INDEPTH: SEPTEMBER 11
9/11 - A Canadian in the WTC
Mario Tkalec | September 11, 2003
The week
As engagement manager and consultant for a software consulting company, I spent much of 2001 away from my home and family in Montreal, travelling to various U.S. cities. That week, I was in New York City.
Monday - a regular day
The week started off like many weeks before it. I flew in early to meet with a potential customer. I often stayed at the Marriot Hotel beside the World Trade Center, but since it was fully booked, I was staying at the Renaissance Hotel at Times Square.
Tuesday - day of terror
It was a beautiful sunny New York day. For some reason, I lingered longer than usual in my hotel room that morning before catching a cab to the World Trade Centre. I was heading there to take the PATH train to a customer site in Jersey City, one stop across the river.
The cab left me at the front entrance to the North Tower. In the lobby, I noticed the extra security measures put in place after the previous WTC attack, requiring people to sign-in before boarding the elevators.
I stopped at the Coffee Station and had just purchased a bottle of water and was putting it into my briefcase when I heard a muffled "boom." Everyone had heard it, we looked at each other, questioning, for a moment. There were no other signs of the horrible event that had just taken place - no flickering lights, nothing, so we shrugged our shoulders and went on with our business.
I proceeded to the escalators which would take me down about seven storeys below the WTC to the train station platform. While I was descending, three NYC policemen raced up and I thought, "Boy, they're pretty serious about something." What came to my mind was someone shoplifting or not paying for the train.
I waited on the platform for about 10 minutes. There was just one other person, a woman, waiting as well. When the train came in, I saw that it was packed with commuters; they disembarked and proceeded up the stairs to the escalators. The woman and I entered the first car of the train. After a while, the conductor came out of her cab and remarked to us that "it smelled funny."
She approached another transit worker, who was talking on a 2-way radio. They spoke briefly, and then she turned around and screamed for us to get out of there, a plane had hit the building. I followed the woman off the train and saw the conductor return to the train to close the doors. We all ran towards the stairs leading to the escalators and headed up. I brought up the rear.
At the mezzanine level, a policeman directed me towards the exit, past the Sbarro restaurant, where two cooks in white were locking up. I heard thumping sounds as I moved through the lobby. I was envisioning a small plane half-way into the building, and I thought that the noise was perhaps due to pieces of the plane falling.
Once outside, I immediately looked straight up and saw the gaping hole in the building, mangled steel. There were flames and smoke coming out of it, and there were white papers floating down. I heard someone say, "Oh my God, that's a person."
That's when I realized that it wasn't just debris falling, but human beings. There was one after another, falling. As each one fell, there was a lot of screaming around me. I was convincing myself that the falling people were probably already dead, but that was until I saw a couple holding hands, falling. I thought, how desperate they must have been, how much courage it must have taken to make that decision to jump.
Moments later, I heard an extremely loud engine noise. This was followed by an enormous explosion in the South Tower. I felt a tremor, everything seemed to shake. A huge fireball appeared over our heads.
Everyone turned and ran, in a panic. People were falling, dropping their bags and leaving their high-heeled shoes behind on the street. To avoid the rush and the falling debris, I entered a building across the street. There were several other people already in there seeking shelter. I waited about five minutes then went out to move further away.
I walked quickly until I was about a block and a half away. I stood in the middle of a divided street, on the median, leaning on the fence. I had realized at this point that this was no accident. Since I didn't know what was going on, I wanted to stay away from any building.
I tried at least 50 times before finally getting through on my cellphone to my wife's voicemail at her workplace in Montreal. I left her a message saying that I was sure she had seen what was going on in New York and that I had been in the building, but that I was now out.
While I stood there, I watched police officers and firefighters, along with fire trucks, police cars, unmarked vehicles and ambulances, race towards the WTC. I remember the firemen's faces, looking up, expectant, eager to reach the scene and help put out the flames.
My wife Karen took the message at 9:45 a.m. She had been giving a training session and had ended it a bit early when she was alerted to the seriousness of the events in New York by a co-worker who knew that I was there that week.
My message brought her some relief but it was replaced by fear when she walked into the board room, where others were watching the events on television, and she saw the South Tower fall.
I saw the top of the South Tower twist. I thought that this part of the building would fall off and crush other buildings around it. Then, the sound was horrible, nine seconds of thunder as the building disappeared from view. I was awestruck. I stood along with others, watching, until an advancing wall of soot and dust appeared. Immediately, I picked up my briefcase and ran like hell!
I wondered if I should break a window in one of the cars and crawl in for shelter. Luckily I chose the right fork in the road and ran against the wind, so I was able to stay pretty much ahead of the dust cloud. It stopped advancing about 100 yards behind me.
I kept walking away from the scene. I just wanted to get away from it. I was going through China Town; someone screamed "the second one is going, too." I turned around in time to see the antenna of the North Tower going down. A guy on a roof motioned to us on the ground that the building was totally gone. It was surreal.
I saw a taxi parked on the side of the road, I knocked on the window and asked if he could drive me back to my hotel. He refused at first, reluctant to take any passengers, then seeing that I was from out of town, he let me in, but told me that he would let no one else in.
Back at my hotel room, like millions of people throughout the world, I watched the day's events over and over on television. I found out about the other planes, Washington, Pennsylvania. I was uneasy about being in New York.
Wednesday - the escape home
Two of my colleagues and I had decided the previous night at dinner to get out of New York City as soon as possible on Wednesday. There were no available trains, rental cars or buses. I spotted a black limousine and asked the driver if he would drive us up to Albany. He agreed.
Karen had rented a car for us to pick up at the Albany airport. The limo was barely allowed to stop long enough at the airport to let us out, due to security measures.
Crossing the border took a very long time. Before the Canadian customs, the U.S. army had set up a checkpoint manned by one of the biggest, most intimidating soldiers I have ever seen, short cigar, crew cut etc… We got through fine and I reached home at around 8:30 p.m. I was relieved, but still uneasy. We didn't know if something else was going to happen.
Thursday - reminders
While putting together my expense report, I noticed my receipt for the bottle of water I had purchased. It reads: World Trade Center, Coffee Station, Sept 11 2001, 08:45…
Two years later
It was a huge event in the world and in my life. Even two years later, I can still see all of it like it happened yesterday. It still seems surreal. Any one event of that day would have made headlines, an airplane crashing, a building on fire, a building collapsing, one single human being falling from the WTC. Yet that day, they all meshed together and it was just an overwhelming experience.
I have told this story on many occasions over these two years and I often receive a similar reaction. People are emotional, some get goose bumps, they reach out and touch my arm.
Many say, it helps them put life's trials in perspective. It has done this for me. I have not yet returned to Ground Zero although the week after 9/11, I did return to Jersey City to see the customer I had been scheduled to see the week before.
^TOP
|
|
 |
 MENU |
|
|
| EXTERNAL LINKS: |
|
|
| MORE: |
|
|
|
