Survivors of the September 11 attacks

New York City

According to the 9/11 Commisson, approximately 16,400 to 18,800 civilians were in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the attacks. Among the survivors were:

• The vast majority of the employees of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, 2,500 employees in 2 WTC and 1,000 in 5 WTC
• 103 of 172 employees of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., a securities company
• 617 of 618 employees of Lehman Brothers (floors 38-40 of WTC 1)
• 1875 of 1914 employees of Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield

Only 14 people escaped from the impact zone (floors 78 to 84) of the South Tower after it was hit (including Stanley Praimnath), and 4 people from floors above it. They escaped down Stairway "A," the only stairwell that had been left intact (though somewhat obstructed with broken drywall, and filled with smoke in one area). No one was able to escape from above the point of impact in the North Tower after it was hit, as all stairways and elevator shafts on those floors were destroyed.

Of the estimated 200 to 300 people trapped in the towers' stalled elevators, 22 managed to escape: 16 people from four elevators in the North Tower and six people from two elevators in the South Tower. Perhaps the most amazing escape was that of six people trapped in an express elevator on the 50th floor of the North Tower. There was no elevator bank on that particular floor. After prying open the inner doors, they cut through three layers of drywall with a squeegee handle, then broke through a wall of tiles into a 50th-floor bathroom. All six escaped the tower five minutes before it collapsed.

Only 20 people survived from the debris after the collapse of the towers:

Fourteen people, including a dozen firefighters, a Port Authority policeman, and civilian secretary Josephine Harris, 59, were in Stairway "B" on the 1st through 6th floors of the North Tower when it collapsed. The firemen had stopped to help escort Josephine from the building at the time of the collapse. They crawled out and were then escorted alive from an air pocket in the debris. The fourteen survivors from stairway B in the North tower include:
(spellings uncertain)

• Firefighter Mickey Kross (Engine Company 16)
• Battalion Chief Rich Picciotto (11th Battalion)
• Firefighter Billy Butler (Ladder 6)
• Firefighter Tommy Falco (Ladder 6)
• Firefighter Ryan Williams (Engine 39)
• Captain Jay Jonas (Ladder 6)
• Firefighter Rob Bacon (Engine 39)
• Firefighter Jeff Coniglio (Engine 39)
• Firefighter Jim Efthimiaddes (Engine 39)
• Officer Dave Lim (Port Authority Police K-9 Unit)
• Firefighter Michael Meldrum (Ladder 6)
• Firefighter Sal D'Agostino (Ladder 6)
• Firefighter Matt Komorowski (Ladder 6)
• Josephine Harris (civilian)

Source: "Report from Ground Zero: The Story of the Rescue Efforts at the World Trade Center", by Dennis Smith

Updated Source: "Last Man Down: The Firemans Story", by Richard Picciotto with Daniel Paisner

First Union Bank employee Tom Canavan, 42, and an unidentified young man were in the underground shopping mall beneath the South Tower when it collapsed. They were able to climb to the surface minutes before the North Tower collapsed.

Port Authority Police officers John McLoughlin, 48, and Will Jimeno, 33, were in a corridor in the underground shopping mall beneath the North Tower when it collapsed. They were pulled out by rescue workers.

Pasquale Buzzelli, 32, a structural engineer at the Port Authority, was in Stairway "B" on the 13th floor of the North Tower when it collapsed. After losing consciousness, he awoke on the surface, on top of a pile of rubble, and was carried away with minor injuries. (He had recalled it being the 22nd floor, but Genelle McMillan, who also survived, said he was with her, and she recalled it being the 13th floor. Ref.)

Genelle Guzman McMillan, 30, a secretary at the Port Authority, was in Stairway "B" on the 13th floor of the North Tower when it collapsed. She survived in an air pocket for 27 hours before she was rescued. She is famous for being the last person pulled alive from the rubble.

Five people, some of whom were firefighters, were reported to have been rescued on September 13, 2001, 50 hours after being trapped under debris in an SUV. However, they had in fact been rescued on September 11.[1].

By September 21, 2001, it was reported that 6,291 people had been treated at area hospitals including rescue workers.

Bellevue Hospital treated about 250 people, admitting 33. Injuries included broken bones and bruises; newer patients coming in with post-traumatic stress. A number of the patients were emergency workers: 82 firefighters and 38 police officers.

The burn unit at New York Presbyterian Hospital received 17 victims, with burns over 14 to 90 percent of their bodies. Three were released, five died, two were taken off of critical status, and seven remained in critical status as of September 16, 2001.

The 92 acre (370,000 m²) complex known as Battery Park City, with 9000 residents in 20 buildings, was evacuated immediately following the attack. Though people were allowed to return two weeks later, occupancy remained as low as 31 percent in some of the buildings. A major landlord, the LeFrak Organization, did not charge rent during the forced evacuation, and offered a month's respite from rent in the most damaged buildings. Many of the residents were too traumatized by the events to want to remain.

Pentagon

88 people were treated at hospitals.

Army Spc. Michael Petrovich, 32, threw a computer through a window, then jumped out behind it. He suffered second-degree burns.

Army Lt. Col. Marion Ward, 44, jumped from a second floor window. He suffered smoke inhalation and a sprained ankle.

Retired Navy Cmdr. Paul Gonzalez, 46, a budget analyst, escaped through the hole in the wall just before the area collapsed. He was in serious condition with burns and respiratory distress.

As of September 13, 2001, there were 10 people in critical condition, including:

• Louise Kurtz, 49, was starting her second day of work as an Army accountant. Although she managed to leave the building by climbing through a window, she received burns to about 70 percent of her body and three weeks later had to have all of her fingers amputated. However two months later on December 17, 2001 she was released from hospital.

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See also

• War on Terrorism
• U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan
• New York City
• Washington, D.C.
• Terrorism
• Osama Bin Laden
• Taliban
• Collective trauma
• 9/11

External links

• Search Engine for Attack victims
• THE INJURED: A Fireball, a Prayer to Die, Then a Hard Battle to Live, New York Times, 17 October 2001
• The Battery Is Down, All Right, and Crippled, New York Times, 3 October 2001
• THE MOURNER: In a Landscape of Sadness, Offering Just Her Presence, New York Times, 1 October 2001 the story of Carol O'Neill, wife of a founder of Sandler O'Neill, which lost 67 of 180 employees
• THE TRADE CENTER: The Evacuation That Kept a Horrible Toll From Climbing Higher, New York Times, 21 September 2001
• AP (NY Times)--190 Feared Dead at the Pentagon
• New York Times--Five Firefighters Found Alive in the Rubble
• Discovery Channel: Inside the Twin Towers