2008 September 11th remembrance thread

SkiDork said:

Most of you have prolly seen this before. But it's appropriate for today.

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My WTC attack experience

I arrived at work on 09/11/01 at the usual time of 04:35 AM. It was a pretty clear night out there, as I looked at the Statue of Liberty and the Verrazano Bridge through the windows which face south. I ‘m located on the 58th floor of 2 World Trade Center, also known as the South Tower. I work for a company called Bridge Information Systems, which occupied 58 and half of 57.

I had my usual 2 cups of coffee, while I was checking the systems, catching up on e-mail and reading about the latest happenings in the industry as I do every morning.

The next people on my side of the floor started arriving at the usual 07:30 or so. They turned on the lights (I always keep them off in the morning, I like that better, you can still see fine).

Around about 08:40 or so I got a call from my parents. We were chatting about something when all of a sudden there was a very loud bang, followed almost immediately by a shower of thousands of pieces of 8-1/2 x 11 white paper, along with some flaming debris. The flaming debris and ash fell on the surrounding rooftops and the street. The paper was just fluttering around everywhere.

I told my parents that someone must have exploded a letter bomb up on the roof of our building, as that is where the observation deck is. I hung up with them and proceeded to call my wife and tell her I think some kind of bomb went off. She said she would check the TV and get back to me. By this time it was approximately 08:55.

She called back quickly and said that a plane had hit the other tower. I thanked her and walked over to the other side of the floor, which faces north. I looked up. There it was, a huge flaming and smoking hole in the side of the building about 20 or 30 floors up. The atrium between the two towers was littered with dust and debris.

I ran back to our side and told my boss and a few other co-workers that a plane had hit the other tower. We all ran back to check it out, and then walked back to our side. We discussed whether or not we should go downstairs. My boss and 2 others took the local elevator down to the 44th floor skylobby, but were told to go back up as there was no reason to evacuate. They came back up.

I was back at my desk. At about 09:00 or so the fire alarm announcement came, they said “Everything is OK with 2. The only problem is with 1 so if you’re in 2 please stay where you are” I walked back over to the north side and looked again at the hole. Someone said “Oh my God, someone is jumping’. As soon as I heard that, I walked right back to my desk. That was not something I wanted to witness.

Now, about 5 minutes after the announcement there was another very loud bang which actually rocked the building and knocked me on my butt. White boards fell off the walls, and some of the walls cracked. I immediately knew we were under attack. I grabbed my wallet and headed for the stairs.

In the hallway as I passed the freight elevator I could hear it freefalling, and people screaming. I also heard the cables thwacking against the walls of the elevator shaft. I then entered the staircase. There were some people in it, but the going was fairly quick. It got progressively slower with each floor. I grabbed my crucifix, which was around my neck and started reciting the Lords Prayer over and over again. I never stopped saying it. In the back of my mind I had the feeling the building may fall (I thought we might get hit again). Every so often the procession of people would come to a halt, which was not pleasant. It stopped a total of 6 times, each for about 1 minute. I didn’t know if it would ever start up again. Thankfully it always would, albeit a minute or two later. On some landings there were women’s shoes and clothing that people had discarded. There were some women behind me who were crying and saying “I hate this building I hate this building” and I actually said to myself “no more tall buildings for me…” Thankfully our staircase was lit and there was no water in it. We didn’t pass any firemen, I think they were probably mostly all in 1. When we got to the 44 skylobby we had to switch staircases (actually the staircases just went around the elevator shafts so there was a horizontal walk to get to the next section). It was here that I saw the head of security of Morgan Stanley, he was holding a megaphone and saying “keep moving, keep walking, you’re doing OK” – reassuring us so to speak. At the time I didn’t know who he was but later on I say a dateline NBC show about him. Apparently he went back up to make sure everyone in his company had gotten out. Unfortunately he didn’t make it out. I finally got down about 30 or 40 minutes later. That’s when I started seeing firemen. I looked out to the mall and saw a bunch of debris but it was a quick look and I didn’t see any of the carnage of the people jumping. The police escorted us to the lower mall level and then out by Borders books on Church St. They told us to walk over to Broadway, which I did at a fast pace.

When I got to Broadway, I turned left and headed north. I looked back at the buildings just once, and got overcome by sadness and grief when I saw the large burning and smoking holes. The World Trade Center was like a friend to me, I was very excited to be working there. This was just so horrifically sad to see a friend in as bad shape as this. Little did I know what was yet to come. I resolved not to look back again.

I headed toward the courthouses and ran into another coworker standing by City Hall. I told him that I could not stop and gawk with all the thousands of others. I had to keep walking. I was still shaking with fear and sadness at this point.

I made my way north toward Penn Station, winding my way through the streets. I kept trying to call Maria on the cell phone, but it was just not getting through. It was rather hot and humid out and I started to sweat. I stopped in at a Korean deli and bought a bottle of water as all I had had was coffee that morning. I kept moving toward Penn Station. The streets were virtually empty, except for emergency vehicles.

Next I stopped by a building and eavesdropped on a conversation between a doorman and a passerby. I heard the doorman say something about a tower falling down. I thought he was simply referring to the Television tower on top of 1 WTC. I pressed on toward Penn Station.

When I got to 30th Street and I heard from others that Penn station had been evacuated, I stopped by the police precinct and asked where the nearest church was. The policeman said there was one on the next block between 6th and 7th. I strode over to St. Francis of Assisi and entered the church. There happened to be a mass in progress, although nearing the end. I sat in a pew and participated in the rest of the mass. They had everyone come up and get their forehead stamped with something I knew not what. I got stamped. When the mass was through, I spent another 30 minutes going to each Jesus and/or Mary statue there, getting on my knees and thanking them for sparing my life. I also prayed for the poor souls who were still trapped in the building, not knowing about any collapse. I lit a candle. I put $10 into the poor box. I left the church.

Across the street was a firehouse. I wandered over there where I encountered other citizens talking with the firemen who hadn’t been called yet. They were performing an immensely useful public service – making the general public feel welcome to just mill around in front of the firehouse, a virtual “safe haven”. I felt overwhelming respect for these brave men. All I had wanted to do was to flee that terrible scene, yet all they were going to do was run towards it. They truly are New York’s Bravest.

One of the firemen informed us that 2 WTC had collapsed to the ground. I felt shaky and overcome with grief. After all this was my building. The fireman asked if I would like to sit down, which I did.

Another passerby asked the firemen where he could donate blood. I immediately thought to myself “that’s a damn good idea”. I can pay back some for sparing my life. The firemen said the nearest hospital was Bellevue over on 28th and 1st. I started out for Bellevue. On the way I picked up a large chocolate chip cookie, as I still hadn’t eaten.

I made it over to Bellevue and waited in front along with the throngs of others. At one point they asked if anyone was a universal donor, which I am. I was told to go inside to wait. They gave me a long questionnaire to fill out. I borrowed a pen from a man in a white coat. I filled out the form. I then could not find the man I borrowed it from so I passed it along to another prospective donor. I also gave an interview to a New York Times reporter.

They took groups of 50 upstairs and started to take our blood pressure, temperature and pulse. The nurse commented that my pulse was a bit high (100) and she would come to check it again later. I explained that I had just left 2 WTC. The rest of the group heard this and started asking what had happened. I started relating this story. They were in awe. They started offering me food and juice, which I took advantage of as I was still hungry. The woman next to me gave me a hug, which I really needed at this point. The hospital personnel eventually came out and told us they had run out of blood bags and could not take out blood today. They thanked us for making the effort. I was not disappointed, as I had done all that I could.

I now exited Bellevue hospital and called Maria. She said that Eric from the Killington chat room had offered to have me come over to 40th and Park where he was. He said there was food and refreshments there and he would help me get home. I started out for 100 Park Ave. As I left the hospital I offered an interview to a Channel 7 news crew. They accepted. A few blocks north I encountered a Channel 2 news crew who also took my story.

When I got to my destination it turned out that the whole building had already left. I then called Phil from the Killington chat room who had offered to have me stay with him. I told him that I would walk over to Penn Station and check out the situation. If it was still not running, I would take him up on his offer. I walked west along 40th street.

I eventually came to a 7 train subway stop. I descended the stairs and found that the 7 was indeed running. I got onto the 7 train which goes above ground in Queens. I did not look at the WTC at all. I didn’t want to. I had planned on catching the LIRR at Woodside, but an announcement was made that no LIRR service was available there. I instead changed at 74th St. for the E train to Jamaica. There I lined up at the “Babylon” sign and waited for a man with a megaphone to announce what track the train was to be on. 15 minutes later a Babylon train arrived on track 7 which I was able to board and get home on.

Aftermath so far: Fox News saw the Times story and asked me to appear on the O’Reilly Factor show. I agreed and on Wednesday (09./12) was limo-ed into Manhattan, appeared on the show and then was limo-ed home. I also went in on Friday (09/14) to again appear on Fox News, this time with Linda Viesters. And here I now sit.

Aftermath #2: The firehouse where I spent an hour or so was the firehouse that Father Mike Judge lived (makes sense because it was across the street from St. Francis of Assisi and he was a Franciscan Priest). Father Judge was the Fire Dept. chaplain who was killed by a falling person while administering last rites to a fellow human.

Aftermath #3: On the 1 year anniversary, I went down to ground zero and walked the perimeter. It took an hour. I stopped and prayed a few times. I was choking back tears the whole time. In the afternoon I was able to ring a large bell in the street between the firehouse and St. Francis church where I had been one year earlier.

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drjeff said:

Dork, we're all mighty happy that your here and able to post your experience on this day. :flag:

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deadheadskier said:

TMiss you Matt

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SkiDork said:

I don't know what you guys are referring to about the weather. Here in Downtown Manhattan it's been overcast all day.

9/11/01 was crystal clear blue sky.

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