Michigan 9/11 survivor is helping people remember and reflect 25 years later

Lansing, Michigan, is home to an H-beam salvaged from the wreckage after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

It's just one of many memorials in Michigan that Patrick Anderson, who survived the attack, hopes will help people recognize and reflect on one of America's darkest days. 

"It's vital that we think back and think about the people we lost," Anderson said. 

Anderson was inside the Marriott World Trade Center hotel on the morning of Sept 11. At first, according to reporting at the time, people in the hotel were told to shelter in place. But when it became clear that an attack was taking place, Anderson rushed out with just one shoe on. 

"This was an evil act by people who were trying to kill Americans because they hated America," Anderson said. 

Living through the attack has weighed heavily on Anderson, and these days he won't go into detail about what he experienced. Instead, his focus is on storytelling through his website and the Michigan Remembers 9/11 Fund. 

"We have now recorded the names we have pictures from many, we have stories of at least 42 people who died that day from Michigan; people from Detroit, people from Kalamazoo, people from Flint, people who went to the University of Michigan and Michigan State. This wasn't a tragedy that just happened to other people someplace else; this happened to Michigan, too," Anderson said. 

Anderson's website includes a map of the 9/11 memorials across the state, and he hopes people will visit them, read the stories and learn more about those we lost. 

"It's worth reading about them because they were your neighbors," he said.