him.

Clean air! They could breathe again.

"It's amazing that we found the car," Phillip says. "In New York, you never find parked cars that are unlocked. I think God provided that for us."

In the car, they caught their breath and dusted off. Soon, they were on the move again, running all the way to Phillip's home, where his mother had feared the worst, at one point saying to God, "He is with you!"

But moments later, shortly after Matthew had been reunited with his dad at the church, Phillip fell into his mom's arms at home.

"We got to the lobby," he says, "and the elevator door opened, and my mom was there. She was crying and she hugged me and everything."

Phillip told his mom that God had given him peace, direction and endurance all the way home.

"God was in control"

As Matthew and Phillip look back on the incident, they talk about how it changed their lives forever.

For one thing, it's changed their daily routine, because their school building was temporarily closed. Though it wasn't damaged, the area was deemed unsafe. And for a while, Matthew and Phillip attended another high school uptown. Instead of going a few blocks to their old school, they had to take a train to their new one.

Second, there's the empty skyline—a constant reminder of what happened.

"My dad used to drive me to school every day," Matthew says, "and throughout the whole ride, you could see the World Trade Center. And now, every time I walk to church, I look up where the buildings are supposed to be, but they're not. Every day is a reminder."

And then there were the fears and bad dreams.

"I couldn't sleep the first night," Matthew says. "And for a while after that, I had some nightmares—dreams about things getting blown up, family and friends getting hurt, our country going to war, stuff like that. But I have no fears right now. I feel OK."

Phillip hasn't had any nightmares—he says that's "straight from God"—but he had some fears in the days after the attack.

"Every time a plane flew over, I would get kind of scared," he says.

Both guys say the experience has brought them closer to God.

"It has actually increased my faith," says Matthew. "When I think about what happened, it could've been much worse. Those buildings could have fallen to the side and knocked over other buildings, like a domino effect. What if it had fallen like that while I was in school?

"I have no doubts God was there, that he was in control. Some people are saying God did this, but I don't think so. I think he just let it happen, you know? I don't think anything evil comes from God."

Phillip adds, "I just want to keep living my life, and that's it. I just have to trust in God; there's nothing else I can really do."

He says that won't be difficult.

"If it wasn't for God, I wouldn't have made it out of there in one piece," Phillip says. "Maybe I would've made it out alive, but I definitely would've gotten hurt.

"This has changed my whole perspective on life. Now I love God even more. Now I'm starting to live day to day, instead of month to month and year to year, because you never know what might happen."

Read more from 'It Happened to Me'

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