Tribute to 9-11 -- Ten Years Later

Ed A

Foreward (10 years later)...

The morning of September 11th dawned beautiful, crisp and clear. It was one of those top 10 mornings; low humidity and a blue sky more representative of dry Colorado than the usual New York sky. I had been getting to work fairly late (for me) over the previous couple of months, but for some reason, that morning I was ready early so I headed in to work early.

Was that a mistake to go to work early that day? I don't ever think of it that way or second guess the choice to go in early because it's just the way it happened.

Fortunately, I was around to write down what happened that day, and I'm still here 10 years later to be able to share it (and some of the photos I collected) with others.  Please share your own stories in the comments section of this blog entry.

- Ed A

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Originally printed in NY Flyers Newsletter, Fall 2001

I think I heard the sound of the plane coming just before I heard the blast. It just sounded normal. But then, it culminated in the blast. My monitor flickered and I both felt and heard the blast. My first thought, for some reason, was that a plane hit one of the towers – it felt like a sonic boom – we felt it like a wave. I had thought it was an accident. My second thought, immediately after, was that it was a bomb, or some other act of terrorism.

We ran to the windows and looked up and saw that a portion of the upper part of Tower 1 was on fire most of the way around the building that we could see. People were rushing out of the plaza. Debris was falling from the sky – papers, pieces of the building, pieces of the plane (which I think I didn’t see), and pieces of people, which I’m glad I didn’t see.

There was a lot of confusion – what the hell was that? – what should we do? I threw on my sneakers, grabbed my pack, jacket and helmet and hurried / ran to the stairs. I actually ran past the stairs but immediately realized that the stairs are what we need – not the elevator. I opened the stairs but then ran back into the office area and announced to nobody in particular or whoever was within the sound of my voice that I was leaving.

When I got to the stairs again, I realized my responsibilities as a searcher in case of fire, and decided that since the alarms hadn’t gone off and because there were so few people at work, and because I had the sense that everyone knew what had happened, I didn't need to search. I know this was rationalization, but it was what happened.

When I got into the stairs, there was a steady flow, but it was calm and easy to merge right in. I went down the stairs and out with many, many people. But the stairs led to the plaza and we were turned around and went through the lobby and out the door onto Church Street. We wound up across the street at the Millennium Hotel. Since there was no calling on cell phones (due to the systems being overwhelmed) I went in to the lobby to try to use the pay phone there. However, the line was so long I went back out again.

I was standing under the awning when my friend Howard just gasped and turned away. I asked him what the problem was, and he couldn’t answer, so I asked again, and he said “people are just jumping from the building.” I turned, and also saw people flying, in sort of a slow motion, sickening way.

Some short time later, we heard the impact of the second plane. Those of us that were outside ran into the lobby, where there were lots of other people. There was a stampede out of the lobby through the other door (which was on the side 90 degrees perpendicular). I didn’t want to get caught in the stampede so I stepped out of it with John, and we went to the window and looked out and saw similar burning in a ring of the around the second tower.

At that point I realized that since most people had left the building that possibly the pay phones would be available. I tried to use my credit card number but it wouldn’t go through but I had a couple of quarters to use. Since my friend Alesia had very recently beeped me, I got word to her and asked her to call my father at work, so he could call my brothers, and I asked her to call a couple of other people. Meanwhile, all this time, I’m getting beeped from some family and friends.

John and I walked around for a while, mostly on Broadway, one block away from the street that the WTC is on. We could see papers that only minutes before were on peoples’ desks. Edges of some of them were charred. This was very disturbing.

Eventually John started to walk uptown and I was going to grab my motorcycle and get out there also. There were many people on the street, some were just watching, others were going places with purpose, others were crying and shocked, some were somewhat injured, but not many at this point.

I tried to get to my bike and was told I couldn’t go there. By this time, the police were trying to get the area secured. I couldn’t get in one street, couldn’t get in the next one, so I went around to another and managed to get to my bike. There was a woman with her dog outside an apartment building that was 10 feet up the street from where I park my bike. She asked me whether I thought she should evacuate or not. I told her I didn’t know – I was getting out of there.

I had just gotten the bike started, and started to pull away on the sidewalk where I park. I made it about 10 feet and started to hear the noise of what sounded to me like 20 jets – it was an incredible noise. It was an all encompassing roar. All I could think was that here it comes again, only much lower. (It turned out to be the collapse of the first tower, but I didn't know it at the time.) Two other guys were on the same street and they started running. I can’t remember which way they ran - and I never saw them again.

Within about 2 or 3 seconds, roar and debris headed up the street that I was on, starting to envelope me. I jumped off the bike, remembering to turn it off with the kill switch (which cuts the engine, but not the electricity). The woman with the dog had gone into her building. There were two small steps up to the door of the apartment building and then a small step before the glass door, so there was an indentation off the plane of the outside of the building of approximately one to two feet. I jumped into that space, and tried to shield myself, but the dust was too much. I took a breath and got nothing but dust. I then thought about lack of air and suffocation, thinking about running out of air, and I realized that I would have to hold my breath. So what do you do when you're going to hold your breath? Yup - I took one more breath, trying to get that last breath before holding my breath, not fully yet realizing that I couldn’t. The instinct to fill my lungs so I could hold my breath took over.

I was acidly and painfully disabused of that notion. I knew I had to get myself inside the apartment building. I figured I had about a minute of air. I grabbed the door and it wouldn’t open. I pulled on it a few times and still nothing. I then decided that I would break down the door no matter what it took – I felt I could do that - it was a glass door. So now I grabbed both handles to the door and got ready to pull really hard. But fortunately the left door was open. I remember thinking “how stupid of me – I need to remember to check both doors if some need like this ever arises again”. The whole thing took maybe about 5 to 10 seconds.

I got into the hallway but I couldn’t see anything. My eyes and mouth and nose were filled with ash – I was completely covered. I couldn’t open my eyes. However, the air inside the building was smoky, but not as dusty. I yelled out for the woman and after a couple of yells, she responded. She said to come where she was, but I had to yell to her that I couldn’t open my eyes and couldn’t see anything. She led me with her voice and shortly after reached out and touched me. I was now starting to be able to get use of my eyes. By now the noise had stopped.

She headed up the stairs because that’s where her husband was and she had no other thoughts of what to do. I went also because at that point, she was my lifeline. I wasn’t going back out. It did get less smoky and dark as we headed up. As we made it up to the third or fourth floor, others that were in the building, including her husband, and the super with a flashlight, were on the way down. Someone with more authoritative commands then I could muster at that point was getting us out of the building. Getting out of there seemed to be the best thing anyway, and I sure wasn’t staying alone so I tied my fortunes in with these 5 people. We then headed down and out of the building.

There was scaffolding outside that building that had been erected about 2 weeks before in preparation for work on the exterior of the building. I think that helped shield me from debris also. Outside of the building, it was like nighttime. The sun was completely gone. It was nighttime. I think there was power on but I’m not sure. My motorcycle was right outside the door with its lights still on with the helmet right next to it (I didn’t have my helmet on when this happened). I turned off the key, locked it, and we headed out.

The world was gone. There was about 4 to 6 inches of ash on the ground and just in the street was a piece of the World Trade Tower. I still didn’t know what had happened. Since we were south of the World Trade Center, we all knew to go further south. We covered out faces with our shirts using the bottom over my nose and mouth as best as possible. As we headed south, we ran into more people also trying to get away from there.

We could probably see about 20 to 40 feet or so. I think the streetlights were on. Either that or there was enough ambient light. But the sky was very low above us. The world above a certain point, not very high, had just disappeared.

One guy ran up to us and said we should get to a building a ways down the street where there was fresh air coming out of some vents. He was running in the opposite direction saying he had to go find someone. He wanted our flashlight, but at this point, it was still too dark to give it up. We didn’t yet feel like we were in any sort of comfort zone. We weren’t running, but we were walking very purposefully. I was completely covered in the dust and ash.

As we headed further south, near Battery Park, the sky started getting lighter. It was still a white sheet, but a little further away and a little whiter, with each step we took. In the park, 3 of the people from the group went south and the super, his wife and I went towards the east. They were headed towards her brother’s place which was nearby.

On our way east, the sky started brightening, and started to get blue. We passed a couple of dollies of water jugs, the kind that turns over and goes into the water coolers. We opened one of them and I was able to wash some of the stuff off my face and have a drink.

As we were walking, we started talking about my motorcycle, and I asked the super if there was any chance he would look after it. I gave him my key. He gave me his cell phone number. At this point, I still didn’t have a clue as to the extent of the destruction.

As we reached their destination, another women asked us directions. I told her I was going that way and immediately adopted her. Her name was Susan. As we started to head the remaining few blocks to the east side, I again heard that terrible noise that sounded like those 20 jets, but less this time because we were much further away. We ran further east. I still didn’t know that the building had collapsed. I still thought there was another plane getting in to attack another building. I wanted to get as far away from the tall buildings as possible – towards the river.

Again, the noise happened, but the impact never happened. I had no idea of what was going on. There were others heading north on South Street and walking on the FDR. I now wanted to get out of downtown as quickly as possible. We headed north walking with many of the other people. It wasn’t as crowded as 7th Avenue near Macy’s some days, but it was a very steady flow. There were people walking up both sides of the street and in the street so people weren't packed together. If you wanted to get past someone you had to wiggle a bit, but not bad at all.

People in all the fish markets were standing outside with their hoses and paper towels offering them to people. I stopped twice to wash my face off again and to drink some more. Susan and I were walking at a pace that wasn’t fast, but sure seemed to be faster than many others. We passed people but were never passed.

Susan had one of those newfangled Blackberry email things and had gotten email from her brother with the subject “RUN: THE TOWER IS GONE!!!!!“ That’s when I started to get an inkling of what had happened but I was still not sure. Of course, we couldn’t see either tower, but it still didn’t make sense. There was a huge cloud of smoke headed towards Brooklyn.

During this time, I had gotten beeped by a lot of friends and one of my brothers. I couldn’t quite figure out why my father hadn’t called them. Was he not at work? I used the Blackberry to email a friend to tell him I was okay – he could spread that word – and also asked him to call my father at work. He emailed back and told me my father was on vacation. Duh! I could call him, but the number was on my refrigerator. At some point, Alesia beeped me and said she was leaving work and going to my house.

We continued north, along with many others. I didn’t notice the numbers getting much larger. I guess most everyone north of the World Trade Center just headed straight north up the avenues they were near. There was some traffic on the FDR, with some cars going north, and more emergency vehicles going south. At some point we read an electronic sign that said “Manhattan Closed South Of Canal Street”. It made sense to me, but still, the incomprehensibleness of all that had happened made the sign all the more surreal.

There’s a park on the east river which we walked up. We stopped at a fountain in the park and had more to drink. I went to use the bathroom, which was partially under construction, and there was a group of people standing near the bathroom building. At first I thought they were on line, but as I got closer, I realized they were standing around a car that had the radio on. All I could think of was like it was some movie and that we had huge destruction and everyone was trying to get as much information as possible over a system that didn’t have much information. (Obviously lack of information was only what I thought, not the reality).

We left the confines of the park at 34th street, and we reached the traffic trying to get onto or through first avenue, which was pretty much a parking lot. Cars trying to get north. Emergency vehicles trying to get through first avenue to the FDR. But still, it was reasonably orderly.

As we got further from downtown, the “victims” like myself became fewer and fewer. One person asked me if I was down there, and I said yes, and he said “you got a lot of shit on you, dude”. We stopped in a pizza place for a drink and it was business as usual, although not exactly with the usual feeling. Or at least that's how I viewed it through some very strange eyes.

Our intended destination was an address that Susan had for her sister on 29th street and Park, so on our way we stopped at my friend Laura’s apartment. Laura’s sister-in-law, Marie, who also worked downtown, was there. They had the TV on. Marie said she actually saw the first tower disappear. That’s when I started to understand what had happened. I cleaned up and took out and rinsed my contact lenses and then put them back in. Much better!

We had a chance to use the phone so I called my home and spoke to Alesia I needed the number to the hotel where my dad was staying so I asked her to go to the refrigerator, and then look right in front at the top. She couldn’t figure out what I was talking about until she realized I was talking about the outside of the refrigerator, and she was looking inside. The number was on a piece of paper on the refrigerator - not in the refrigerator.

She gave me my dad’s number and I called the hotel and asked if Abe Altman was registered there, and the guy who answered said he was just packing up the car. I said “I’m from NY – is it possible for me to talk to him”. The guy immediately went and got him. I thought that was really nice. Dad had just talked to my sister-in-law Kellie who told him I was alright, but it was still nice for me to be able to talk to him and for him to hear from me.

It turns out Susan's sister didn't live on 29th street, but she was able to find out where her sister really lived. It was on the west side at 69th and Amsterdam. So we headed there, but decided to stop where her brother-in-law worked, which was 34th near Madison. The people in the building told us they had just left. We headed up Madison, thinking about getting a bus, but that wasn’t really happening, although some buses were running.

We headed north up Madison, past FAO Schwartz and over to Central Park. We walked through the park, and in the park, I realized that Susan was getting really tired so we stopped and sat for about 10 minutes. I thought it was a good time for her to sit down, take a few breaths and try to settle herself a little bit more. She was still shaking. The sky was incredibly blue and the trees are beginning to change. It really was beautiful.

In the park it was business as usual. People running, people riding in the carriages, people riding bicycles. The effect of the attack was still there but much more subdued. We got up and walked the rest of the way across the park. On the streets outside the park, there was a very low volume of traffic. We made it to Susan’s sister’s place and I safely deposited Susan with her sister and brother-in-law.

I headed home across the park, occasionally still trying to make cell phone calls, but it was still not happening. I got home and Alesia was there holding down the command center. She answered the phone when it rang and was able to tell a lot of people that I was okay. It was very helpful.

I spent the rest of the day sending and answering emails, talking on the phone, and generally doing okay. It really felt good that people were so concerned – it helped me knowing how lucky I was to be associated with and surrounded by such quality people. It was a very hard day, but it didn’t affect me as much as it might have because I still had the adrenaline from having not been more injured or killed. I was not the closest but quite possibly one of the closest civilians there when the first tower fell.

As this was all happening I really don’t think I panicked much. There was no time for fear, only survival. I learned a lot of lessons here that I hope I never, ever, ever have to use again.

Ed A.