00:05Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, man. Holy shit.
00:15It was a resignation of, okay, I can't believe this is how I'm going to die.
00:34At about 8.46, 8.47, the lights in that room flickered. We didn't see anything. We didn't
00:46hear anything. We didn't feel anything. It was just this flicker of lights. Almost immediately,
00:53a gentleman from Aon Corporation kind of came into the room and he said, hey, there's been
00:58an explosion in the North Tower, and we got to evacuate to see these huge black holes through
01:07the sides of the building of the North Tower, plain, redder than any red I'd ever seen before
01:13in my life, looking up the side of the building, gray and black billows of smoke just pouring
01:18out of those big holes. And my first thought, immediate thought was, my God, how did that
01:25pilot not see the building? How did he miss? He didn't miss.
01:33And I walked to the intersection of two streets, Chamber Street and Church Street, which is
01:41north of the World Trade Center. From there, I could see the damage that had been done to
01:48the tower number one. From there, I could see what was happening from the street. I could
01:57see people waving tablecloths from my windows, from the windows of our restaurant, windows
02:03on the world. I could see tablecloths and napkins. It was horrible. It was terrible.
02:15I was somewhere between 74 and 72 in that stairwell when the plane, the second plane went through
02:22our building. It went through our building between floors 77 and 82. So we were just a few floors
02:35below the strike zone. I never felt anything like that in my life. That building, that fire
02:43stick, the bell that were inside, this concrete bunker starts to shake so violently back and
02:50forth, the handrails breaking away from the walls. And that's the chance we had for the first
02:55time to encounter the police and the firefighters and the paramedics from New York City and Florida
03:00the fire. Just the looks in their eyes. No words. Just the looks in their eyes. Hold the hope
03:10on the shore.
03:15They knew that they were going up those steps to try to fight a fire that they couldn't beat.
03:23save. They knew that they were going up those steps to try to save lives that they probably
03:27couldn't save. And they knew that they were going up and they knew that they were never
03:36coming back. We could be that brave. We could be that strong. I mean, un-
03:52you know, we'd already seen the, uh, what had happened, uh, to the twin towers and figured
03:57it was a pretty busy day. We're like, this is the safest place to be in the world right
04:02now. Why not stay, be in the Pentagon? You know, nothing's going to happen to us here.
04:07So that dot there is where I was right here.
04:12It was a loud boom and then you felt a shaking. And I did not really process it at that
04:19time.
04:19I think that, um, uh, we've been told that there was possibly a feeling even the, the,
04:25the wing of the plane as it was moving through. However, for me, it was, you know, it was,
04:29it was enough to know you knew something was wrong. And as everybody started to move and move
04:34it out, it was like, okay, this is a dangerous situation. I was still thinking at that time
04:38that it had been a bomb that had been let off somewhere in the building.
04:42I knew it was terrorists. I mean, I, that was, that was not hard to think about, to, to,
04:48but, but to the, the idea of a, a plane being used as a weapon and how that would happen
04:54and how that could happen in this area. That, that just was a little bit hard to fathom.
05:03From that point, uh, I was just frozen in time until there was a, uh, the beginning of the collapse
05:12of the first building, the second tower, tower number two, I should say.
05:20And from where I was in the street, I could see the tower being just enveloped in a cloud of
05:27smoke.
05:27It was, it was as though it was a magic act, how it was just the building disappeared in a
05:34cloud of smoke.
05:35It was just gone. It collapsed so fast. And with that people were running north.
05:44The streets were full of people running north on church street to escape the cloud, the dust, the debris.
05:54And then it was pitch black. That's probably the first time in my life I had, uh, it wasn't fear.
06:03Um, it was a, uh, resignation. That's what it was. A resignation of, um, okay, I can't believe this is
06:13how I'm going to die.
06:14I couldn't breathe. Um, the air was so accurate. I mean, it was hard to take a breath.
06:20Um, I remember using my shirt to, uh, cover my mouth. Um, but I was underneath the, uh, a car.
06:28And, um, and then the car was parked underneath the footbridge.
06:33I was making a mental list of all of the people who, who could have been there that morning.
06:38And, uh, it was, uh, it was just crushing me just to think of who's there, who's not there.
06:47Our colleagues who were trapped on the 106th and 107th floor were calling 911.
06:53They were calling the emergency number, uh, furiously.
07:00Many, many phone calls to the police and the fire department, to the emergency line, to 9, 9-1-1,
07:07from windows on the world.
07:14Uh, the plane that morning was, was coming overhead, straight down the flight path.
07:19Uh, at this point, it was inverted, uh, traveling just under 600 miles an hour.
07:23Just before the plane came down, Ed made a phone call, uh, to, to the 9-1-1 emergency services.
07:31Uh, they're not quite sure, uh, what the intent was, other than they, they suspect to help, uh, emergency services
07:39understand where the plane was.
07:40Obviously, the, the hijacking was well underway.
07:43Uh, the, the battle, uh, either was about to start or had already started.
07:51And, uh, you know, the passengers and crew members certainly knew what was going on on the ground in New
07:57York, uh, and in Washington,
08:00just from conversations that, that, uh, other passengers had had with loved ones and, and, uh, the United Service Center.
08:08Uh, when it crashed into the ground down there.
08:13They were sending rescue crews in case there were any survivors, but there really wasn't anything left.
08:18It, it basically disintegrated upon, upon impact and threw the debris over about a 50 to 60 acre, uh,
08:25what we call it, the debris field, which is now called the, the sacred ground.
08:34And we're still on now West Street, walking, um, north, not thinking that the North Tower's gonna fall.
08:46You know, I don't know why that didn't dawn on all of us that the South Tower just fell and
08:52the next one is the, I don't know.
08:55The scale to us was this is, and I, you know, I believe it's your eyes.
09:00What you see is reality.
09:03And far as I could see was nothing but, uh, a debris field.
09:08So, um, it was to me the whole city, the whole city was like this and maybe even beyond.
09:20I went into, um, reactive mode.
09:23I'll be honest.
09:25I, I was, um, we, we had a lot to do.
09:29You know, we had a, there was no moment to, uh, reflect.
09:34And there was really, there really, really, really was no moment to take stock.
09:53So, um, I'm almost there.
09:58And there was no moment to take stock.
10:00I needed to take stock I can't wait!
10:06Because I was there.
10:06That's a sign of grief.
10:07And I'm, I was like, I can't wait!
10:08I'm so sorry!
10:08And I can't wait!
10:08And I can't wait.
10:08I was, I can't wait!
10:09And there's no way!
10:10So, um, I can't wait!
10:13So, um, you know, I'll do a lot of progress on this.
10:16I can't wait!
10:16I can't wait!
10:17You
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