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.... << silent tears... and a quick prayer >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Trey" <trey@ne*.co*> To: "Techdiver@Aquanaut.Com" <techdiver@aquanaut.com> Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 8:23 PM Subject: FW: WTC > > Check this out from WKPP member Peter Wallace who was in the WTC. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Pete Wallace [mailto:hwallac1@ta*.rr*.co*] > Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 12:45 PM > To: Trey@Ne*. Com > Subject: WTC > > > G, here's what happened... if you want to put this on wkpp or Gue fine w/ > me. > > This really sucks, and that is the only way to describe it. I've got to > write this as it is too damn important not to and although this will likely > stay in my memory forever, I do not want to take the chance of forgetting > any of it. Iwas lucky, I escaped. 5000 others were not as fortunate > > Nothing can really describe the feeling, the shock or the terror of what > took place in New York. It is interesting that terrorism is a word we all > use but it's true meaning was never really know until it's been fully > experienced. The terror, the grief, the carnage. > > I was at the National Association for Business Economics 43rd Annual Meeting > ironically titled "NABE in a New York Minute" little did any one of us know > just how much a few of those "New York minutes would change the lives of so > many people. The meeting was being held September 9th through 11th at the > New York Marriott World Trade Center Hotel. It was the last day of the > meeting about 8:00 in the morning. I went down to breakfast, but thought I > could miss the presentation by Robert Scott. President and CEO of Morgan > Stanley and that my time would be better served packing up, checking the > markets and emails, looking at the situation with swap number 6 to see why > it values slightly differently than we expected and then checking out and > checking my bags before the start of second session. This would keep me from > trying to rush to check out before the noon deadline. > > The rooms at the Marriott, the old Vista Hotel, are small but well laid out. > The room was laid out so as you enter the bath immediately to the right, the > closet is on the opposing wall, then on the right is the bed with the > suitcase rack and the television opposite of it. There was then a couch to > the outside of the bed along the right wall with a coffee table in front of > it and then a desk on the left wall. The widow is large and immediately to > the right of the couch and directly opposite the door. The widow looked out > over West Street towards the World Financial Center where I worked when > employed by Lehman Bothers. > > The room number was 530 and was located on the fifth floor and at nearly the > very end of the North Hallway, a really long walk from the central elevators > but close to the exit door and stairs. This was fine since I have preferred > rooms on the lower floors of hotels near the stairways in the case of fire. > > Around 8:35 or 8:40 I was sitting on the couch and had just sent out an > email. My bags were packed and most of my stuff was ready for check out. As > I was sitting on the couch finishing up with the lap top when I heard a > loud, deep bang. It sounded as if a construction crane had dropped an I-beam > or some other heavy piece of equipment. This would not have been unusual as > there always seems to be construction in the area and renovations were > indeed going on at the Marriott Financial just lower on West St. > (What I'm trying to describe seems like it lasted eternity but really only > took place in a matter of seconds or at most minutes.) > Immediately, there was a second explosion. The lights flickered and the > building shook very violently. It was immediately apparent that this was not > costruction but a bomb. Smoke started to cover the window and debris rained, > glass, metal, concrete and larger flaming pieces. The flaming objects seemed > to fall much faster than the general debris. I jumped up and looked out the > window to see the flaming objects in West Street five floors were bodies. I > thought my God! Jesus!!!! bodies falling from wherever, maybe as high as > 100+ floors if they had come from one of the Trade Centers or maybe 19 or so > if they came from the Hotel. > At least two were in West Street directly in front of my room. The debris > and more bodies continued to rain. A man in the street pulled his jacket off > and attempted to beat out the flames on the bodies with his jacket as the > glass and metal kept falling, yet he persisted in his efforts. The futility > was painful. The bodies had to be dead yet he continued heroically beating > the flames with his jacket as the debris poured down upon him. I suspect he > must have died. He had to have died, I can't imagine he could have survived > the deluge of glass, steel and concrete. To my dying day, I will never > forget that scene; that man gallantly but futilly beating atthe flames, > trying to extinguish the flames on the burning mangled corpses. Who was he? > I guess I'll never know, but I do know I will never forget him. I hope to > God he survived, but I don't know how he could have. > > It was time to go. This was not the place to be. Stuff pelted the window > and more violent shakes; I had the thought that to stay risked being in the > building when it collapsed. I grabbed the computer and my bag, left > everything else and headed for the stairs. Why did I take the bags? I really > don't know. I should have left them. They probably slowed me down. > One room to the stairs at the North end of the floor. These were the rooms > closest to One World Trade. I just knew the elevators would not be working > and besides, I'd hate to be trapped on one. The stairs were going to be my > way out. The noise was building on the fifth floor of maybe 18 or 19. it > seems I can hear stuff hitting the upper floors or the roof, SHIT! Could the > upper floors be gone? Could we be next? It's getting really smoky and the > smell of fuel oil ( I now know it was kerosene, jet fuel)is prevalent. It's > burning my throat. Funny, I think of Life Insurance and if this will be > covered as business, which is not a good sign. I reach the stairwell door > and feel it to see if it is hot, its not and the smoke is coming from > somewhere else other than the stairwell. Good! I think, it is a way out. It > hasn't dawned on me that it was the north tower, WTC 1 that was hit. > > The stairs seemed to go on forever, seem like four flights of stairs for > each floor of hotel. There is one other guy in the stairway who asks: ".what > the fuck was that? A bomb?" I say I think so, but I don't know, so let's > just get out of here. We race the stairs to the bottom. The exit door seems > stuck, it will open only an inch or so, so he and I slam our shoulders to > it and get it open about a foot, just enough to see it opens onto the narrow > walkway between the north tower and the hotel plaza. There is debris all > over and it is still coming down. I realize the reason for the door not > fully opening is debris and oh God, bodies. They are chared and smoldering. > Oh God, I think I'm losing my mind! This just can't be real. I think and say > to the other guy."Fuck , we got to get out of here, we can't go this way. He > says ".quick the second floor lobby, we'll get out the front!". Again, this > is all happening in nano-seconds! We race up the stairs. We've got to get to > the second floor and back into the hotel. We will surely die if we go the > other way on to the plaza, By this time the stairway is filling with people. > Lots now and I notice many are asians, many people are crying. We tell them > they can't get out that way and we have to go through the hotel at the > second floor. > We make it to the second floor, go through the door into the hallway to the > upper lobby where the Garden and American Harvest restaurants are located. > Hotel workers are ushering us across the floor and down the south stairway. > The smoke is really getting worse now. Looking out the window, the scene on > West St. is really getting nasty, debris, glass, more debris than street in > places. > > This is now just pure terror. The crowd is starting to backup into the > lower lobby. The hotel staff are trying to get us out through the Tall Ships > bar. I see what the hold up is, even on Liberty Street we have to run > through falling debris. The NYPD is there, encouraging us to run quickly > across West Street at Liberty to safety on the opposite side of West Street > at the World Financial Centers.. I start to run. I think SHIT! there is > glass coming down. Fuck. I going to get hit. I do, but fortunately it is > like safety glass, small pieces but no large shards.. Then, suddenly maybe > less than 100 feet away lands another body. Oh God, the > sound.undescribale.the worst .bones compressing snapping into flesh. a > popping sound. I keep running across West Street, my computer bag opens and > my lap top is gone. I'm not stopping, I have to get across the street. I > make it to underneath the pedestrian walk way at WFC. I think it was XXXX, > the economist from XXXX has snatched up my computer on the way across the > Street and he is now ahead of me. He hands it to me and asks: "do you know > what's happening?" I say I don't know, I don't know. We turn for the first > time and look east back toward the Trade Centers. Oh my God, the top 40 > floors or so of The north tower , One World Trade are engulfed in flames and > smoke. Then it hits. Oh no! they are jumping !!! more and more people trying > to escape the flames, falling seemingly forever to their deaths from the > 90th to 110th floor (I can't think of which floors exactly)which houses > Cantor- Fitzgerald. Oh shit, I think I know people there XXXXXXX, xxxxxxx > and others.I'm losing friends and associates, this is too much, Madness! > Madness! what possess people to do these things? > > I've got my cell phone. I've got to call home. If Joanne and the kids see > this.Shit! There is no phone response, not even a click. Everyone is having > the same problem. > xxxxx and I can't look, I worked on those same floors from which those > people are jumping and dying.I can remember the acrophobia sitting on the > edge of the widow sills and the amazement of watching fireworks from above > during the (was it?) bicentennial of the Brooklyn Bridge. Even though we can > 't look you still know. As another after another after another plunges, the > crowd screams and cries. It just can't be avoided, you can look away, you > can shut your eyes, but you still know; the vision is there you know exactly > what is happening and the outcome is never different. > How ironic, the speaker is the President and CEO of Morgan Stanley, the > largest tenant in the Trade Centers. I'm so glad Joanne didn't come to this. > The crowd groans, more have jumped. We are now dumbfounded. None of us can > speak. I want to puke. > > There is the sound of jet engines, we look up, it's a commercial jet. The > whine of the engines intensifies...getting louder and louder. Oh God! the > pilot is throttling up!, giving it the gas, headed for the other tower > number 2 the south tower. Oh sweet Jesus! Impact! The plane neatly > disappears into 2 WTC, and then a fireball on both sides of the tower, Oh, > those poor people! They never had a chance, It's an instant replay, fire, > smoke, debris bodies. I realize we are now all the way back to the Hudson, > we can't go back any more. We are all in shock, more people jump.leaping to > their death individually almost waiting their turn. I pray please God make > it stop, but to no avail. > > XXXXX suggest we get as far away from here as we can. I agree, We decide to > move north behind the WFC towers to stay as far away from the Trade Centers > as possible. This seems still risky as the WFC complex is a likely target as > well, but this seems the only and most logical action. xxx's daughter, xxxx, > works at xxxxxx Advertising at xxxx Varick St, just north of the entrance to > the Holland Tunnel, so the plan is to walk there. > XXXXX and several others are going to find someones husband in the crowd > and the do the same thing. > XXX and I head north, along the back of the WFC, behind the Merrill and > Lehman Offices, with the amount of people on the plaza these work forces > have also been released. I keep trying the cell phone with the same results. > The cell must be jammed. It's getting frustrating, I don't want Joanne and > the kids to see this without knowing I'm ok. I've got to get a hold of them > somehow. Perhaps there's a pay phone somewhere. > We walk north, I'm pulling the baggage and what is left of the computer. All > of a sudden I'm reminded of Stephen King's " The Stand" where the escape > from NY was through the Holland Tunnel on foot. I hope we do not have to > follow the rest of the script. We keep walking, up to the Catholic High > School west of West St., then east to Greenwich and north. All of New York > is in the streets or on the roof tops, nobody is inside. Every pay phone > has an orderly line of 20 to thirty people. > XXXXX and I surprise ourselves. We think and discuss how will we adjust our > forecasts. Do we think data will be delayed? What effect will this have on > Consumer Credit? Spending? When do we think we can get back to the hotel to > pick up our stuff and xxx's car in the underground lot? > This must be psycologically defensive as absolutely none of what we are > discussing now matters a wit and we both know it. > > We walk and walk and walk. It seems like a hell of a long ways. At Canal > Street my phone worked! I get the office, both Jay and Mary Lynn. This is > great. I ask Mary Lynn to call Joanne Kerri and Hardy. Jay hoops on to tell > me the Pentagon has been hit, that One World trade has collapsed and that > other planes are targeting other sites. Jay's advice, "don't go near any > tall buildings. Stay away from tall buildings." he's right again At that > point there is the whine of Jet engines I look up to see a flight of F15s or > F16s fly low over Canal Street on full afterburners. I realize when I > started talking to Jay I was standing up, Now I'm crouched in the gutter > next to a huge parked truck. Manhattan is now a war zone. > > I walked from there to Penn Station and caught a train to Washington, > Richmond, and finally Tampa two days later. It is an experience I will > re-live time and time again in my night mares. > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: quest-unsubscribe@gu*.co* > For additional commands, e-mail: quest-help@gu*.co* > > -- > Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. > Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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