Alumna Karen Eyres’ view from her office window was perfectly clear and sunny.

“I know it is possible for me or anyone else in New York to be sitting at my desk, having my morning coffee and doing my little job and have a commercial jet fly in the window. This is now a fact, a reality.”

Many people would consider that a good thing, but not if that view was on Tuesday, Sept. 11, and you were 60 blocks from the World Trade Center.

That view changed her world forever.

“Now I know what is possible,” Eyres said. “I know it is possible for me or anyone else in New York to be sitting at my desk, having my morning coffee and doing my little job and have a commercial jet fly in the window. This is now a fact, a reality.”

Eyres worked as both a Star reporter and editor from 1981 to 1984. She left NIU, without graduating, three credits short of a bachelor’s degree in December 1984.

Her path in life eventually took her to New York as facilities site manager for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

The corporation’s offices were on the 18th floor of a building located at Madison Avenue and 24th Street, just south of the Empire State Building and 60 blocks directly north of the World Trade Center. Because most of the buildings in lower Manhattan are not very tall, Eyres had a “clear” view of the tragic events.

Eyres did not see the first plane hit, but had a direct view of the aftermath.

“Out the window, we could see a gash in the upper part of the North Tower and black smoke pouring out of the building,” she said. “The sight was so unbelievable, I just stood there, transfixed. I did not think it was a terrorist act, just a horrible, horrible accident.”

After calling her husband to make sure he was safe, Eyres stood with co-workers as the North Tower was engulfed in smoke. Minutes later, the South Tower erupted in an explosion.

“It was a giant billow of fire blowing out the east side of the building,” she said. “I did not see the plane hit the building — it was far enough away that the white plane had disappeared against the sky — so I thought it was a bomb. But we had CNN on the TV set nearby, and they replayed footage of a plane crashing into the building.

“I knew New York was under a terrorist attack. The damage from the second plane was a lot worse than the first. The smoke was thicker and poured out of the South Tower faster. I knew there were many people dead and many more dying. People around me were crying. We were all scared.”

In coping with the tragedy, Eyres drew from her past experiences, including her time at the Star.

“My reporter training at the Northern Star came in really handy on that Tuesday,” she said. “My Star training helped me remain objective and rational in a highly-charged situation.”

Eyres’s main role that day was gathering information from building management and company leadership and relaying it to employees.

Now both Eyres and the rest of New York City are left to pick up the pieces. Every day, she passes literally thousands of flyers, each representing a life lost. The tragedy has greatly changed her life.

“I live my life in 20-minute increments,” she said. “For 20 minutes, I’ll clean, then I’ll nap for 20, then I’ll take a walk for another 20. I have to keep moving. I can’t quite get out of ‘crisis mode.'”

Those 20 minutes will not be New York minutes come March. Eyres and her husband will be moving on, both emotionally and physically, to Los Angeles.