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| View from our office looking North |
September 11, 2001
When I left for work on September 11, 2001, Melinda blew me kisses from the second floor. I chuckled at Melinda’s silly display of affection, waved to her and walked to the path train several blocks from our house—neither of us was prepared for the tragedy to follow.
At 8:10 I departed the path train at WTC and took the elevator to my office. When I arrived, Jareau, a coworker was already sitting at his desk. Shortly after, at 8:30am Brajesh, another coworker arrived. I started on my first cup of coffee from our slick coffee machine and enjoyed the beautiful view looking North at the Empire State Building. We all agreed that it was a perfect fall day—crisp fall air getting warmed by a summer sun with a few bright clouds in the air. I was talking with Jareau about his motorcycle. He had ridden it to work, and was telling me that he decided to sell it. Brajesh was instant messaging with his daughter.
8:46
Suddenly, there was a tremendous explosion. The entire building rocked so hard that I grabbed my arm rests to stabilize myself—the building rumbled through the core as if the explosion was coming up the elevator shafts. I looked out the window and saw huge chunks of the building falling past our window. I could feel the building rocking back and forth with such force that it seemed likely that we would be falling in moments. Jareau asked, “what was that?” I said “its a bomb”. After less than a minute, it felt like the building had regained its stability. I guessed that a bomb must have gone up the elevators and blown the top off the building. I said we need to leave now. “Don’t take anything, just leave.” Jareau said, “I just was looking at the emergency stairs yesterday! I know where to go!” A man from the bathroom ran into our room and asked, “What happened?” The poor guy was trying to get his pants up. It was then I noticed our doors had been blown open and smoke was coming out of the ceiling. Brajesh, Jareau, and I jumped out of our chairs and ran for the door. Then, either Brajesh or Jareau wanted their bag, so we all went back for our back packs and Jareau grabbed his helmet. I told Brajesh and Jareau that what ever we do, we need to stick together and get each other out of the building. Our priority was to get out safely. Down the steps we ran.
We raced down the first 5 flights or so of stairs. When we got to the 79th floor, it was getting busy, but people were moving fast. The 77th floor was locked, so we made it in on the 78th, which was the sky lobby—the location where the express elevators stopped and dropped people off who needed to go higher. The lobby was a disaster. It seemed my guess was right that a bomb had gone up the core of the building. Doors were blown off some of the elevators, and huge chunks of sheetrock were falling off the interior walls. I told Jareau that it seemed likely one of our colleagues could have been in the elevators. I also wondered about my neighbor Liz, who worked 2 flights below me on the 83rd floor. Had she made it to work? Was she on the elevator? Was she evacuating as well?
The three of us passed the elevators and quickly started walking down the next flight of stairs, where it was getting more and more crowded. As we passed through the door, a worker for the world trade center confirmed that a plane had crashed, and maybe a private plane. Jareau was a little relieved for a minute, but I told him that if that was a small plane, it would have to have been packed with explosives to cause the kind of damage it did. I was still sure it was a terrorist attack. A few flights down, we started to walk a little slower.
9:03 Second Building hit. Jareau felt a tremor and momentarily wondered if the building was destabilizing. I didn’t feel it, but it passed. Jareau and I kept on talking about everything as we went down. I had a cell phone, but was afraid to turn it on because the battery wasn’t charged. We both were relived that we could breathe and there was sufficient lighting in the stairwell. An African-American woman was crying in the stairwell. I talked with her for a bit. People started to become a bit agitated and yelling to move. Word came up that we needed to be patient and wait (by 9:10 we pretty much were at a crawl). We made room so that half the stairwell was open. Two men came down with a third burn victim in their arms. The victim’s clothes were in tatters and he appeared to be oozing everywhere. Again we worried about our co-workers….
We continued down the stairs feeling relatively safe. There was no smoke in the stairs and people were polite and orderly. In the upper 30’s, we saw the first two firefighters going up. They had axes and oxygen, but not much else.
After about 30 minutes, we found ourselves around the 23rd floor. There, we had to cross over another sky lobby and take a different stairway. On that level were many, many firefighters. They were all pretty tired from carrying up quite heavy gear. Inside the 23rd floor, there was also smoke. People were really backed up waiting to get down the stairs. In the confusion, Jareau, Brajesh, and I slipped a little ahead. Once we hit the stairs, we were able to run again. We raced down the steps, and for the last five or so flights, we waded through rushing water.
What we saw when we burst out onto the Mezzanine of the World Trade Center was only the beginning of the shock. As we stepped out, we were flooded with sunlight. Through the windows, many of which were broken, we could see debris everywhere. People told us to move quickly. Someone said “Run” (we were jogging a little), another said, “DON’T LOOK OUT THE WINDOWS”. Of course, Jareau and I looked out the windows. Jareau said, “Oh God, it is just like the internet videos that show people falling.” I thought, “much worse”. There were piles of yellowish flesh that had no human form, yet we knew it was the bodies of people who had fallen (later we found out that many of them had jumped because of the extreme heat and smoke). We ran along the green carpet of the mezzanine around to the second corner and got in a short line to walk down the escalators to the basement. You could see hundreds of emergency vehicles. At the top of the stairs, was a fire captain. I saw a man in front of me offer his skills. I remembered that I had first aid skills, and thought that I better mention it…why I don’t know. As Jareau and Brajesh started down the stairs, the captain pulled me aside for a few moments. Then he said, you see those ambulances? Head over to them and tell them I sent you” (I forgot the captain’s name, but I am pretty certain he died). I went down the escalator and found Jareau and Brajesh looking panicked. I told them what happened, found out neither had any first aid skills, and decided to stick with them to the end of the building.
We jogged by the flower shop, the huge bank of escalators leading down to the path train, Godiva, the drug store, and borders music and books. The whole area was flooded with water and deserted. We knew it was going to be awhile before we came back. (We still did not know the extent of the damage above us). We ran until we went up the stairs right be Borders. That stairway left us in the North-East Corner of the World Trade Center Complex.
We crossed the street and looked up. It was an amazing site. Orange flames were shooting out of a dozen stories on both towers, pumping black smoke into the bright blue sky. We walked backwards trying to wrap our minds around what we were seeing. Just then, World Trade Center 1 began to crumble.. Once again, it appeared our lives were in severe danger.
At this point, Jareau, Brajesh, and I started to run at different speeds and different directions. I ran to the end of the block and saw a large building with pillars on the corner of Fulton and Broadway. I hid behind one of the pillars as I saw a huge plume of dust and smoke approach. The dust came in and it was amazingly quite. I covered my mouth with my shirt and closed my eyes. The dust was so thick I thought what a waste to get this far and suffocate to death. Luckily, someone next to me said they found a door and were entering the building. I felt my way around the pillar and also entered the building and could breathe again. I was in 195 Broadway. Dust was everywhere and only one other woman was in the lobby.
When I walked outside, the first thing I noticed was that everything was covered in thick dust, several inches thick. I police car across the street had fire coming out of its trunk. I went to a bank on the corner of the street to look for Jareau and Brajesh. I didn’t find them, but I did find several people with minor injuries and one woman who was severely burned and appeared in shock. Her face was dusty and smudged with dust and blood.
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| Picture of woman I helped before the collapse |
I ran out and flagged down an ambulance. The two EMTs looked completely in shock as well, but they pulled out a chair and got the injured woman into the back of the ambulance. Looking up at the north tower, I thought it only a matter of time before that building collapsed as well and it was time for me to continue moving.
10:28 Second Building Collapses
I walked North on Broadway until a police officer directed me East. I turned down Ann St. and walked another half a block. Just then, the second tower began to collapse. I saw some people going into a building under construction and followed them in. A family with a young child offered me a medical mask sometimes used in construction. They told me their house was getting renovated, so they took the masks when the first tower fell and began their evacuation. We waited a few minutes until the cloud disappeared and went our different ways.
I ended up at the New York Downtown Hospital and thought maybe I would be able to find a phone. Unfortunately, there was only one pay phone and a line 50 people long. Instead, I received some wet gauze to clean my eyes and headed north again.
I crossed Worth St. and briefly thought about walking to NABS, my former employer. I knew they would be happy to see me, but thought it unlikely anyone would be there to let me in. At about Worth, I also crossed the police barricade. It was sort of like going from a black and white picture to Kodachrome, Suddenly, the streets were full of color, there was no dust, and people were out looking towards the towers, talking quietly, or listening to their car radio.
I decided to continue up to New York University, where I was getting my MBA. As I walked, I took a picture of a photographer and received several offers for free food and drinks (I took advantage of an Odvalla drink, which was really refreshing, but skipped the Turkey sandwich). I stopped in one store to try and call Melinda, but no luck.
After about ½ hour of walking, I made to NYU Stern School of business. I was surprised to see how many people I knew in the lobby watching television coverage of the attack. People came up to me as they saw I was covered in debris. I hadn’t looked in a mirror, so I didn’t realize I looked like a grey ghost. I went into the administrative offices hoping to make a phone call, but they couldn’t help as their phones were down. I was able to send an email though. I sent a quick email to a colleague in Boston with the phone number of my house in NJ and my parent in-laws and asked him to send news that I was alive and well.
After a short break, I decided to continue to Markus’ house. I thought I could rest, clean up, and decide what to do. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get back to NJ at this point. I walked up to 14th St, just west of Union SQ and went into the Victoria, where Markus lived. Markus and Paul were there and Markus was so relieved to see me. As we hugged, Markus shuddered in relief. I found out that he knew all the others except Brajesh were safe. Luckily I was able to confirm Brajesh was okay too. I changed out of my clothes, took a shower and put on some clean clothes Markus lent me.
Just after I arrived, another colleague, Dom, and his family appeared on the sidewalk across the street. While on Markus’ balcony, we recognized them from 23 (or 28?) stories above, yelled down and waved. They came up and joined us. Paul went out and came back with some lunch items. Occasionally, we received calls from Waltham, and it was then, 5 hours after the attack that I was able to talk to Melinda, my sister, and my in-laws. My parents had started out from South Dakota to Minneapolis as they wanted to get closer to NY if I did not appear.
At some point, our HR representative from Waltham called and had a reporter from the Wall Street Journal on the line. She asked if I would be willing to be interviewed for an article. “Why not?”, I thought. The journalist asked me several questions and was very sensitive to what I had been through. It felt good to be interviewed by a Major NY magazine and to share my story. Little did I know how many times I would retell my story…
4pm
I spent a few hours talking, watching the news, and looking at the burning plumes of smoke coming from the World Trade Centers. The local news reported that there were a number of boats ferrying people across to NJ. Around 4pm, I decided to head home. I was pleasantly surprised to find the all public transportation was free. Everyone was really nice and considerate to each other. People saw my shoes and knew that I had been downtown. Most of the people in the line for the ferries were from the midtown area. I really wanted to cut in line and get home, but managed to patiently wait with everyone else.
Off to the side of the road, I saw a homeless man who was clearly mentally ill looking at the world trade center. I really felt sorry for him. I imagined all of these voices in his head that were imaginary, and now a catastrophic reality was added to the mix.
Finally, I was able to get on a volunteer boat, not an official ferry. We piled in and I was dropped off on the north end of Hoboken. There were piles of busses going all sorts of places. I decided to walk the two miles home. Finally, by 7pm, I found my home, Melinda waiting for me, and all of my neighbors were safe, but shaken by the day’s events—even Liz, who was on the floor below me. Our downstairs tenant lent us a TV and Melinda I watched the news and quietly talked until bed. It was a shocking day with the details seared into my memory.
