side, only to see a sight he will never forget. There was debris raining from the sky and people running frantically. He grabbed his briefcase and knew he had to get out. When he opened his door, he saw others also looking for an escape route. They headed down a staircase to a backside exit that had a large glass atrium. As they worked their way down the steps they could see the horror unfolding outside. Burning debris blocked the exit. He could see the severe injuries outside. Members of the group were beginning to panic. Others wanted to break the glass and attempt to climb over the debris. Andrew convinced everyone to head back to the 2nd floor so they could see if the lobby was a better option. When they arrived at the lobby, there was a WTC Marriott Hotel, crowd of people waiting to exit. They collapsed glass atrium. were slowly funneling people out to the south with women and children going first. He was 30 to 40 feet from the exit when he heard a 2nd explosion. Firefighters and policemen came rushing inside as the fiery debris was raining outside. At this point, pandemonium set in and even Andrew began to question whether he would get out. Once the outside looked clear, the firefighters and policemen began allowing people to leave the building. When it came to Andrew’s turn, they told him to run straight south, don’t look back and do not stop to try and help anyone as they are beyond help. As he ran south, he could hear explosions and debris crashing near him. He ran for two blocks before he turned to see the horror he left behind. He attempted to call his wife, but he couldn’t get through. He decided to run a couple more blocks to a point that he thought was safe and he sat down to take a rest. As he was sitting there, he realized he was still carrying his briefcase. From where he was siting, he could see the towers burning and people jumping from the top floors. One of his partners was able to get through to him on his cell phone to ascertain that he was okay. Moments later, he began to hear a loud crashing sound. As he looked up, he saw the top of one of the towers coming apart and a cloud of debris and dust rushing toward him. He began to run in the opposite direction. While he was running, he noticed a woman had stopped and was gasping for air. He stopped to help and to try to get her to safety. He stopped a man to see if he could help and he happened to still be carrying his lunch bag. They used the lunch bag to help her catch her breath. As he looked up, he noticed a half a dozen people standing around, trying to help. It was at this moment he realized that there were people from all walks of life coming together to help. They were able to help get the woman to a point where she wasn’t in any immediate danger. Now that he had a chance, he wanted to find his colleagues to see if they were okay. As he was walking, two people literally bumped into him and it just happened to be his colleagues. While standing there, they could see the second tower fall and knew they wanted to get off the island as soon as possible. The three of them loaded a ferry to Hoboken, NJ and went to stay with a friend’s relatives. It wasn’t until 48 hours later that he was finally able to see his wife. When Andrew looks back on September 11th, he remembers the tragedy and horror. But he also remembers the true sense of American pride, when everyday citizens stepped up and became heroes. 6
SAGA
WINTER
’02
Rob Ferraro, Epsilon Theta ’99 (Plymouth State College) is a foreign exchange broker for a private firm at the New York Board of Trade, which was located on the 8th floor of 4 World Trade Center. He remembers looking at the gleaming World Trade Center, from his Brooklyn apartment at 6:30 AM on September 11, on a crisp clear morning, thinking that it was going to be a gorgeous day. The trading day began slowly and normally, then the world changed at 8:46 AM. He writes: “The lights flickered for a few seconds, the floor noticeably shook. The trader’s ooohd and aaahd. I heard one broker say to another, “maybe a bomb went off again”. Apparently, the same flickering of the lights and shaking of the floor occurred during the 1993 WTC bombing. The next few minutes were the scariest of my life. Out of the corner of my eye I caught several grown men noticeably crying, sprinting for the exits. All of the people who were eating breakfast that day in the cafeteria had an unobstructed view of American Flight 11 slamming into the North tower. My instincts told me to run for my life. None of us had any idea what had happened. I found myself running down the stairs as fast as I could, with about 400 other people, all asking the same question, “what had happened”. When I got to the bottom floor and emerged from the building, I saw the horror. Thick black smoke billowing from the North tower. Bits of plane pieces falling all around us. It was as if I was in Hell. The wind was swirling, picking up the paper that had been sucked out from the blast. Everyone stared at the horrible scene unfolding in front of our eyes. The sight of seeing bodies drop from 110 stories up and hitting the concrete will never leave my mind.” Rob is thankful for God sparing his life and mourns the loss of friends and coworkers who lost their lives that tragic day.
Background photograph by Michael Rieger/FEMA News Photo.