For many on Sept. 11, survival was no accident

USA Today ^ | 12-19-01 | Dennis Cauchon

[Oldeconomybuyer]

NEW YORK

[Tarzantheape]

Someone needs to print this out, wad it up tightly in their fist and hit Sen. Hillbilly with it square in the nose...So much for her rant about faulty design...Let's see what she says now...

[proxy_user]

That's one thing the terrorists didn't consider: NYC work habits. Only a few people are at their desks before nine.

I got off the subway at 9:10, after the second plane had hit. If I had been smart, I wouldn't have stuck around. Well, at least I didn't run over and gape up at the burning buildings.

[BrooklynGOP]

Yep. My friend worked for eSpeed (division of Cantor Fitzgerald).. I used to work with her at Instinet, and she had a "nasty" habit of coming to work 15-20 mins late on regular basis... It saved her on the 11th.

[Dane]

Oops I posted the same article almost at the same time. Sidebar moderator I now know why my duplicate post was deleted.

[Catspaw]

Yep. My friend worked for eSpeed (division of Cantor Fitzgerald).. I used to work with her at Instinet, and she had a "nasty" habit of coming to work 15-20 mins late on regular basis... It saved her on the 11th.

Unfortunately, my friend's cousin was at his desk at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor. His family does not expect his body to be found, but it took them quite a while to accept that fact.

[Dane]

On the north tower's 92nd floor, one floor below the crash, 69 employees from Carr Futures found themselves trapped. Most, perhaps all, survived the crash. But, in phone calls to loved ones, the employees reported that the stairwells were impassable.

They crowded together in corner rooms as the floor filled with smoke. People appear to have lived until the building fell. By phone, a mother told her son that the south tower had collapsed.

After I thought I had heard all the horriffic stories about 9/11, here is another one. OBL is pure evil.

[dep]

maybe someone can tell me when stories like this one will cease to bring tears. all i know is that it's not yet.

dep

[Ditter]

As usual the article ignores the 6,000 to 10,000 people who died Sept 8, 1900 in Galveston TX. These people didn't die over several days, they died in an hour or less as the storm surge moved ashore over Galveston Island. It was several days before the world learned of this tragedy.

[FreedomPoster]

While the author did just say "bloodiest day", I took it to imply "from an act of war", and not just greatest number of deaths from any cause. This is not to detract at all from the tragedy that was the Galveston hurricane.

[DeBug=int13]

Fascinating post. BUMP

[Tijeras_Slim]

bump for later

[Ditter]

I have heard the Galveston hurricane dismissed as not being so tragic because the deaths occurred over 'several days' but that is simply untrue. The deaths occurred in a very short period of time. I know very informed people who have never heard of this tragedy until recently. I don't understand the reason. The Jamestown flood is in all the American history books but not the Galveston hurricane. I guess the reason it is so very large to me is because my grandfather survived it & I grew up listening to his stories.

[sixmil]

Great article, I was going to post it myself. I am sure there will be even more amazing details as time goes by.

Click here if you want to see my pictures from that awful day. I have only seen one other guy with pictures from as close as I was. The page will take a while to load since it is about 10 megs and poorly designed, but I have some pretty good shots. I have a much friendlier version to publish with the complete story, but my web space is locked until Earthlink figures out what broke.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Very interesting pics, I assume you took them yourself. Note that only 7 images work on the webpage for some reason.

[krb]

One man, for example, stayed on the 27th floor with a disabled friend; both died.

Wow. I've always cursed my broad shoulders and stocky "strong as an ox" build; it's hard to keep in shape enough not to look overweight without wasting a lifetime in a gym or on a track.

Not anymore. If I'm ever in that situation, my disabled friend's going up on my shoulders and we're gonna slide down together!

[brooklin]

bump for later

[newwahoo]

Despite their "detailed analysis", USA Today totally neglects the number of people that jumped to their deaths. Two people that I know who worked nearby think there were at least a couple dozen.

I just get sad and mad all over again whenever I think about those poor people.

[SarahW]

I would also like to see some "analysis" of the idiot port authority's failure to call for immediate evacuation of the south tower; and the chasing of would-be evacuees back up to their top-floor offices. None of those deaths in the opt floors of the South tower was necessary.

Even if you think it was, at the time, a prudent course to keep people out of the street away from rescue operations and falling debris (and jumpers), it wasn't wise to tell folks to go back to their top-floor desks. If the situation were to change or worsen, it was in any case better for occupants of the south Towers to go to lower floors. At minimum they should have gatherered top floor employees on the lower levels, with plans to make a secure path for them to exit the building.

[newwahoo]

There were 15 minutes between crashes. If only the FAA had been able to let the Port Authority know that there were still hijacked planes out there I'm sure they would have evacuated faster. Everything just happenned so fast that morning. I think they thought that the first hit was all that was going to happen. At any rate, there was no reason to tell people to go back to work. If they felt like leaving then they shouldn't have been hassled in any way. I'm not sure if the PA even knew if the first hit was a plane or a bomb during those 15 minutes.