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I found the following to be the most chilling paragraph --"Other people — no one knows how many — also survived the immediate collapse. They were heard on fire department radios, or their bodies, with no apparent fatal injuries, were found days or weeks later, almost intact, inside protective pockets deep in the tangle of steel and cement at Ground Zero. They could not be reached in time because of the immense depth of the rubble."<<<
Although the exact time now escapes me, maybe a week afterward, I prayed that they would find just one more person alive. Just one more, I thought, in a semi-delirious state which consumed me for over a month afterward.
Just one, who somehow had access to water...
I don't think I can comprehend how horrible a death that would be; alive, yet trapped. May Almighty God have mercy on their souls, every one of them... both the survivors and those who did not.
Thank you for posting this Len.
I kind of suspected as much. There was much hoopla the night of the collapse about people using cell phones/etc to call out. They even brought in cell phone towers to point at the rubble pile. Then, just the next day, the whole rescue effort absolutely clammed up about any cell phone calls. I guess they'd figured out there was no way to reach any survivors at that point and keeping us abreast of a doomed operation wouldn't be good for anyone's sanity.