OT: Just one "Ground Zero" story...
When the world changed...forever.
I am well aware, that what follows should be posted on some other SI board, but I thought I'd share it here with my friends and acquaintances on this thread.
People have said that there is no more than "Six Degrees of Separation" between every two people on the earth. My wife and I have already received over a half dozen stories much closer than "Six Degrees," from direct family members or personal friends, regarding how close they were to being directly at one of the "Ground Zeros" of the horrific events in our nation this past Tuesday.
Some were literally within a few feet...or a block or two...or a few miles...or a single day of being there at the exact time and place when pure evil came out of the sky, and attacked our nation. Attacked our nation with a hatred and vengeance several factors beyond the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor, a generation or two before.
One very personal "close call" for own family, was the fact that my wife's daughter and her husband were staying in New York City that very day, on a trip back East, celebrating their first wedding anniversary...but they are okay.
Another personal story is what follows below.
It was e-mailed to us, and written by a good friend of my wife's sister. On that 9-11 morning of Tuesday last, the friend was in her office working more than three-quarters of the way up Tower One of the World Trade Center. The first hostage-filled airplane bomb hit her building just a few floors above her office. That bomb may very well go down in history as the first horrific blow being thrown starting World War III. I don't believe the entire world will be directly involved in physical battle, but I do believe every single nation on earth will be involved or affected by the long and dangerous war to come...one way or another. A true demarcation line...a line in the sand... has been drawn in the history of humankind on our planet.
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The "Ground Zero" story of my sister-in-law's friend
(just one of thousands...and thousands such stories):
Dear Family and Friends,
While I hope to be able to speak to each of you personally over the next few days, I wanted to immediately send my thanks for your good wishes, thoughts and prayers for me during yesterday's unbelievable event. As I told my husband, I truly never expected to add "survival of a terrorist attack" to my resume. As you are all aware my company was close to ground zero. When the plane struck the building it felt exactly like an earthquake. The only advanced sound was a large windful swoosh. At first we had no idea if it was a bomb or the building had been struck. The mayor was correct when he talks about the toughness of New Yorkers. It was amazing how calm, supportive and helpful everyone was throughout the day.
Here's my personal account of the day. Our personnel immediately headed for the stairs as smoke began filtering quickly down. One wall outside our company had been pushed in so far it was impassable. The only stairway open got us only as far as the 77th floor when we came up against a door that was jammed shut. In the WTC stairways down are not a straight shot. At various levels you have to cross hallways and through additional doorways to continue.
We were invited into another company's offices on that floor while their people sought out an alternative route. We went into a conference room and turned on the TV. We learned our building had been struck by a plane but it was not announced at this point that it was a terrorist attack. As we watched TV the building shook again and what we thought was debris from our own building began striking the windows of the conference room so we immediately left. We know now that this was building number two being hit by the second airplane.
Within 5-10 minutes, someone had found another way out and we began our trek down the stairs. We had to walk through a hallway at this point where the ceiling was being hosed down by an employee from the company we had taken refuge in. This is what I mean by the spirit of New Yorkers. It is because of their initiative that we got out. No one from the building security or city rescue had been able to get to us at this point as the only way up or down was stairwells. All the elevators had been immediately knocked out by the flames and smoke shooting down the shafts from the explosion of the plane's fuel on impact.
The calm of the people around us as we walked down was amazing. People who had been hurt or were having a problem getting down were being assisted at every point. When congestion slowed us to a stop no one shoved or made a scene we respectfully waited until we could move again. People passed information up and down the line to try and keep people informed about what was happening and those with blackberries sent as many emails as they could for folks around them as none of our cell phones worked.
We finally got out of the smoke when we hit the 35th floor. It felt great to breathe fresh air and lifted everyone's spirits. We also started running into building personnel. Around the 27th floor we ran into firefighters climbing up. I can't imagine what it must have been like to walk up that many flights with all the gear they had. They looked so winded at that point. I doubt that they made it out before the building collapsed and my prayers and thoughts are with them and their families now.
By the 7th floor, the stairwells were flooding with water from what we assumed were the firefighting efforts. We were feeling buoyant when we hit 3 and thought we're almost out of here. It had taken us a little over an hour to get this far. But the adventure it seems was far from over. At that point, as we learned later, building 2 collapsed and hit our building. Once again it felt like a bomb had gone off as the building shook again and there was this tremendous whoosh of air that almost knocked us off our feet. At that point the lights went out. There was so much debris that our way out was blocked. I remember thinking there is no way I walked down 77 flights to die 3 floors from safety. We climbed back up to 4 where a firefighter punched a hole in the wall to get us out. We made a human chain hanging on to the person in front and the person in back of us as we made our way out into the 4th floor rotunda in the dark. We got our first glimpse of what looked like a war zone.
We walked through ankle deep dust and out through a doorway to the outside plaza in front of the US Customs building. As we were led to a stairwell to street level we climbed over girders and moved around office furniture and layers of office papers, twisted metal, broken glass and other debris. By now we were wet and covered in this ash. People all looked like their hair had turned prematurely gray. We were told to walk quickly up the street.
Within minutes (we now know it was no more than 4) we heard a rumble, turned to see our tower begin to collapse and a large cloud of black moving up the street. We ran.
We spent the better part of the rest of the day in someone's apartment on 10th street calling to track down the rest of our coworkers. We have now accounted for all but 3
It is by God's miracle alone that I am convinced I got out. It is your prayers that helped make that happen. I am grateful to be alive and
grateful for my family and friends. Amazingly, I never felt afraid and I believe that was because I truly felt God's hand upon me. It was not my time and I'm sure he heard all your prayers.
I'm not sure what is next. But for now smelling the flowers is just fine with me.
Love,
Susan |
