From the Inside Out: Harrowing Escapes from the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center by Erik O. Ronningen

Author:Erik O. Ronningen [Ronningen, Erik O.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789719640202
Publisher: Welcome Rain Publishers and Flipside Digital Content Company Inc.
Published: 2014-09-07T04:00:00+00:00

V

COLLAPSE

9:59 A.M.

Captain Anthony Whitaker’s chief approached him. They were at West and Vesey Streets. There were hundreds of FDNY firefighters, all in their bunker gear, awaiting instructions. The scene was a disaster: debris, bodies, fire trucks, EMS equipment, and hundreds of other first responders. “Let’s take a walk,” the chief said to Tony. He wanted to get a little privacy—a little quiet time with his captain. As they approached West Broadway, Tony heard another thunderous explosion. “Oh, hell, that isn’t good,” he said out loud to himself. “More people are going to get killed.”

###

Eyes glued to the unfolding horror on the television set, suddenly it felt as if a fist had punched Sarah Ronningen hard in her solar plexus. Her breathing stopped, and she watched the sudden and totally unexpected collapse of Tower Two, the South Tower. Sarah’s knees gave way and she sank to the floor, holding on to the desk for balance. Everyone in the office began screaming hysterically, in total disbelief of what they were witnessing.

Sarah’s mind became a numb object over which she no longer had command. It presented her with a sudden realization—her life’s absolute worst fear—the prospect of having to live out her remaining days without her husband, Erik. “Where is he!?” she wailed.

###

“Where is all that blood coming from?” Erik Ronningen asked himself as he began marching east on Fulton Street, away from the towers. He looked down at the pavement and saw many bloody footprints, their fresh marks running east.

Suddenly the earth began to vibrate. The pavement shook with a violence that only an earthquake could produce and he feared the street was going to collapse beneath him into the subway tunnels. Erik turned towards the accompanying volcanic rumbling roar; the tens of thousands of rubbernecking spectators were propelled into instant action. They began to stampede in every direction away from the danger, like buffalo in a prairie fire.

Erik uttered no expletives as he maintained his position and witnessed what could just as well have been an IMAX movie: the collapse of Tower Two. “This really isn’t happening, is it?” he mumbled to himself, not believing what his eyes were showing him. The reality of the situation—the noise, the panic, and the shrapnel from the imploding tower—was confirmation enough. It was happening.

In absolute panic people flooded the streets. Everyone was racing, charging away from the danger in a mad rout. Everywhere Erik looked people were running, arms flailing, screaming, wailing...

“That explains the blood,” he said to himself as he sidestepped a panic-stricken woman barreling down upon him, barefoot, her bloody footprints leaving their mark.

The thought of the tower coming down upon him flashed through his mind, and in that instant he feared that it was. In the same instant, a calmness came over him with the realization that if it did, it did; it would be his time to go. Erik’s natural instinct was to run, too. But where can you run to escape a quarter-mile-high structure? he thought.

For whatever reason, Erik

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