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Posted on 09/11/2006 12:36:15 PM PDT by STARWISE
With the World Trade Center death toll shrinking to somewhere around 3,000, many hesitate to speak of a miracle or a success. But those are the words they are using when they remember that thousands of others got out alive before the towers collapsed.
Many officials say the loss of life would have been many times higher if not for three factors:
the timing of the attack, before the buildings had filled to their usual workday peak; emergency-evacuation improvements prompted by the 1993 terrorist bombing of the trade center; and the urgent reaction of workers, many of whom had been through the earlier attack.
On Sept. 11, perhaps 18,000 people by one estimate evacuated the two 110-story towers in less than two hours.
``It looks like maybe 90 percent of the people in the buildings survived that day. It's amazing,'' said ............. the director.
Reiss and others do not discount the devastation of the terrorist attack or the grief felt by the families of the dead.
Yet in the initial hours after the attack, many feared that tens of thousands had been killed. Even weeks later, city officials estimated nearly 7,000 people had lost their lives.
After fixing errors and removing duplicate names from the casualty lists, city officials say the death toll stands at about 3,000 and may drop further. The figure includes about 500 people who were not in the towers at the time of the attacks _ rescue workers who entered afterward and the people aboard the hijacked planes.
``Three-thousand people died, and one has a hard time saying anything about it is a success,'' said Michael Cherkasky, president of Kroll Associates, a security company that helped the trade center's owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, revamp evacuation procedures after the 1993 bombing.
(Excerpt) Read more at firehouse.com ...
Reiss estimated just 20,000 people were at the trade center when an airliner smashed into the north tower at 8:48 a.m. The south tower was hit just after 9 a.m. The south tower collapsed in less than hour, at 9:55; the north tower at 10:29.
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Blessed miracle.
Ask Ronnie about Rick Rescorla.
"You watching TV?" Rick Rescorla asked while calling from the 44th floor of the World Trade Center, icy calm in the crisis. "The dumb sons of bitches told me not to evacuate," he said during a quick call to his best friend, Dan Hill, who had indeed been watching the disaster unfolding on TV. "They said it's just Building One. I told them I'm getting my people the [expletive] out of here."
http://www.post44.org/misc/rescorla.html
it was not good that 3000 died but for a while we all thought 10,000+ did. Yes a true miracle on timing etc.
I just watched a story on Rick Rescorla other day. Amazing human, amazing man and a great dead to mankind was he.
I dont think anyone can even attempt to emulate this great man.
Countless heroes that day, but Mr. Rescorla must have been a truly amazing man.
Frankly Rick is not given enough credit for all he had did in his short life.
primary elections also contributed to the lack of loss of life that could have easily topped 20K.
I dont think so. Primary voting is always low in metro areas... people going to work were just going to work.
Most of the people below the plane entries got out safely. NYSlimes did an analysis, floor by floor, office by office and I believe it was 95% of those below the planes got out safely.
right it was 16 above the impact in Tower 1 and 637 above the impact in Tower 2.
There was a single stairway basically unobstructed in Tower 2 because of the angle that United 175 hit the building.
AA 11 hit Tower 1 at basically dead center and wiped out all of the stairwells.
I have a little matchbox from one of our outings at the O'rdeurverie (?)at the top of the WTC. Every now and then I have to put it away so I can't see it. It's so painful. We took our kids to the observation deck, and always walked around the ground floor level when we came to the city. Hubby took the Path train to WTC every single day.
I think another important factor is at what height the planes hit the two towers.
When the towers were attacked in 1993 the goal was to topple one into the other. I suspect that the terrorists on 911 hoped that the planes would topple the buildings rather than cause the implosions that occurred. If the terrorists had hit the buildings much lower (think 20th floor instead of 80th floor) perhaps toppling would have occurred. It would also have been more difficult to evacuate as many people as were evacuated if the impact were at lower floors.
AAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH these people are crazy and I wish we didn't have to hear them today.
Lots of people in the south tower were saved due to Rick Rescorla evacuating Morgan Stanley Dean Witter employees despite the fact the south tower hadn't yet been attacked. The south tower fell much sooner after it was attack, so if evacuation hadn't started 15 minutes prior to United 175 striking it, there probably would have been much higher casualties.
"Lots of people in the south tower were saved due to Rick Rescorla evacuating Morgan Stanley Dean Witter employees despite the fact the south tower hadn't yet been attacked."
Yup.
If only the management hadn't told people in the second tower to stay in their offices or go back up after they had gotten down to the ground level. That really haunts everyone to this day.
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Just looking at it makes me want to burst into tears.
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