Click2Flicks - World Trade Center - Chapter 5 - Inside the South Tower

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>WORLD TRADE CENTER</p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 5 - INSIDE THE SOUTH TOWER</b></font></p> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">Steve Collupy was working on the 68th floor of 2 World Trade Center when his normal morning <a href="http://911digitalarchive.org/stories/details/10939" target="_blank"><b>changed abruptly</b></a>:</p> <blockquote><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>It took us about 15 minutes to get down to the 44th floor where the security desks and main elevators were. We had flat screen monitors on the walls in the lobby normally showing the financial news, but right now they were all showing tower 1 next to us on fire. We were being told that possibly a small plane had hit tower 1, that our tower was secure, that we were as safe here as on the ground, and that it was safe to return to our offices if we chose. All I knew was that we were still 500 feet up, and for me, that was 500 feet too high. I think it was a group decision that we go for the stairs again. I know that some people stayed, and that others went back up to their offices feeling the building was secure.</i></b></font></blockquote> <p align="justify"><font face="arial, helvetica">Many people, including those who had decided to leave, were still in the South Tower when Flight 175 flew into it. It was sixteen minutes, twenty-eight seconds after the North Tower disaster. Collupy explains what that felt like to him:</p> <blockquote><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>We had only gone down a few flights of stairs when there was a loud rumbling explosion, and the whole stairwell shook violently, some people falling down, I was lucky to be holding on. I found out later that the second plane had hit us 30 stories above, but only several stories above our offices, where we could have returned to. The worst part was that the building started tipping sideways, swinging sideways, I was sure the other building fell into us and we were tipping over.</i></b></font></blockquote> <p align="justify"><font face="arial, helvetica">They weren’t tipping over. Unknown to anyone at that time, however, the building was doomed. When the swaying stopped, people realized they might have a chance to live:</p> <blockquote><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>The building stopped at an angle and moved back the other way, it rocked back and forth for a few more seconds then stopped. That was when everyone started to panic, because we thought we might actually have a chance. We all yelled at each other to stay calm and started counting the floors out loud, 39,38,37. We continued down. The police were on the sound system in the stairwells telling us not to worry, that they were waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs. I can't explain the relief we all felt getting to the ground. The police were there in a line to guide us down through the underground mall. We were upset that they weren't letting us just go out the door on the ground level, but we didn't know that debris and bodies were raining down outside. We were escorted out through the basement and out onto the street from under building 5, being told to run and not look up.</i></b></font></blockquote> <p align="justify"><font face="arial, helvetica">When they were on the street, safely out of the burning building, the scene was unbelievable:</p> <blockquote><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>There were groups of people, men and women screaming and crying "oh my god they're jumping.” It took me a few minutes to believe my eyes that the debris I saw falling wasn't just glass and concrete, they were people.</i></b></font></blockquote> <p align="justify"><font face="arial, helvetica">At the time, and since, some have speculated that people in the burning buildings jumped to avoid <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/WTC_attack_9-11.jpg" target="_blank"><b>the conflagration</b></a>. But maybe there was another reason for their falls:</p> <blockquote><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>A lot of those who looked like they jumped, didn't. They weren't jumping to escape the flames. They just couldn't see where they were going because of the smoke, and ran right out through the hole in the building.</i></b></font></blockquote> <p align="justify"><font face="arial, helvetica">It is estimated that 13,000 - 15,000 people <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5335a3.htm" target="_blank"><b>escaped</b></a> from both towers. Meanwhile, a third plane en route from Washington’s Dulles Airport to Los Angeles, was about to strike terror in America’s capitol.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="world_trade_ch4.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="world_trade_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="world_trade_ch6.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>