Above the Impact: A WTC Survivor s Story

Nova ^ | 5/29/02

[dead]

The security guard was saying, "I need help. My phones don't work, but I need medical attention for this man. I'll stay with him, I'll tend him, but you must promise to get help as soon as you can telephone somebody."

This sentence really got to me. What a brave man!

The detail in this story was excruciating. I used to shop in that Sam Goody, and ate breakfast everyday in one of those little delis across the street, next to the firehouse. Everything he mentioned, except the church, is gone now.

[NittanyLion]

Thanks. What a powerful story.

[Blueflag]

"wow" bump

[NittanyLion]

Everything he mentioned, except the church, is gone now.

I attended a dinner at the Hyatt Regency on 42nd Street a couple months ago, and was able to spend a couple hours downtown, including time at Ground Zero. The total lack of damage (except the stopped clock on its steeple) to the church is astounding. What really got me choked up was the memorials posted on the church fence, as well as the debris (vertical blinds, insulations, etc.) hanging in trees everywhere.

[finnman69]

Wow. I recently met with someone who knew maybe 30 people who died downtown. Mostly people at Fred Alger. He needed months of therapy as he watched it all happen from the WFC. He also knows someone who got injured in elevators on the way down that managed to be in the path of the second plane. He told me another story of a woman who was impaled by a pipe (plane wreckage)in an elevator going down. The people in the elevator managed to get the door open, and they got her out of the elevator, only to have the door close behind her. She managed to get out of the building. Noone else who was on the elevator got out.

He also blames Clinton for everything.

[Thud]

ping

[Tuco-bad]

WTC collapsed because the towers were built "on the cheap".

When the construction crews were prohibited from spraying asbestos to insulate the steel columns (see: New York Times, April 28, 1970, p. 83), the towers should have been built to a shorter height, around 70 stories.

[TheDon]

Never Forget Bump!

[Incorrigible]

WTC 9 to paralyzed pal: 'You're coming with us'

[537 Votes]

A great movie about Sept. 11 is waiting to be made, but it won't be about politicians and terrorists, it should be about personal stories like this.

[dead]

Thomas Eagar does not agree with your analysis in any way. His analysis of the collapse never even mentions asbestos or the lack thereof.

He blames the collapse on the fact that the intense, but not uniform, heat was spread instantly across entire floors (as would never happen in a “normal” fire). Combined with the buckling from impact, the heat caused a failing in the certain angle clips (which held the floor trusses to the column) setting off the catastrophic chain reaction collapse.

Thomas Eagar is Thomas Lord Professor of Materials Engineering and Engineering Systems at MIT. What are your credentials? I mean, other than being a repeatedly failed political prognosticator?

[Fred Mertz]

What a story of survival and luck.

[jude24]

dont be such an idiot.

For the WTC towers to remain standing after 2 747's hit them is amazing enough. For them to succomb only because of many 10,000's of gallons of burning jet fuel is certainly respectable, and definately nothing anyone prior to 9/11 could have anticipated. (Well, maybe anyone who read DEBT OF HONOR -- but no one thought about them hitting skyscrapers).

Instead of blaming the engineers, lets remember who brought down the towers-- a bunch of Islamic fanatics shouting "Allahu akhbar," no doubt.

Of course, we all know Islam is a religion of peace....

[finnman69]

What are your credentials? I mean, other than being a repeatedly failed political prognosticator?

HIGH FIVE ROFLMAO!

[Labyrinthos]

Very intense, very vivid. I've been to the WTC so many times over the years for both business and pleasure, and as I read Mr. Clark's first hand account of the events that unfolded during the morning hours on 09.11.01, I was able to visualize and retrace vitually every step that he took upon exiting the north side of the south tower near the "half price ticket booth." But try as I may, I will never be able to accurately imagine the fear and panic, pain and suffering, sounds and smells, and injuries and deaths that resulted from that horrific event. There were so many true heros that day, from our public servants in uniform, to the private citizens who risked their lives to lead others to safety, to the people of lower Manhattan who gave water, food, shelter, and comfort to those escaping from the collapsing structures. ("True heros" as opposed to Hollywood wackos or overpaid sports stars who are often called "heros" for saving a tree or hitting a game winning home-run.) I want to cry whenever I think about 09.11.01 and the people who perished and those who survived. I need to cry. We all do. I'll never forget.

[Tuco-bad]

What are your credentials? I mean, other than being a repeatedly failed political prognosticator?

You mean like predicting Lazio would lose?

[Tuco-bad]

Thomas Eagar is Thomas Lord Professor of Materials Engineering and Engineering Systems at MIT. What are your credentials?

I did give you a source; New York Times 4/28/1970.

[mhking]

bump

[Tuco-bad]

For the WTC towers to remain standing after 2 747's hit them is amazing enough. For them to succomb only because of many 10,000's of gallons of burning jet fuel is certainly respectable, and definately nothing anyone prior to 9/11 could have anticipated.

If true, that no one would expect the WTC to stand after the impact of the 767s then: "Why were emergency workers sent into the WTC?

Instead of blaming the engineers, lets remember who brought down the towers-- a bunch of Islamic fanatics shouting "Allahu akhbar," no doubt.

Of course the Islamic fanatics are responsible, I'm just saying had the WTC not been built "on the cheap" the WTC probably would not have collapsed.

Of course, we all know Islam is a religion of peace....

If I were an Islamic person, I would be ashamed of my religion.