story632.xml
Title
story632.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-05-17
911DA Story: Story
This is an account I wrote two days after the attack.
Alone. It describes my experience of the World Trade Center attack. I was alone from the moment the first plane hit One World Trade Center until I ran out of the building a mere minute before its collapse. Here?s my experience:
I don?t work in the Trade towers but for the past six weeks I?ve been temping for an insurance firm, Marsh, that has offices both in midtown Manhattan and One World Trade Center. Until Tuesday morning I had never been to the Trade Center office because my job was in midtown. The Friday and Monday before the attack I ended up working with a managing director of the company on a report for a meeting she was presenting at in the World Trade Center on Tuesday. Her assistant was out sick, and I was pulled from my regular job to help her out. The report still needed a lot of work, and I had to rush to get it finished and produced before Tuesday morning. Most of it was finished by Monday afternoon, and it was shipped down to the World Trade Center office. A small part of it wasn?t finished until the evening, and I couldn?t be sure that we could get it shipped in time for the morning meeting, so I told my boss that I would come in early on Tuesday morning to the midtown office and bring it down to the meeting. And that?s exactly what I did.
After going to midtown office Tuesday morning I went downtown with the last parts of the report to deliver them to the 99th floor. I arrived there around 8:40 a.m. and helped my boss get the reports arranged for a few minutes and asked if she needed anything else. She said no and sent me on my way back to the midtown office. I took the elevator down to the 78th floor, where I had to switch to the express elevator that takes you to the ground floor. I caught one right away. People poured out of the elevator, but no one else got on because everyone was going to work, not leaving like myself. I was all alone as I took the elevator down.
Being all alone in the elevator, I did some of the silly things you do. I jumped into the air to see if I would get that ?light? feeling, and I started singing to myself--?I am, I Don Quixote? from ?Man of La Mancha.? I had stopped fooling around by the time I neared the lobby and the elevator slowed and already read that it was at the first floor. At this moment there was a violent shaking of the elevator, and it lurched to a stop. A few light fixtures fell and hung by wires, but the power stayed on. A fine dust was pushed into the elevator by this huge whoosh of air, so I ripped off my shirt and wrapped it around my head to breathe. I immediately rang the emergency button and waited.
The only voice I heard was a computer voice repeated over and over and over--?Your call has been received; someone will be with you shortly.? After a quarter of an hour, a real but squawky voice that I had trouble understanding rang through the small speaker. He would only inform me that it was ?an emergency situation? and that I should remain calm--help would be there soon. He asked how many were in the elevator with me, and I told him I was all alone.
In another five minutes or so there was another shaking of the elevator, not nearly as violent as the first, and just a small amount of dust. I could faintly hear sirens from the outside, and I could barely hear people yelling, but I still had no clue what had happened. Of course I suspected a bomb, but in reality I had no way of knowing. I have a numeric pager but no cell phone. The pager kept going off, letting me know that I had messages in my voice mail.
I felt the need to do something, so of course I tried to pry open the elevator doors. There were actually doors on both sides of the elevator, and I tried to open them both. The power was on, and it was holding the doors shut. I could only sit and wait.
About an hour after of being trapped came the next big shaking. It was more violent than the first, and more dust was pumped into the elevator as well. It became harder to breathe, and the shirt wasn?t keeping as much out. I tried to get someone to respond to my calls for help, but no one would. Now the computer voice just kept repeating its message over and over again, and I couldn?t make it stop.
Another 20 minutes passed, and finally the power went out in the elevator. The emergency lights kicked in. The call button no longer worked. There was an alarm button that would make a ringing sound when I pushed it, and I started ringing in a recognizable pattern like three-one-three and ?shave and a haircut? in the hope that someone might differentiate it from the other alarms going off, but there was no response. After five minutes, in frustration, I tried the doors again, and to my amazement the first one I tried slid open. The power being off seems to have released the doors, but I am faced with a steel wall. I close the door because only the doors have kept so much dust from coming in. I go to the other door and it slides open to reveal a deserted, dust- and debris-covered lobby. I had been there the whole time, and no one had come. I don?t see a single person around, and I start running to one side when I see two firefighters standing in a large, blown-out window. I yell out for help, and they signal me over. I run to them, and one of them grabs me and begins to walk me out.
I look up at the tower when we are a few yards away, and I see the flames and smoke from the top. As I look to my right I see a mass of debris, which at the time I assume is one of the smaller buildings which must have suffered a blast. Only later do I realize that it was the rubble of the other tower. I still have no clue about anything that has happened--not the planes and not the collapse of the other tower.
The firefighter keeps leading me away, and we get about half a block from the building at the corner of Vesey and West. I start to hear a rumble, and then a push from the firefighter, who yells ?Run.? I run on Vesey toward the water but look over my shoulder to see the building collapsing behind me. A great cloud of dust steams toward me, but as I get to the water it has retreated, as the wind was blowing it the other way. I collapse onto a bench and begin to break down. A couple of rescue workers come over and try to get me breathing normally and quickly encourage me to walk north along the water, away from the towers. When I?m breathing more normally they let me go, and I join the massive crowd of people that is moving north, but I don?t know exactly where I?m going.
As I walked in a state of shock, I picked up small bits of information from people walking around me. The plane hitting the first tower and then the second. The collapse of the South Tower and finally the North. I wanted to talk to them, but I couldn?t find words to speak.
I just walked. First along the river and eventually into the heart of the city. At 10th Street I turned east and walked towards Sixth Avenue. I walked up Sixth Avenue until I got to Bryant Park at 40th Street. There the tents for the fashion show were set up, and as I walked past, a security guard emerged, yelling for everyone to get away from the park. People began to panic and scamper. I ran across 40th Street until I got to Fifth Avenue and continued north. I still don?t why we were told to run. I assume it was a bomb threat.
I continued up Fifth until I got to 45th Street and walked back to Sixth Avenue to go into my building. They already had signs up for people who were Marsh employees from the Trade Center to go to the 35th floor, but I went to the 42nd where I work. The receptionist, whom I had talked to just hours before from the 99th floor of the Trade Center, looked at me in disbelief. A few people were gathered around, and as they asked me how I was I began to break down, and they took me to the 35th floor for the company nurse to look after me.
I don?t have a scratch on my body. The only mark I have is a slight bruise on my right arm where the firefighter grabbed me. The elevator trapped me, but it also protected me, and then by a miracle it released me. I was almost certainly one of the last people to get out alive before the collapse. I didn?t see anyone else as I came out.
The thought of those people I know who were on the 99th floor for the meeting plagues me. I?m probably the only person who was on that floor to get out alive. They are all officially ?missing.?
My family is almost all in North Carolina, and my brothers are driving up here to get me. I have had the most amazing support from my friends and my cousin and her husband. They have all looked after me 24/7 for the past few days. Now I?m never alone.
I?ve never had a worse day in my life, but I also have felt more love from family and friends than I could ever imagine. The images and memories are haunting me, and the scars are very deep at the moment. I?m not always able to keep it together emotionally. But despite the horror of it all, there is a feeling of great hope inside me. I must be around for some reason, and I certainly intend to find out.
Alone. It describes my experience of the World Trade Center attack. I was alone from the moment the first plane hit One World Trade Center until I ran out of the building a mere minute before its collapse. Here?s my experience:
I don?t work in the Trade towers but for the past six weeks I?ve been temping for an insurance firm, Marsh, that has offices both in midtown Manhattan and One World Trade Center. Until Tuesday morning I had never been to the Trade Center office because my job was in midtown. The Friday and Monday before the attack I ended up working with a managing director of the company on a report for a meeting she was presenting at in the World Trade Center on Tuesday. Her assistant was out sick, and I was pulled from my regular job to help her out. The report still needed a lot of work, and I had to rush to get it finished and produced before Tuesday morning. Most of it was finished by Monday afternoon, and it was shipped down to the World Trade Center office. A small part of it wasn?t finished until the evening, and I couldn?t be sure that we could get it shipped in time for the morning meeting, so I told my boss that I would come in early on Tuesday morning to the midtown office and bring it down to the meeting. And that?s exactly what I did.
After going to midtown office Tuesday morning I went downtown with the last parts of the report to deliver them to the 99th floor. I arrived there around 8:40 a.m. and helped my boss get the reports arranged for a few minutes and asked if she needed anything else. She said no and sent me on my way back to the midtown office. I took the elevator down to the 78th floor, where I had to switch to the express elevator that takes you to the ground floor. I caught one right away. People poured out of the elevator, but no one else got on because everyone was going to work, not leaving like myself. I was all alone as I took the elevator down.
Being all alone in the elevator, I did some of the silly things you do. I jumped into the air to see if I would get that ?light? feeling, and I started singing to myself--?I am, I Don Quixote? from ?Man of La Mancha.? I had stopped fooling around by the time I neared the lobby and the elevator slowed and already read that it was at the first floor. At this moment there was a violent shaking of the elevator, and it lurched to a stop. A few light fixtures fell and hung by wires, but the power stayed on. A fine dust was pushed into the elevator by this huge whoosh of air, so I ripped off my shirt and wrapped it around my head to breathe. I immediately rang the emergency button and waited.
The only voice I heard was a computer voice repeated over and over and over--?Your call has been received; someone will be with you shortly.? After a quarter of an hour, a real but squawky voice that I had trouble understanding rang through the small speaker. He would only inform me that it was ?an emergency situation? and that I should remain calm--help would be there soon. He asked how many were in the elevator with me, and I told him I was all alone.
In another five minutes or so there was another shaking of the elevator, not nearly as violent as the first, and just a small amount of dust. I could faintly hear sirens from the outside, and I could barely hear people yelling, but I still had no clue what had happened. Of course I suspected a bomb, but in reality I had no way of knowing. I have a numeric pager but no cell phone. The pager kept going off, letting me know that I had messages in my voice mail.
I felt the need to do something, so of course I tried to pry open the elevator doors. There were actually doors on both sides of the elevator, and I tried to open them both. The power was on, and it was holding the doors shut. I could only sit and wait.
About an hour after of being trapped came the next big shaking. It was more violent than the first, and more dust was pumped into the elevator as well. It became harder to breathe, and the shirt wasn?t keeping as much out. I tried to get someone to respond to my calls for help, but no one would. Now the computer voice just kept repeating its message over and over again, and I couldn?t make it stop.
Another 20 minutes passed, and finally the power went out in the elevator. The emergency lights kicked in. The call button no longer worked. There was an alarm button that would make a ringing sound when I pushed it, and I started ringing in a recognizable pattern like three-one-three and ?shave and a haircut? in the hope that someone might differentiate it from the other alarms going off, but there was no response. After five minutes, in frustration, I tried the doors again, and to my amazement the first one I tried slid open. The power being off seems to have released the doors, but I am faced with a steel wall. I close the door because only the doors have kept so much dust from coming in. I go to the other door and it slides open to reveal a deserted, dust- and debris-covered lobby. I had been there the whole time, and no one had come. I don?t see a single person around, and I start running to one side when I see two firefighters standing in a large, blown-out window. I yell out for help, and they signal me over. I run to them, and one of them grabs me and begins to walk me out.
I look up at the tower when we are a few yards away, and I see the flames and smoke from the top. As I look to my right I see a mass of debris, which at the time I assume is one of the smaller buildings which must have suffered a blast. Only later do I realize that it was the rubble of the other tower. I still have no clue about anything that has happened--not the planes and not the collapse of the other tower.
The firefighter keeps leading me away, and we get about half a block from the building at the corner of Vesey and West. I start to hear a rumble, and then a push from the firefighter, who yells ?Run.? I run on Vesey toward the water but look over my shoulder to see the building collapsing behind me. A great cloud of dust steams toward me, but as I get to the water it has retreated, as the wind was blowing it the other way. I collapse onto a bench and begin to break down. A couple of rescue workers come over and try to get me breathing normally and quickly encourage me to walk north along the water, away from the towers. When I?m breathing more normally they let me go, and I join the massive crowd of people that is moving north, but I don?t know exactly where I?m going.
As I walked in a state of shock, I picked up small bits of information from people walking around me. The plane hitting the first tower and then the second. The collapse of the South Tower and finally the North. I wanted to talk to them, but I couldn?t find words to speak.
I just walked. First along the river and eventually into the heart of the city. At 10th Street I turned east and walked towards Sixth Avenue. I walked up Sixth Avenue until I got to Bryant Park at 40th Street. There the tents for the fashion show were set up, and as I walked past, a security guard emerged, yelling for everyone to get away from the park. People began to panic and scamper. I ran across 40th Street until I got to Fifth Avenue and continued north. I still don?t why we were told to run. I assume it was a bomb threat.
I continued up Fifth until I got to 45th Street and walked back to Sixth Avenue to go into my building. They already had signs up for people who were Marsh employees from the Trade Center to go to the 35th floor, but I went to the 42nd where I work. The receptionist, whom I had talked to just hours before from the 99th floor of the Trade Center, looked at me in disbelief. A few people were gathered around, and as they asked me how I was I began to break down, and they took me to the 35th floor for the company nurse to look after me.
I don?t have a scratch on my body. The only mark I have is a slight bruise on my right arm where the firefighter grabbed me. The elevator trapped me, but it also protected me, and then by a miracle it released me. I was almost certainly one of the last people to get out alive before the collapse. I didn?t see anyone else as I came out.
The thought of those people I know who were on the 99th floor for the meeting plagues me. I?m probably the only person who was on that floor to get out alive. They are all officially ?missing.?
My family is almost all in North Carolina, and my brothers are driving up here to get me. I have had the most amazing support from my friends and my cousin and her husband. They have all looked after me 24/7 for the past few days. Now I?m never alone.
I?ve never had a worse day in my life, but I also have felt more love from family and friends than I could ever imagine. The images and memories are haunting me, and the scars are very deep at the moment. I?m not always able to keep it together emotionally. But despite the horror of it all, there is a feeling of great hope inside me. I must be around for some reason, and I certainly intend to find out.
Collection
Citation
“story632.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 23, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/7031.