For many on Sept. 11, survival was no accident

USA Today ^ | 12-19-01 | Dennis Cauchon

[Aurelius]

BUMP

[MissAmericanPie]

What an experience, I'm sorry you had to move and that you lost your job, I hope things are in better shape for you at present. So many lives were effected, I get so angry, especially given that the NA let Ben Ladin escape. We should go in an execute those that demanded the cease fire.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

It's all being done for face time on TV; a primer for her run for the presidency.

You hit the nail right on the head. At present she is "out of position" for a possible successful run at the presidency. She is now scrambling frantically to somehow get herself back "in position."

[Ditter]

Oh course I see the difference & I see the similarities too, thousands of people killed without warning. Tell me why the Jamestown flood & the SF earthquake is in the history books & not the Great Galveston Storm? (Apologies to the history book writers if it is in the history books now, its been a while since I read a textbook.)

[Ditter]

Right!

[RobbyS]

This is not to detract at all from the tragedy that was the Galveston hurricane.

Funny how human memory fades. We have forgotten about Galveston, and the great Flu epidemic of the later WWI periond, which puts the present AIDS epidemic in the shade.

[homeschool mama]

***Oh course I see the difference & I see the similarities too, thousands of people killed without warning. Tell me why the Jamestown flood & the SF earthquake is in the history books & not the Great Galveston Storm? (Apologies to the history book writers if it is in the history books now, its been a while since I read a textbook.)***

The Great Galveston Storm isn't in our history book...but then neither is the Molasses Flood (millions of molasses burst from holding tanks killing hundreds-not a natural disaster) or any number of other natural disasters. Perhaps in Texas during 4th grade the Galveston Storm is discussed along with state history.

My daughter will be studying Texas in January...I'll be certain to put the Great Galveston Storm on our study list. Thank you. ;o)

[dennisw]

btttttttttt

[Redleg Duke]

This can't be true! Senator Clinton has already told us about the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy to murder all of the people in the WTC by substandard design and construction.

Doesn't anyone appreciate the long term developing plot going back to the 1960s? We must investigate...gurgle...this vast rightwing conspiracy!....gurgle....gurgle....

[Amore]

Incredible! Thanks for posting (you, too, Dane!)

[wtc911]

What struck me most about the article is the mention of the elevator mechanics leaving the site. On day two I was doing SAR in the pit. I was working about two levels down with a guy from Alberta, Ala. who had driven non-stop with a buddy just to help. We crawled down through the twisted steel looking for any cavities where survivors might be trapped. Needless to say we found none. There were thick black plastic bags to hold any body parts we fund but there were precious few of those, just dust.

We were working in the rubble of the south tower. We made our way into a bit of a cavern where FDNY people were working. There was no room to do anything but crouch and it was awful hot. The top of an elevator car was exposed and the FDNY was trying to crack it open. They were frustrated by the lack of the proper tools. I realized at the time that they probably thought that the car held the remains of other firefighters who had used it to access higher floors in the first few minutes.

It was so early after the collapse that none of the rubble had been removed, except by hand. Since this elevator car was only about 15 feet below the surface of the pile it probably fell from one of the higher floors. Had it been in the lobby it would have been pulverized.

I couldn't help there so I went on to another area and then back up to the top to look for my son who was also working in the pit. He had survived the attack at GZ and had come back in as a way of fighting back.

There are a thousand images of GZ that will always be with me. The faces of the men trying to crack into the elevator are high on that list.

[sixmil]

You are lucky that you got out of there. You were standing right next to 90 West St in picture 16 which got heavily damaged from falling debris and fire. Where you standing there when Tower 2 came down?

Pretty lucky, yes. I was going to go up to Liberty Street, but my girlfriend begged me not to go any closer.
We were right there across the street from 90 West on the SW corner of Albany and West when the building came down, same as that picture. I saw the building buckle, turned and yelled RUN as the survival instincts and adrenaline kicked in. I didn't know which way the building was falling, just knew that I had to run as far as possible in a few seconds before the building caught up to us. My girlfriend lost a shoe, and started screaming my name as she fell behind, so I had to run back and get her. It felt like we were moving in slow motion, so I threw her behind a brick planter and covered her so that we would have a chance of surviving and hopefully be able to dig out from the ruble. I guess the tower fell straight down and a little in the other direction, and we managed to get a building between us and the tower, so the only thing that came down on us was inches of soot. I heard a few rocks fly over head, but I knew we were OK when I did not hear anything crash down around us and it got real quiet. It was erie since just before there were sirens everywhere and the building grumbled like an avalanche as it came down. I can still hear that sound in my head when it's real quiet. I knew that the silence meant that all those emergency personal at the base of the towers had just been crushed. I finally peeked out and could not even see my hand in front of my face. Finally got to where I could see a little, and we never looked back, not even for the shoe. I can't say for sure, but I believe that we could have just barely survived standing on that corner, but it would have been one hell of a dare with a 110 story building coming down that we had to lean way back to fully see.

[habs4ever]

What an incredible tale you have shared with us here, and your pics are riveting.Thank you.I have bookmarked your photos as well as this article.Your street view of the back side of the North Tower shows how rapidly the fire spread throughout all sides of the building;sometning that isn't apparent from almost all available media sources.What an inferno.

[habs4ever]

ping.He has some photos that may look all too real for you.

[finnman69]

Wow. You were lucky. If you were on Liberty Street you might not be posting here today right now. A good portion of Liberty Street appears to be below grade near the WTC now.

Not to be morbid, but where you when you took the pics of the victims on the street. I assume they are from the first jetliner impact which blew wreckage to the south. All of your pics are from the south of the WTC.

[sixmil]

What an experience, I'm sorry you had to move and that you lost your job, I hope things are in better shape for you at present. So many lives were effected, I get so angry, especially given that the NA let Ben Ladin escape. We should go in an execute those that demanded the cease fire.

I remember how psyched I was to find an apartment right next to the WTC when I moved here from Minnesota. I walked under or between the towers everyday on my way to and from work, weather permitting. I wish I could have it all back. I would even trade that plane that went down in PA for one of the WTC planes, but I imagine most everyone except for the thankless bastards who represent us at the Capitol would agree.

Losing my job was not a big deal since most of our customers were dot coms; it was just a matter of time before we went under too. 9/11 just expedited things.

I count myself very lucky. 3000 people have an amazing story that we will never hear. I got to be right in the thick of things on a day that will go down in history. No one will ever be able to B.S. me, or anyone I know, about what happened that day. I saw it with my own eyes. I hate to say this, but luckily, I am not from New York, so I do not know anyone who died. Everyone else around here does. Two doors down from my girlfriend's parents is the wife of a guy who worked for Canter Fitzgerald. She's 8 months pregnant now, has 2 other kids, and the guy was 2 years younger than me. I went to his wake, no body or casket, just a picture and people lined up out the door to pay their respects. For a while the funeral homes were packed every day and night. I saw six people jump from the north tower that day. I didn't even accept what I was seeing until I saw the 4th one even though they were reporing it on the radio I had with me. I still can't image how you rationalize jumping to your death. Must have been pretty bad up there. Imagine having to make that choice; burn and choke to death or just get it over with.

We'll get bin Laden, he'll pay.

[MissAmericanPie]

I think these people that jumped made the right choice, behind them was certain death, so they threw their fate to a slim chance of survival, I'm sure you begin to rationalize that some people have fallen and been blown back into a building, hit a tree and survied, hoping for a miracle they jumped. I want Ben Ladin to die 3,000 times.

[NYC GOP Chick]

maybe someone can tell me when stories like this one will cease to bring tears. all i know is that it's not yet.

I know that feeling. The ones that still get to me the most are the desperate phone messages that people trapped left for loved ones. While running from the debris of the first tower collapse, I desperately tried to call my father. Thankfully, the cell phones weren't working at that point, or he would have gotten one of those "In case I don't make it..." calls.

I'm also grateful that purely due to fate, I was on the east side of the WTC -- just far enough not to be hit with burning debris, but close enough to be showered with glass. Bystanders on the other sides weren't so lucky. I don't think I'll ever get over that day.

[VOA]

Thanks for the ping! (already got here, but had to come back).

Anyway, here's a Rick Rescorla bump.
--Security Chief for Morgan Stanley, who perished on 9-11...getting virtually all of
Morgan Stanley's crew out of one of towers, despite the soothing messages over the intercom
for workers to stay in place.
I think the number of Morgan Stanley people who got out was in the thousands (3000-4000?)
and they only lost something like 8 people, even though their operation was high up
(something like the 65th floor?).

And of course, Rescorla was also the last man out of the WTC in the 1993 bombing, survivor/hero
in Vietnam, and University of Oklahoma graduate with a masters degree and law degree.
I think he got it all in before he had to check out...