Posted on 12/08/2001 12:04:59 PM PST by classygreeneyedblonde
NEW YORK -- 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 Alan Reiss, the trade center's former 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.
Having said that, it is a remarkable story from the perspective of how the Port Authority was able to organize itself -- the success it had in evacuating the building in comparison to '93, and the heroic efforts of the police and fire.''
In 1993, it took six hours to evacuate most of the occupants of the trade center after terrorists detonated a bomb in an underground garage, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000.
This time, there were some missteps, such as conflicting announcements over when and whether to evacuate. But the evacuation time was reduced by several hours.
The time of day was a factor, too.
Just before lunchtime on a typical work day, the towers would have held about 50,000 people, said Reiss, who was at the trade center on Sept. 11, helping with the transition to a new management.
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 an hour, at 9:55; the north tower at 10:29.
During the 1993 evacuation, workers crammed into pitch-black exit stairways, bumping into walls and each other in the smoky darkness
It took a very, very long time to get down back in those days,'' said Robert Davidson, who worked on the 73rd floor of the north tower as chief architect for the Port Authority. ``As you moved down the stairs you went about half a flight and stopped for while. That was the trip all the way down.''
After the bombing, however, batteries were added to every other light fixture in the stairwells in case power went out as it did in 1993. Handrails were painted with yellow glow-in-the-dark paint, which also was used to mark a continuous stripe down the middle of the staircases. A public address system was added, enabling fire command stations to address tenants.
And having been through one emergency, employees listened to what they should do in the case of another, Reiss said. ``We always had a fire drill every six months, but people wouldn't come out of their offices. The higher-ups wouldn't leave meetings. That sort of stopped after '93.
At Mancini Duffy, an architectural firm on the south tower's 22nd floor with 140 employees, the policy was leave first, ask questions later
From the experience of '93, whenever there was an unusual noise or sound or smell, they were instructed to leave the building regardless of what was being said,'' chairman Ralph Mancini said. ``That's why we got out so fast.''
Yes. And think of all the tourists that weren't there, yet. There could have been many thousands more, besides the normal office workers, that could have been killed.
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
Joshua 1:9
Thousands more saved...
Also, many people who responded to the voice of the Lord on that day were saved, such as the woman who on the 104th floor who was led to go down immediately through difficult stairwell conditions and surrived when others went to the top and perished. Likewise for the person who was led to take the elevator down from the 94th floor while others taking the stairs didn't make it.
I was in LA and was scheduled to return to Virginia on the 9th of September...
A friend of mine decided to throw a surprise birthday party on Sunday for a mutual friend so I wanted to stay until Wednesday [September 12th] but everytime I brought it up to the Lord I would get "nope!".
So I made the decision to return on Monday September 10th and got no problem in the spirit.
Another friend who was in LA with me but not scheduled to fly with me...had thought she wanted to stay until wednesday...but she said the Lord said no. So she went home on Sunday.
Anyway...Monday morning a friend [Russell/Men's coordinator for his Church] was taking me to LAX and we were praying for safe travel....Russell said something didnt feel right...
So I asked the Lord straight up what were we missing in prayer....and I got the distinct impression that what Russell was feeling had nothing to do with my flight....so I lifted up the security at LAX and the safety for all of the pilots [I dont ever lift up the pilots and their safety I just pray for the flight itself].
I told Russell and he agreed...
Even walking around through LAX did seem quite right...but I got on the flight and returned home...
Couple that with...
My Mother called me Sunday morning when I was in LA and said she didnt want me to fly into Reagan, that she thought I should just get off the plane in Charlotte, NC and return home from there......when I asked her why she said she just felt like I should not go to DC.
Now I am positive that I was safe at all times but as far as the Lord not letting me stay longer, he knew if I stayed too long then I would've been stuck in LA for awhile and as for my mother not wanting me in DC I think she was sensing what others told me that they felt like the Lord was intentionally keeping them away from DC during that time....my other friend who returned from LA that Sunday....she got off the plane in Raleigh instead of continuing on to DC.
???
God knew what was happening and was keeping his people well in advance.
How sad to be so bitter at so young an age; how blessed that you don't have a family member that was killed. I am grateful to God that no one I know was killed or injured. You are angry at random chance that anyone one. I much prefer my outlook. God loves you too; no one you know was hurt, apparently.
50,000 saved. 4000+ dead. Sounds like much better than "random chance" to me. I'll pray for you.
If I was someone that had a family member that WAS killed in the WTC, I would be deeply offended at people gleefully describing as "God-given miracles" various dumb-luck incidents that prevented people from being in the towers when they normally are.
I was one of the lucky ones on September 11th. My Dad was on the 82nd floor of Tower One when the first plane hit. I only lost my last grandparent the week before. For five hours I lived with the fact that my father had been murdered. He has had a bad heart, and is overweight and I knew that even if he had lived through the impact, there was no way he could make it down alive. If it weren't for two firefighters that carried him down the last 40 flights of stairs, he would be dead. He still believes that he was the last person out of the tower as it collapsed when he was only 100 yards away.
I felt every emotion that day from anger, despair, and doubt in my faith. When I felt anger at God, I could only ask the question "why"? I received a miracle when the phone rang from the hospital with news that my dad was alive. That news was in no way "gleeful". The only thing I could feel was sadness for the people that would not be receiving the same phone call.
Today, I am working across the street from ground zero. There are family members of people who lost their lives walking down here every day. No one can explain their grief and I am certain that some of them have there own doubts. If I had lost my father that day, and ran into a survivor or family member of a survivor, I would thank God for them and their family that they are alive. Hearing the personal stories of that day, there was a little more than dumb luck at play when it comes to the relative low number of deaths when the potential death numbers are taken into account. One death is still one too many.
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