9/11 Calls Released
(See AP story below)
I don't know that I have really ever been too emotional about the 9/11 attacks as nobody I know was harmed. In fact, I think I am still in shock and denial even though I visited Ground Zero last year. I guess since I know what it is like now to lose a loved one suddenly, this story hit me pretty hard today. Can you imagine listening to your brother, sister, husband or wife's distressed voice in his or her last moments of life? I keep thinking what if I had been talking to my dad when he started having his fatal heart attack or even if I had talked to him an hour before....
I can try to imagine what tone these people have in their voices- knowing or speculating that these moments are your last. How horrible and terrifying. What would I say? Would I really call 911 or would I call my mom? What if she didn't answer? It is so hard to grasp what these faceless voices are going through. Just the quotes in the article made me cry, but if I had heard the fear and truth in their voices, even though I don't know these people, it would have been even more emotional.
I think the 5 years in between then and now (to let the family members hear the tapes) was much more healthy than releasing them right away. I know that time was unintentional as NYT had to sue to get them released, but a healthy amount of time nonetheless.
9/11 Emergency Call Tapes Released
Aug 16, 12:30 PM (ET)
By AMY WESTFELDT
NEW YORK (AP) - A fire official described near chaos inside the World Trade Center, with communication becoming increasingly difficult as firefighters tried to reach people trapped by a devastating blaze raging high overhead, recordings released Wednesday of emergency phone calls from the Sept. 11 attacks show. "We're in a state of confusion," said Chief Dennis Devlin of Battalion 9. "We have no cell phone service anywhere because of the disaster ... Bring all the additional handy talkies."
Devlin tried to get a rundown of all the companies dispatched to the burning 110-story buildings. He was still inside the south Trade Center tower when it collapsed. The same mix of concern and confusion was evident in recordings of more of the 1,613 previously undisclosed emergency calls made amid the horror in the towers after the hijacked planes hit the trade center.
"One of the towers just collapsed," said a fire lieutenant on another call. "Everybody's got to be inside of it. ... There's got to be thousands of the people inside it. One of the towers just came down on everybody."
Frantic callers trapped on the upper floors of the burning World Trade Center sought help from emergency operators, who were unable to offer much more than words of encouragement. "There's heavy smoke and flames and the building management is announcing that everything is all right, and it's not and they're confused," said one fire dispatcher after fielding a phone call from someone trapped on the 82nd floor. Another operator, speaking to someone stranded on the 103rd floor, promised, "I'm going to do my best." "I want you to go on the floor. Kneel on the floor. On the floor," said another operator. Another, speaking to a woman stuck on the 83rd floor, offered hope of a rescue team that never appeared.
"Listen to me, ma'am," that operator told a panicky Melissa Doi during a 20-minute phone call. "You're not dying. You're in a bad situation, ma'am." A portion of Doi's end of the conversation was played for jurors in April at the trial of Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. "I'm going to die, aren't I?" Doi asked the dispatcher.
"Ma'am, just stay calm for me, OK?" the dispatcher said. The conversation ended with the operator trying vainly to speak with Doi, a financial manager for IQ Financial Systems: "Not dead, not dead," the operator said to no response. "They sound like deep sleep." The phone line cut out. Doi never made it out of the World Trade Center.
"Oh, my lord," said the operator, whose words to Doi were previously not made public.
The newly released calls included the voices of Devlin, 18 other firefighters and two emergency medical technicians killed in the collapses, although most of the calls are from firefighters asking dispatchers where they should report for duty, the Fire Department said. One tape contained an unidentified firefighter calling from the 35th floor, reporting a chaotic scene of civilians - some with burn injuries - heading down the stairwell as the firefighters headed up.
"Apparently it's above the 75th floor," the firefighter said. "I don't know if they got there yet. We're still heading up."
About a dozen family members of 9/11 victims arrived in a midtown Manhattan conference room Wednesday to hear the tapes, which again raised questions about the lack of communication on the scene.
"We're still looking for information for how we can fix what went wrong that day," said Aggie McCaffrey, whose brother Orio Palmer was among the 343 firefighters killed. The New York Times and family members sued for access to the emergency calls and firefighters' oral histories. Attorneys said they wanted to find out what happened inside the towers after two hijacked jetliners crashed into them and what dispatchers told workers and rescuers. The calls also include 10 previously unreleased 911 calls from people trapped in the towers, although those calls include only the voices of the operators who heard their pleas. The city in March released transcripts of 130 calls from people, including only the voices of operators and other public employees. The callers' voices were cut out after city attorneys argued that their pleas for help were too emotional and intense to be publicized without their families' consent. Thousands of pages of emergency workers' oral histories and radio transmissions were released last August. Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta ordered his department to search for additional recordings when another tape turned up shortly after the March release of 911 calls. City officials listened to all calls to emergency and fire dispatchers between 8:45 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. on Sept. 11 to locate all available recordings. Families of the 21 rescuers identified in the calls have been notified, the department said. Because they were public employees, their entire calls were released.
Biloxi, One Year After Katrina
I went to Biloxi, Mississippi to be in Suzanne's (a friend from architecture school) wedding. She grew up there. Suzanne and I were there for a month or so in 1998. I found myself saying (many times) "Hey Suz- isn't that your favorite smoothie shop?" to which she would reply, "WAS- It's not there anymore." Or "Look- It's the store where we bought..." and Suzanne would say, "Yes, that's where it used to be."
Being in Biloxi was so much more powerful than seeing all the media coverage even though it was a year ago. I think one of the reasons it was more powerful is because we at home saw mostly New Orleans where the damage was pretty bad, but Biloxi got hit the hardest. Along the waterfront, there weren't many buildings left....
Notice the same sign in the background.... This is at Mary Mahoney's- where the rehearsal dinner was held.
I talked to many people about their stories. That is far different from hearing an interview on television as well. I talked to the shuttle driver, the 3rd bridesmaid and the bride's mother among other people. I could tell that they had told their stories many times by the sureness of their words and their lack of emotion but each person saw something positive, even if it was that they bonded with their neighbors by helping to fix each others' roofs.
Cara, the other bridesmaid told about how she and her family of 3 young girls, husband and 2 dogs put all the twin matresses in the hallway. They filled up the bathtub with clean water because it was inevitable that the water would be out. They gave the girls Benadryl to help them to sleep. Cara and her husband would keep checking out the windows to see what had been damaged. A tree fell into their roof and water leaked into the attic. She told of how she remembered from childhood to poke holes in the gypsum on the ceiling to relieve pressure. They put out all kinds of buckets to collect water.
All that's left of the bride's parents' house is the foundation and the studs. They will not have to rebuild from scratch like a lot of people will have to do. Suzanne's mother showed us a Christmas ornament that their neighbors found in their yard. It was beaten up like it had been through the wash many many times. They are waiting to see if the can get a grant from FEMA. The are living in Little Rock, Arkansas for now. I had a conversation with her about traffic as some of the bridges are being rebuilt or are still out. It made sense to me that there was less traffic because some families had been displaced, which would make the problem of less bridges less of a problem. Not necessarily, Judy said- there were lots of construction workers from all over the country here.
But, although the trip was appalling and shocking in so many ways, I had so much fun seeing Suzanne again and helping her get everything ready for the big day. I even got to share a room with her the first two nights so we got to catch up. She looked so stunning! -Not just in that gorgeous wedding dress but she and her (now) husband Joshua lost 70 pounds together! Great job Suzanne and Joshua!!!
Me, Suzanne (the beautiful bride) and bridesmaid/friend Marni
