Not photos, but here are some first-hand accounts I didn't get around to posting last night. These are all from the same guy.
I had a friend that worked in the North Tower at an investment firm. Wont get into the names too much, his family still has a hard road to go because of dumbshits like the "Let's drool crew", and they still get stupid shits saying rather coldhearted things to them or in their presence and I do not wish to add to that.
Started as a "road trip" I guess you could say. Had talked to Todd a few days after the 1st of September, and told him we were coming that direction. As you can guess he was rather proud to work at the WTC, and rightfuly so. The guy was very intelligent. He was a friend that I looked at like " This guy has his shit going for him, he's a hard worker, has a good heart, and can take his life anywhere he wants to, what does he see in ME that has him consider me a friend ? "
That was just Todd's nature though. I am sure you have seen people that glorify people after they have died, but it wasn't that way with Todd, he was a good man before and after death. He had been working there about 6 months, and said he would still get confused about the WTC complex because it was a city within a city, but I think that was more of a joke.
I don't travel much, and never really liked big crowds. Todd was a friend though, and since we were going that direction, I overcame my feelings about big crowds to see what hand life had dealt him. He would have done the same for me.
We stopped at a hotel we could afford on the Jersey side overnight. We wanted to make the time count and left out early. I am very dense at times, and little sleep makes it even worse. After getting turned in circles a bit, we made it to Lower Manhattan, around 8:15. There were so many things to see, we did not know where to start. We went down into the lower levels under the WTC complex to the various stores.
Todd was going to meet up with us at 9:15 am to show us the sights and sounds of the complex. While down there, a sound like a blevy explosion radiated through the complex. Not being sure of what it was, I was skeptical when someone said a plane hit. New Yorkers see all kinds of shit, and have seen just about everything you can imagine, and for that reason I was skeptical. I thought a plane hit ? Why is everyone not going apeshit ? Some looked worried, others acted like it was no big deal.
More and more people were saying it was deffitnetly a plane, and a shop keeper started handing out disposable cameras. He knew it was going to be a big deal, a historic deal. He told people to take all the pictures they could, and I listened. Not sure how many others took him seriously, but I did. They started getting people out as quick as they could, and started sending people up the stairs to higher levels.
BANG
BANG
What the fuck ?
BANG
"It's bombs, they are trying to kill us all !" said one person. People were starting to freak out after that.
BANG
BANG
BANG
" That is no fucking bomb. " Said a man.
" Well what the fuck is it ? " she asked.
" Not sure, but it's no bomb. "
Boooomm!!!!!!!!!
" That was a bomb !! " he said.
People were really uneasy now, then a person said it was another plane. As you can imagine, there started to a different feeling in the air. Now it was no accident, it was intentional.
BANG
BANG
They kept getting louder the futher up we went. Starting up the stairs to the plaza level, people screamed and jumped back. That is when I knew exactly what we were hearing. As we were getting closer, some were not really aware of what was going on. You could see the plaza out the windows, and there was debris everywhere. A woman was kind of puzzled looking out, and a cop told us not to look out the windows. When someone tells you something like that, what is the first thing you do ? You look out.
If there was any doubt left, it quickly vanished.
BOOOOOOM
Right before your eyes, you see a man explode on impact. His blood came out in a mist, and parts went everywhere. We were all kind of stunned, and did not have time to process what just happened when another hit. The ones that hit further out were the same EVERYTIME. The difference was there were several people that hit right beside the towers, and their blood kept spraying the windows like spraypaint. Each one added another "layer" to the windows. Some did not want to realize what they had just seen and were in shock. A heavy set woman landed between the musicstage and facade and covered almost 3 windows.
Just when I thought it could not get worse, a pregnant woman hit. She landed right hip first, and exploded everywhere, along with her unborn child. After that, things got really fuzzy. All of it was horrible to see, but seeing that baby explode that way has fucked my head up. I remember being in some sort of a daze, shock, whatever you call it. I remember coming out at ground level close to the towers, but not right at them. I looked up in time to see a man hit the corner of the Marriot Hotel and explode, though his limbs hit the concrete with enough force to still be felt about 50 feet away. Then another, and another and another. After seeing a couple more fall between the North Tower and Marriot, my brain went in to autopilot I guess. All of it was so fucked up, it took my mind off of why I was there to begin with. Todd.
Walking away from the WTC complex, I was worried about him, and had no clue what happened to him. After both collapses, I did not have to wonder anymore, I knew my friend was dead.
I was talking to a woman that was there that day, and she told me some interesting, but troubling things. She said there was a man and woman speared together with a part of the builing facade that came down when Flight 11 hit the North Tower. She asked me if I had seen them, and I told her no.
She thought, but was not sure, that they were co-workers that had started dating, and since that sort of thing is not exactly accepted in some places, they were sneaking and giving each other a kiss when it happened. She said a piece of steel as big around as the steel that trains roll on went through both of them, and then stuck into the concrete as well. She said she saw them standing there with the piece of steel sticking through them both, and it was actually holding them up off the ground.
She did see the same woman I saw that had been crushed by a piece of the facade that fell though. It landed on her, and because it had forward momentum, it ground her up as it was scooting across the ground. I remember seeing her and people in front of us said she was married. I remember thinking how can they know that ? Then I saw what they meant. As badly as she was destroyed, her left hand was normal looking, and she had a wedding ring on her left hand.
Some think that is a joke, but it isn't. You could look out the windows and see different things scattered. Some things were tiny, but you could tell that they were of human origin, like small pieces of skin, a finger, toe, and you could see several teeth scattered about. Then you could see these rather odd looking white, round balls every so often. I remember one female cop that looked out and stared trying to figure out what different things were. Her gaze kept falling a paticular place, and expression remained puzzled looking. That did not last long.
They were moving people through at a decent pace, which was amazing to me considering the events, and number of people there. You would see people carrying others, or two would get a shoulder and walk them out. One poor woman's foot was cut very badly, and we were clearing a way so she could go ahead of us.
This was going on while the female cop was looking out the windows. Then we heard a sound that was..............a mixture of sounds ? It was a bang, splat, and a crunching sound, that is the only way I can decsribe it. The sound is troubling, almost as much as the visuals, and in some ways worse.
As a few were gazing out the windows, a poor black man came down feet first, though his knees were bent. The tips of his toes hit first, then his knees, then his body and arms. When his head hit, it shot both of his eyeballs out and one hit the window in front of the cop. She screamed a scream that would make chills run up your spine. The eyeball hit the window, and slowly slid down the glass leaving a trail as it did. It sound bizzare, I know it does. But it happened. Strange a body can hit with enough force to explode and destroy it's self, and blood comes out in a mist and it looks like hamburger meat laying there with bone marrow and fatty tissue clumped up. Yet the eyeballs remained for the most part intact.
There was a lot of bad shit to see that day. Some people made it down the stairs from areas that had caught fire, and the only way to describe it is the skin melted, and had come off like a glove. They were in agony, yet they still stayed focused enough to tell first responders where they had come from, and if anyone else was up there or not.
Some people that had been outside, quite aways from the North Tower where hit by glass and metal and were bloody from head to toe. They were walking around as if they were in a daze. I guess they were in shock.
Glass continuously fell from the upper floors of both towers, from people breaking them for air, and glass in the frames of windows above and around the impact got hot and shattered. You could see it and hear it hit the ground around the towers.
A man said his friend had a piece of glass fall on him, and it was still hot enough to leave a 3rd degree burn on the back part of his neck. I don't doubt that either, there was shit all over the plaza burning, plane seats, clothes, all kinds of debris. It looked like a body or two was burning as well.
I remember looking towards the Northeast corner in the North Tower, just outside the windows on the concrete. There was what was left of tan colored kakis, and a light blue long sleeved dress shirt. After you looked at it for a second, you could see that there was part of someone still in them. The clothes were tattered and ripped up, but you could still tell what they were.
You could see a shoe every now and then that still had a foot inside of it. One sight that was strange to see, and took a minute to realize what it was, was an upside down jawbone that had a couple of teeth still in it. It had some of the skin still covering it, but was upside down. You could tell it was human by looking at it, but then it set in what it was. The thing was, there were so many parts scattered out all over the place, you could not tell what belonged to who. Even if the towers had not collapsed, it would have taken a long time to gather the parts and try to figure out what went where, and with whom it belonged to.
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