Posted on 09/03/2006 5:19:29 PM PDT by Pyro7480
The image of featureless steel structures catastrophically crumbling into a fatal dust storm was indelibly imprinted on the minds of millions of people around the world. Yet the enormous plumes of smoke, the soaring balls of fire and the sheer scale of the buildings masked the human face of the tragedy. For the first time, through drama supported by interviews and archival footage, TV audiences will be invited to venture inside the towers to follow the stories of more than a dozen individuals whose daily routine is swept aside by events that changed the world forever.
Based on the testimonies of survivors, victims families, emergency workers and city officials, Inside the Twin Towers opens with a glimpse of the everyday world of work and office life. It is easy to relate to Melanie de Vere, the 30-year-old British publishing executive helping to host a conference in the North Tower, and also with Stanley Praimnath, a banker devoted to his religion and family. We meet Hong Zhu, the broker who was caught up in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and Jan Demczur, the window cleaner who knows so many faces throughout the buildings.
In an instant, fate decrees who will have the opportunity to escape and who will not. Some have the option of being able to leave, but not all have the strength to do what is required to survive. On Sept. 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. and in the following 17 minutes, Melanie, Hong and Jan find that they are among the thousands of people suddenly confronted by confusion and uncertainty. While they search for answers, individuals such as construction manager Frank De Martini are fighting to rescue those trapped by tons of debris. Frank, supported by his colleagues Pablo and Mak, are pushing their way up into the wreckage of the dying building, rolling back the boundary between life and death.
Outside the North Tower, New York officials, supported by the Port Authority, are mobilizing the largest rescue operation in the city's history. Well over 1,000 emergency staff are being deployed, an organized evacuation has begun, and the critical decision that the fire cannot be fought has been made. Most of the North Towers elevators have stopped working and any firefighter attempting to reach the seat of the blaze will take more than an hour to climb up to the 91st floor. It is at this level that the three emergency stairwells have been severed by the direct force of the remnants of the aircraft. Rescuers will not be able to climb any farther nor will anybody be able to descend from the higher floors. At least 1,300 people are trapped on the 19 floors above and immediately below the point of collision. Then the second tower is hit.
Stuck in elevators, confronted by dark and smoky exit routes, or hemmed in by burning wreckage, office workers in both towers were beyond the immediate help of the outside world. Individuals were forced to rely on their own resources in making the best of the options available to them. In buildings 110 stories tall, where fires burning at 1,300 degrees Centigrade were melting the steel floor supports, it was a perilous journey down to the ground. Not everybody would escape before the towers collapsed.
Tape it so you can fast-forward through the commercials.
There were WAY too many commercials, IMO. But it is still very much worth watching. And remembering.
Horrible Footage of WTC Jumpers (From YouTube, via Hotair.com)(Graphic)
As I recall he was hit by a falling person.
This was a pretty good show. I think the cut-away graphics did probably the
best job of any documentary in giving a viewer a 3-D idea of the building
geometry and routes of escape.
Just finished reading -- very powerful.
Thanks for posting that up and bringing it to my attention.
ping
Penn and Teller ripped some of these Conspiracy Theories about 9/11.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3143048862360929736&q=bullshit+penn+conspiracy&hl=en
NEW YORK - With the first reports of trouble at the World Trade Center, Americans began a process of remembering, recovering and trying to understand what can never be fully understood.
In that spirit, many TV networks will mark the fifth anniversary of 9/11 with a wide range of programming that looks back at that terrible day and the aftermath till now.
((((Good one to miss: Ted Koppel can't help himself ... as usual)))
But in a companion effort, Ted Koppel will be resolutely looking ahead.
In his inaugural project for Discovery Network, the former ABC Newsman will present a two-part program that explores the vexing, vital issue of national security in the future.
Airing Sunday, Sept. 10, at 8 p.m. EDT, it begins with a 90-minute documentary, "The Price of Security," in which Koppel interviews current and former administration members as well as military and security experts to examine challenges still facing the government in its war on terrorism.
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Then Koppel will host a live 90-minute town meeting with 9/11 family members, civil libertarians, Bush administration officials and members of Congress.
How to balance national security with the freedoms on which the nation was founded? One side of the largely sidetracked debate holds that America would be altered forever by another 9/11-scale attack, and that no measures are too drastic to prevent a terrorist's use against the U.S. of a weapon of mass destruction. This fear has largely driven post-9/11 policy _ "the conviction of the president and his top aides that they are up against this existential threat, and that they have to avoid it at all costs," Koppel told The Associated Press recently.
On the other side, he says, are those who argue "that America is great because it hews to a set of standards and laws that theoretically, at least, apply equally to everyone. And that once you start to play around with that system, you undermine the very thing that makes us what we are."
It could be a case of destroying America in order to save it, that argument might hold _ "and in the long run," Koppel adds, "more damaging to America than even another terrorist attack."
((((( ??? )))
The debate framed by Koppel's program is one the nation "must have before the next terrorist attack happens," he warns. "After it happens, it'll be too late. There won't be room in the conversation to have discussions about privacy and constitutional freedoms."
Koppel's forward-looking program is a worthy companion to many other hours of 9/11-themed coverage (including numerous documentaries) across the networks _ most of it dealing with the past and present. Here's a sample:
_ "Inside the Twin Towers" (Sun., Sept. 3 at 9 p.m.; Discovery) uses interviews, archival footage, computer-generated imagery and dramatic reactions to retrace the 102 minutes from 8:46 a.m., when Flight 11 hit the World Trade Center's north tower, until its collapse.
_ "NOVA: Building on Ground Zero" (Tue., Sept. 5 at 8 p.m.; PBS) probes the conclusions of the government's engineering investigation into the towers' collapse.
_ "Metal of Honor" (Tue., Sept. 5 at 9 p.m.; Spike TV) chronicles the New York City ironworkers who risked their lives at Ground Zero to burn through steel to clear paths for emergency personnel while searching for survivors.
_ "Five Years Later _ How Safe Are We?" (Wed., Sept. 6 at 10 p.m.; CBS) marks the first prime-time special by CBS News anchor Katie Couric, who is scheduled to interview President Bush.
_ "Trapped in the Towers: The Elevators of 9/11" (Sat., Sept. 9 at 8 p.m.; A&E) hears from survivors who recount the horrors of being in the burning towers, with their testimony supplemented by film footage, re-enactments and graphics.
_ "Brothers Lost: Stories of 9/11" (Mon., Sept. 11 at 7 p.m.; Cinemax) tells of 31 men who lost siblings in the World Trade Center attacks.
_ "America Rebuilds II: Return to Ground Zero" (Mon., Sept. 11, 9 p.m.; PBS) picks up where Part I left off (at the May 2002 ceremony marking the end of the site recovery process), covering the uncertain efforts to begin new construction.
_ "9/11: The Day that Changed America" (Mon., Sept. 11 at 10 p.m.; MSNBC) finds Chris Matthews asking a number of prominent Americans _ including former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Sen. Hillary Clinton and actor Samuel L. Jackson _ to recall the moment when they heard the dreadful news.
_ "Dust to Dust: The Health Effects of 9/11" (Mon, Sept. 11 at 10 p.m.; Sundance) follows some of the first-responders of 9/11 who now are seriously ill and fighting for compensation.
_ And in a very different sort of project, ABC presents "The Path to 9/11," a sorrowful but enlightening dramatization based on the 9/11 Commission Report. Airing Sept. 10 and 11 at 8 p.m., this five-hour miniseries turns back the clock to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, then moves forward through the many missed opportunities to prevent the 9/11 terrorism with which the film concludes.
Already assuming that Koppel will wander through both sides of the argument to end up at his already decided position that Bush is destroying America by taking away rights.
I would ask Koppel ...okay then, what rights have been taken away from YOU?
Ping!
I'm watching the last half hour now.
Yes, very chilling video/audio... I just discovered that link myself for the first time a few weeks ago. I had not realized that there existed a tape of one of the trapped WTC workers pleading for help to a 911 operator, which continues up to and then for a few seconds during the collapse of the tower itself around him before the phone lines are destroyed and cut off the call. It's... I haven't the words, but it should be listened to by all, no matter how difficult it is to hear.
Just did.
How horrible.
NO cheers.
I wouldn't ask him a thing... I would get up and kick him in the face...
Ping to my post #109 ... upcoming programs.
Right now I'm watching The Attack on the Pentagon. Never forget!!
Thanks for the list. Koppel and Matthews: must skip TV.
The last time I ever saw Koppel was when he tried to "prove" that Kerry was correct and the Swifties were wrong about Vietnam, Cambodia, etc.
STARWISE - Thanks for the ping!
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