Anger of survivors told to stay inside blazing towers

Guardian Unlimited Observer ^ | September 16, 2001 | Ed Vulliamy

[JoeSchem]

Anger of survivors told to stay inside blazing towers

Workers fleeing in panic were sent back into inferno

Special report: terrorism in the US

Ed Vulliamy, New York

Sunday September 16, 2001

The Observer

There was rising anger across downtown Manhattan yesterday as more and more stories from survivors of Tuesday's assault converged on the horrific truth: that staff had been instructed to remain - or even return - inside No 2 World Trade Centre after the first tower had been hit and was in flames.

Most were turned back by officials of the Port Authority, which had commissioned and supervised the building of the centre in the Sixties.

Workers had looked across the divide after 8.48am at an inferno in their twin tower, and decided to make a run for it. They were told, however, to remain in their seats.

Others, who had made it down stairwells towards - or even out into - the lobby giving out on to the street and freedom, were told to run back upstairs, so that during the crucial 15 minutes of what should have been escape, there was confusion and a two-way rush along the panic-stricken arteries of life.

Meanwhile, the frantic rescue operation amid an apparently endless ocean of rubble continued yesterday, with 4,717 people now listed as missing. But for all their desperate efforts, and the long line of construction and former military volunteers waiting for days to join them, workers faced the grim reality that for many further people to be found alive under the original collapse would be a miracle.

In the flood of statistics that has followed the attacks on Tuesday morning, one stands out: Zero, the number of living survivors of the initial collapse rescued since Wednesday morning.

The last person to be found alive underneath the federal building in Oklahoma City was brought into the light 24 hours after the bomb that wrecked it.

The same is so far true of the World Trade Centre, with rescue workers pinning their final hopes on the system of train tunnels leading underneath the financial district, yesterday being pumped clear of flooding and groundwater.

The evidence that people were instructed by employers and security guards to remain in the south tower, and thus were condemned to death, is spreading this weekend.

Ernie Falk, who delivered packages to the offices of Morgan Stanley, the towers' biggest tenant, said that he was walking into the bank's reception area when he heard a 'horrendous boom' of the first plane's impact, and made a successful run for it.

But he told The Observer that as he ran downstairs, 'I heard people being told, "The building is secure. The safest place is inside; stay calm and do not leave". That's what they were saying. They were telling people to go back up to their offices and their desks, like the building was not in danger.'

A broker with the Morgan Stanley bank said that she had made it out on to the staircase and galloped more than 20 floors when she heard a voice on a megaphone telling her and others in flight to return and go back upstairs to the sixtieth floor.

The woman, who wished to be known as Eileen, said that she was consulting her lawyers with a view to taking the Port Authority to task, and would be in touch with Governor George Pataki - the nominal chief of the authority - to report what she saw.

The bank's employees duly went back upstairs, fighting a tidal flow of people from higher storeys running down, and sat at their desks.

When the second plane hit their own tower minutes later, at 9.03 am, 27 floors further up, all those remaining rose. Some went to windows and perished one way or another; others, like Eileen, ran back to the stairwell to try another dash, and some of those survived.

Another Morgan Stanley employee, Arturo Domingo, told the New York Times that he too had started down from the sixtieth floor, and was told to go back up by a man with a bullhorn. 'I really felt like punching that guy,' he said of the official, after returning to his office and managing a second escape following the second attack.

The announcements urging people to go back up were being made on the fortieth and forty-fourth floors, apparently by Port Authority officials.

People who worked in offices above the ninety-third storey would have been able to reach their workplaces only for the second plane to plough into the tower beneath them - leaving them with little or no chance of survival.

Any workers positioned on floors 87 to 93 would have been sent directly back into the path of the Boeing 767, and at the heart of the fireball.

One of those would have been Mary Thomas, had she obeyed instructions. Thomas worked in an architecture studio on the ninety-first storey, which was entirely taken out by the second plane. The scenes of confusion in the attempted evacuation of the second tower contrast markedly with those in the first, where the terrorists' plane hit higher.

There, the evacuation was orderly and fast, with people obviously managing to walk or run to safety from floors as high as the upper eighties.

Port Authority officials refused to comment on the reports about the south tower yesterday, and there was confusion about who was responsible for evacuation policy.

But the accounts were borne out by firefighters and rescue workers on Friday. They told The Observer unofficially that the majority of the bodies thus far extracted appeared to be towards the southern end of the tower complex - beneath the second tower to be hit, the first to fall.

[JoeSchem]

The government failed to anticipate the attack. The FAA's security precautions did not prevent it. The military failed to protect us.

And now we learn the Port Authority sent people back to their deaths.

Psalm 146:3 - "Do not trust in princes, in mortal man in whom there is no salvation."

The Cydonia Files

[okie_tech]

We saw this in interviews all day on Sat. We were furious. I would have kicked some bastard down the stairs in front of me on my way down.

[WIMom]

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[monkeywrench]

"The evidence that people were instructed by employers and security guards..." Security guards.

[LoneGOPinCT]

Heard the same from family friends whose father is still missing. Article is HERE. He called them to say everything was OK after the first crash and that they were told to stay put.

[karpach]

I saw the head of Security on CNN. After the first attack, as the first tower was being evacuated, they did tell tell the second tower employees to stay put. Not knowing there was another immenent attack, they thought it safer for the people in the second tower to remain in the building. Remember, at this time, all they knew was that a plane had hit the building (accident?), there was large, flaming debris falling from the building, people were jumping to their deaths, AND they were evacauting the first tower. To evacuate the second would not only have caused additional confusion, but also would have been dangerous with the falling debris (and people). Obviously in hindsight that was the wrong choice. But, they did not have all the facts. They did not yet know the first plane was intentional, nor were they warned by the FAA or NORAD that a second plane was "non-responsive." I'm not sure the Port Authority should shoulder the blame. I don't know why a second warning was not given to the port authority (there was at least 15 min.?). And for that matter, why weren't goverment buildings evacuated when it was known a third aircraft was "unresponsive" and headed toward Washington?

[KSCITYBOY]

My comments on this are: People made the wrong decisions - Stuff like this almost always happens in a caotic environment. Keep your eye on the ball and never forget that these mistakes would never have happened if a bunch of murdering SOBS hadn't flown 2 planes into two buildings where thousands of innocent people were working. They were probably trying to keep people from getting hit by falling debris from plane number one. Hindsite is always 20/20

[dead]

The woman, who wished to be known as Eileen, said that she was consulting her lawyers with a view to taking the Port Authority to task

ChaChing. Bad advice from a $5 an hour security guard should be worth a cool twenty million, with the right bloodsucking lawyer on your arm.

[lavaroise]

CAn you say SHEEPLE for those who did not dare disobey the "law".

[smorgle]

there was confusion about who was responsible for evacuation policy

No there wasn't. If this had gone well, we'd have heard Giuliani thanking them.

[pubmom]

I know this story is true. One of my husband's former work associates had a sister that was told by her employer to go back to work.
She has not been heard from since.

[dead]

No there wasn't. If this had gone well, we'd have heard Giuliani thanking them.

Well it didn’t go well, and the people who urged others to stay inside are now dead for their mistakes. Maybe you can dance on their grave.

[nagdt]

Thanks for the disturbing post. It's amazing that people didn't use their heads. At some point (like right away) everyone in the building that wanted to leave should have ignored the security people. I'm sure the security guards and building people thought they were doing the right thing. Fire and debris falling away from tower one etc... It's easy for us to condemn this guy and that guy from where we sit. Let's stop blaming our own for the tragedy and get on with the task of rounding up the people that want to kill us. FOLLOW THE MONEY.

[Publius6961]

The evidence that people were instructed by employers and security guards to remain in the south tower, and thus were condemned to death, is spreading this weekend.

All of those arrogant (and evidently "clueless") S.O.B.s need to be identified and locked up for years. There are only 3 reasons why someone would order other people to do such a stupid thing:

1. Getting in good with the boss, and minimize idle time.
2. Ignorance coupled with arrogance: Looks OK to me.
3. Ignorance coupled with Napoleon Complex: I am in charge here and I order you back up.(I would run right over this guy)

Terminal stupidity should also be a punishable crime.
Criminal negligence already is.

[dead]

How about number 4:

Their building had not been attacked yet, and there was chunks of the other tower, the airplane, and human bodies crashing to the street outside.

With regards to imprisoning the people who made that erroneous judgement call, you'll have to dig them out of the rubble before you can lock them up.

[Publius6961]

One of my husband's former work associates had a sister that was told by her employer to go back to work. She has not been heard from since.

But I bet she gets a "perfect attendance" ribbon.

Never challenge authority.
Even when your life is on the line, never think for yourself.

[Publius6961]

With regards to imprisoning the people who made that erroneous judgement call, you'll have to dig them out of the rubble before you can lock them up.

I think you will find that, being on the ground floor already, most made it out.
I wouldn't expect them to volunteer that information, however.

Shall we ask the almost-victims? Easy enough to do, I imagine.

A parting thought: there is a certain symmetry to people who die because they lack the "common sense" gene.
When they cause others to die, it is entirely a different matter.

You wouldn't by any chance be one of the #s 1-3 would you? A bureaucrat perhaps?