Advice at WTC: Just stay put

The Daily News ^ | 8/29/03 | Greg Gittrich

[M 91 u2 K]

Advice at WTC: Just stay put

This story was reported by: Kerry Burke, Tracy Connor, Alison Gendar, Greg Gittrich, Maggie Haberman, and Eric Herman. It was written by: Greg Gittrich

Smoke billows from the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

"Should we stay or should we not?" "I would wait till further notice."

Two thousand painful pages of emergency calls and radio transmissions made after the first of two hijacked jets exploded into the twin towers reveal that the Port Authority told some people to stay put.

The PA, which lost 37 police officers and 47 civilian employees in the attacks, has defended its evacuation procedures, saying they were instrumental in saving as many as 25,000 lives.

The transcript, released yesterday by the PA, is the first evidence that the agency's workers initially told some of the stranded not to evacuate the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

"We need to know if we need to get out of here, because we know there's an explosion. I don't know which building," a male caller on the 92nd floor of the south tower told a Port Authority cop after a jet struck the other tower.

The cop asked if there was smoke on the floor.

"No, we just smell it, though," the caller replied. "Should we be staying here or should we evacuate ... I'm waiting. ..."

"Should we stay or should we not?" the caller asked again.

"I would wait till further notice ..." the cop answered.

"Okay, all right," the caller said. "Don't evacuate."

There was little time to flee, and many PA officials were indeed telling people to get out.

"Evacuate the building!" a PA worker told one caller. "Hit the stairwells and get the heck out of here."

But others delivered a different message.

Just after 8:46 a.m. - the moment the first jet crashed into the 94th through 98th floors of the north tower - a cop told another caller to "just stand by."

When the second jet crashed into the south tower at 9:03 a.m., very few people in the uppermost floors made it out alive.

Nearly everyone below the impact area survived.

The transcripts offer horrific glimpses of the last moments of at least 36 victims.

The victims on the tapes either identified themselves or their voices were recognized by co-workers. They include 19 PA cops, 14 civilian PA workers and three people who did not work for the agency.

'I love you'

Amid the panic and pain, there are brief moments of joy. "I wanted to say I love you," a man told his wife. "Honey, when the building started coming down, I ran for my life, honey! I survived."

The pages also chronicle many gallant attempts made by PA cops, officials and others to comfort and save as many people in the 110-story towers as possible.

"In general, they show people performing their duties very heroically and very professionally on a day of horror," PA spokesman Greg Trevor said.

Most of the conversations are disjointed. Frightened people routinely interrupt each other. Some calls break off. Others are drowned out by screams.

There are repeated references to wailing sirens, and there is great confusion.

At one point in the radio dispatches, there is a report of a "possible missile launching from the Woolworth Building," a landmark a few blocks away.

Another person called out: "They're shooting at the Trade Center from the Woolworth Building."

Throughout, terror is pervasive.

"Another plane just hit the building," a man says.

"They said another plane just ... flew by and hit Building 2."

"God!!!!"

As the fires burned, reports of bodies increased and a few people described the horrendous sight of human beings falling through the air.

"Yo, I've got dozens of bodies, people just jumping from the top of the building," a male caller said.

"Sir, you have WHAT jumping from buildings?" a female dispatcher responded.

"People. Bodies are just coming from out of the sky."

Then, the unthinkable.

"The World Trade Center has collapsed," an unidentified officer said. "We want everybody out of the building."

Calls to family

About 260 hours of communications from nearly 100 police and civilian radio channels and telephone lines are preserved in the transcripts.

The police desk at the PA command center in Jersey City was overwhelmed by calls, many from people checking on their spouses.

The PA had refused to release the tapes or transcripts, insisting doing so would be insensitive to the victims' loved ones.

But the agency was forced to make the transcripts public when a judge ordered them released at the request of The New York Times.

In the months after the attacks, the tapes were used to help pinpoint the last known locations of several victims, a PA police official said.

The death toll stands at 2,792. Nearly 1,300 victims remain lost without an identifiable trace.

[M 91 u2 K]

Still nearly 2 years after the attacks on 9/11 no one has been punished and questions remained unanswered.
Why didnt Clinton accept offers to take Osama Bin Laden in 1990's?
Why didnt the FBI follow Agent Coleen Rowley lead about the Muslim men at flight schools?
Why didnt the FBI and CIA listen to the Mossad which had agents following Mohammed Atta and his crew around Florida?
Why does the government still deny that Saddam, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria had been involved in the 9/11 attacks?
Why did the WTC collapse it wasnt suppose to collapse even OSB on that tape we saw of him watching the attack said the plan went better than expected he thought on the top floors would collapse not the whole building???
Obviously someone cut back on the building budget and took the money!!!
So many unanswered question and all we get is a 9/11 report with BLANK PAGES!!!
I dont know about you but I am angry about the attacks about the lies and deception from the white house, congress, the media, the FBI,CIA,state department etc...
I believe the new year should begin no longer on Jan 1. it should now be Sept.11.
So as we approach the new year lets hope that questions will be answered, people will face whats coming to them, and ALL RADICAL MUSLIMS GET BLOWN TO SMITHEREENS.

[dogbyte12]

Forgot one. No arrest in anthrax case.

[montag813]

Advice at WTC: Just stay put

EPA: "the air is perfectly safe"

The moral: NEVER TRUST THE GOVERNMENT OR WHAT IT TELLS YOU. NEVER.

[Huck]

I certainly wouldn't rely on the word of some schmoe on the other end of a phone. If you find yourself asking "should I evacuate", evacuate. Better to ask later "should I have evacuated" and be alive, then to listen to a scmoe and be dead. I don't blame the schmoe. They tried their best. Just don't rely on em.

[carton253]

no one has been punished

Tell that to bin Ladin who lays under the rubble at Tora Bora.

[WoofDog123]

"I certainly wouldn't rely on the word of some schmoe on the other end of a phone. If you find yourself asking "should I evacuate", evacuate. Better to ask later "should I have evacuated" and be alive, then to listen to a scmoe and be dead. I don't blame the schmoe. They tried their best. Just don't rely on em"

There is a temporal judgement effect here as well - a lot of people in that building worked or traded on the commodity, bond, and equity markets. At that time of the morning, just walking out of your office if is isn't clearly necessary is the last thing anyone wants to do. At this point in time terrorism wasn't on the top of everyones' mind, and it had been years since the last attempt. I am not defending the mindset, just saying that when the threat is not very clear there is a strong instinct not to close your markets without cause.


Obviously in the future, under dubious circumstances, there would be immediate evacuation with no questions

[Huck]

Believe me. I am not judging anyone for how they reacted. I was just a few blocks away. I was right across the street when the first plane hit, and believe it or not, you couldn't tell a plane had hit. It's so far up in the sky. It could have been a traffic copter crash for all we on the street knew right then at 8:46am. I look back and think I should have headed straight back to the ferries and gone back to NJ right then and there. But who knew? I am just saying, lesson learned, get out first, ask questions later. Even so, I stuck around until the first tower fell, the South Tower. Then I fled Manhattan for Brooklyn. Eventually got back to Manhattan and got home to NJ by 8 or 9 pm. It was crazy. I am just saying when your life is in danger, take ownership of it.

[Orangedog]

Here's what I want to know:

What ever became of the unusually high activity in "put" options on the airlines and insurance companies involved in 9/11 in the days before the attack?

Where are the video tapes from the traffic cameras that captured images of the plane that "came apart" just after take-off from JFK in New York? We were told that they would be released once the investigation was completed.

Whatever became of the teenager who days before 9/11 told his teacher "Do you see those buildings?" he said, pointing to the WTC towers. "They won't be there next week." Here is the link to that story.
http://www.insightmag.com/news/269873.html

[WoofDog123]

I am not at all disputing your comments, mainly I was just adding a comment on some of the types of work pressure people in the tower had to deal with regarding evacuation verus open markets.....if it had been here, I would have had a large incentive to stay in my office for the same reason. Obviously now if the building next door is on fire I will walk out quickly.....

[witnesstothefall]

Statement By The Port Authority Of New York And New Jersey


Date: August 28, 2003
Press Release Number: 500-2003


September 11, 2001 Transcripts Fact Sheet


In compliance with a court order in a lawsuit filed by The New York Times, the Port Authority is releasing to the news media approximately 2,000 pages of documents related to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

These documents include transcripts of recorded radio and telephone conversations between Port Authority Police and civilians, as well as conversations involving contract employees, World Trade Center tenants and the public. These documents also include written accounts of September 11 by Port Authority Police officers and commanders.

Because of the sheer volume of these materials, it is impossible to summarize their details. In general, they show people performing their duties very heroically and very professionally on a day of unimaginable horror.

Representatives of media organizations have assured us that they are interested in this material solely to evaluate emergency response on September 11, and to recount heroism. We take them at their word, and fully expect them to refrain from publishing gruesome, gratuitous or personal details that do nothing to further this discussion. We also hope and expect that the media will show appropriate respect for the families of the heroes of September 11, particularly as the second anniversary of that painful day approaches.

[happygrl]

when your life is in danger, take ownership of it.

In other words, don't be a sheeple.