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General Moto | Off-Topic Posts
WTC 1st hand account of a survivor
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[QUOTE="scar tissue, post: 164226, member: 21098"] Thought that some of you may want to look at this recount of yesterdays events from the perspective of a survivor. I do not personally know this person. This person is a client of one of my clients. Never the less it is very interesting. Subject: FW: First Hand Account from Adaytum This note was sent by an employee of Adaytum who was in the WTC at the time of the attack. > Hello everyone, > As you know, I had kind of a rough day yesterday. All Adaytum and > D&T people who were on our call got out quickly and are all fine. Other > than my swollen feet from walking all day, I am personally no worse for > the wear. > We got to the WTC at about 8:30 to prepare for our 9:00 > presentation...nothing out of the ordinary there. We were issued photo > IDs at the security desk to gain access to the towers...I wondered whether > I was supposed to save it or not for the next time I visited the WTC. > John Sindel had gotten his laptop booted and the projector ready for the > demo when out of the blue there was a large explosion and the building > lurched to one side - my immediate thought were that it was either an > earthquake, or another bomb in the basement. The building only swayed for > a few seconds, as we were simply frozen waiting to see what was going to > happen. The building stabilized, and we all quickly left the room and > headed to the stairs. I made a point to go to the other side of the room > to grab my laptop case and my suit jacket...I was sporting my spiffy new > Italian suit that day, and sure as hell wasn't going to leave my jacket > behind, or my laptop. Figured it would be days before any items left in > the buildings would be returned. > So, from the 63rd floor we joined the exodus out of the building. > Everything was amazingly orderly...no one was hysterical or otherwise > freaking out, although a few were trembling and crying a bit, but you > can't blame them for that. Thing was, we all figured that what ever had > happened was over, and we were safe, although inconvenienced by having to > climb down all those stairs to leave the building. The thought didn't > enter my mind that the actual structure of the building had been > compromised...had anyone understood exactly how grave our situation was, I > don't think we would have been quite as cool and collected as we were. On > the way to the stairs, we could see debris (a LOT of debris) falling from > above - we reasoned that it must have been a plan that hit the building > above us, rather than anything that had occured below us. Immediately > upon entering the stairwell, there was a distinct stench that no one could > recognize, figuring it was just some kind of smoke. I knew immediately > what it was, though, because I've smelled enough different fuels burning > in my life to recognize that these had to be the fumes from the burning > airplane fuel - which meant if nothing else, we were perhaps at risk of > carbon monoxide poisoning. I didn't mention my analysis of the stench - > figured there was nothing we could do about it, and didn't want to give > everybody a reason to panic. People coming in from the floors were > bringing wet paper towels with them, so eventually we all were trying to > breathe through those, which helped a bit. Somewhere around the 40th > floor there was a guy in a wheelchair, clearly unable to move on his own, > in the stairwell with a couple people attending to him trying to figure > out how to get him out of the building. A few floor later, a woman was > being attended to for one reason or another - later, we saw an eyewitness > report on TV from a guy who evidently had been in our stairwell too (he > started on the 65th floor) - he related seeing the guy in the wheelchair, > and a woman who was having a heart attack on the way down. > Things progressed fairly smooothly until we got into the low 30s - > then the descent slowed as we had reached the total maximum capacity of > the stairs, and it was like stop-n-go traffic in Chicago the rest of the > way down. On the 25th floor or so we were met by firefighters coming up > the stairs. They were completely exhausted, not only from the climb but > all the equipment they were carrying. The fire chief (said so on his hat) > sat down on the stairs next to me, as I was standing on the platform at > that floor, to wait for his men to break into the locked door to that > floor. The firefighters wouldn't say much, other than confirming that it > was a plane that hit the building, and that we simply needed to continue > down. When the men had opened the door, the chief got up and collected > his equipment, but dropped a pry bar on his way to the door. I picked up > the pry bar and shouted "Chief!" to get his attention, but he was already > gone - one of the other firefighters took the pry bar, and probably 20 of > them entered that floor. I think they must have been planning to use the > elevators to go up higher - I don't believe there was any damage to that > floor. > Somewhere around the 15th floor a water pipe must have burst in the > building - the stairs became a waterfall, and women were being advised to > put their shoes back on due to broken glass at the bottom. Eventually we > made it to ground level...I will spare you a description of what I saw on > the ground outside the building. It was like a scene out of a movie, or a > war reel. I chose not to look at the scene for too long, and proceeded as > directed by police to the basment level, which connected the towers to a > mall on the other side of the street. The floor was covered in broken > glass and debris, and a good 3 to 6 inches of water. We made our way to > the mall, and back up and out the other side. Once outside the building > we turned to view the damage to the tower...and were amazed. We had no > idea the damage was that bad - and we also didn't know that the second > tower had been hit. At first I reasoned that probably the whole plane > didn't hit the first tower, and the wreckage probably continued to the > second - it wasn't until someone on the street told us that there was a > second plane. The police corraled us to about a block away, and from that > point there were thousands of spectators gawking at the surreal view > provided them. There were about 8 of us, including both Adaytum and D&T > people, at that presentation...we had gotten seperated on the way down, > and at this point I was accompanied by Graham Mew and Scott Wallace (D&T). > We had no idea where the others were, such as John Sindel and Steve Peck, > but we were confident that they had gotten out of the building. > We lingered for a couple minutes, then decided to just get away from > the scene and all the ruckus. We walked for several blocks in no > particular direction but "away" before happening to run into another of > our D&T compatriates (Bob). We stopped at a small bakery while the other > guys stood in line to use the pay phone outside - cellphones were useless > as all the circuits were used up. I bought a small coffee and a pastry of > some kind and waited for them inside. I wasn't in any hurry to call > anyone, since I didn't think any of my friends or family knew I was in NY > anyway. In a short while, Bob and Graham and Scott had made thier calls, > and Bob suggested that perhaps we should just head to another D&T office > in the city, since we really had no where else to go. Bad thing was that > the office was up near Broadway - about 50 blocks away, and it wasn't like > we were going to be able to get a taxi. > On the way out of the bakery, we turned to look at the towers and > suddenly realized that something was terribly wrong...there was only 1 > tower. One of the towers had collapsed while we weren't watching, which > shocked us all. None of us thought there was any threat of such a > thing...I relalized that probably the jet fuel (we'd by then found out > that they were fully fueled commercial airliners that hit) soaked thorugh > the interior of the tower, and the heat from it's fire compromised the > metal superstructure of the building. It was also while at the bakery > that we were told the Pentagon had been hit as well, and that this was > clearly an act of terrorism, rather than some aweful accident. > We continued walking towards Broadway, occasionally pausing to > listen to someone's car radio, as people congregated around them to hear > the radio reports. A short while later, the people we were walking > towards on the sidewalk gasped, and we turned to see the other tower > crumble and fall. The resulting cloud of smoke was enormous...and that > was all you could see from then on - there wasn't enough of the towers > left to see at all. > Eventually our tired and swollen feet made it to the D&T building, > where we relaxed a bit and made some phone calls. We watched TV for a bit > while pondering what to do - we all just wanted to get out of the city, > but the roads and trains had all been shut down. After watching the news > for a while, where we actually saw footage of the second plane hitting the > second tower, we were advised that the trains had resumed service out of > the city (but not it). So we took to the street once more and headed to > Penn Station, where after a moderate wait we boarded a train on the > Trenton line, which was the line that Graham had used to come into the > city that day. His car was parked at the Metro Park station - but he had > left his keys in the WTC. After conferring with his wife about possibly > getting a second set of keys to that station, we instead decided to ride > all the way to Trenton, where one of Graham's friends picked us up and > took us to Graham's house, on the outskirts of the Philadelphia area. We > arranged for hotel rooms, went to Target to buy a few essentials, and by > the time I had gotten to my hotel room and showered, I was so tired that I > simply couldn't keep awake even to eat, and was sound asleep by probably > 8:30. > So, here we are...Scott and I are probably going to get a car and > drive home, or maybe Amtrak. Should be home in a day or two. I left my > cell phone in Graham's car overnight to recharge (my wall-socket charger > was left in my hotel room - in a hotel about 1 block from the WTC. I have > no idea if that hotel even exists anymore), but will have it with me for > the rest of the trip home. The number is ###-###-####. My total losses > for the event are just what I had left in my hotel room (I was planning on > staying the night there again yesterday) - just clothes and boots and > assorted other stuff. A few of the rest of us lost our laptops, etc., but > not a whole lot of that matters much. We got lucky, and that's all there > is to it. Neither strength, nor skill, nor knowledge would have saved you > had you been in the floors above where the planes hit. By the simple > stroke of luck that we were 20 floors below the impact we we able to > survive. I am grimly rather sure that no one who was above the impact > zone made it out. But we did...with my precious little laptop...think > maybe I'll have it bronzed or something. > > > (name deleted) > > > [/QUOTE]
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WTC 1st hand account of a survivor
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