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By Dennis Cauchon and Martha T. Moore, USA TODAY
The bodies of 2,803 human beings were buried when the
World Trade Center crumbled into 3 billion pounds of
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debris. Miraculously, 20 people survived the collapse,
Latest polls amid steel beams, concrete slabs and other wreckage. OUR STAND:
Political calendar They escaped death in the most unlikely of ways and in
Washington the most surprising of places. Fourteen people survived YO;J deserve
inside the remnants of a stairwell at the center of the
Washington home
Washington briefs
north tower. One man remembers falling from a 22nd one-on-on
floor stairwell in the north tower and regaining
Government Guide consciousness atop the 12-story-deep pile of rubble at relationshi
Law Center Ground Zero. Two police officers, trapped in debris
Health between the towers, barely survived both collapses.
=OR t OIIOTr FOO VI AN ACFN'i w
Health home
Medical resources New York
firefighters,
Health information from left, Matt
Editorial/Opinion Komorowski,
Ed/Op home Billy Butler,
John Jonas
Columnists and Sal Interactive documentary
Cartoons D'Agostino • Miracles: surviving the
survived the
More News collapse inside
Top news briefs a stairwell.
By Todd Plitt, USA
Nation briefs
TODAY
World briefs
States USA TODAY took a comprehensive look at who survived Day 4: Surviving the collapse
Lotteries the collapse and why. The newspaper interviewed nine • Miracjes emerge from
Census survivors and consulted construction experts and the
Special reports architectural and engineering plans of the twin towers.
Day in news photos
Snapshots The survivors had one thing in common: All ended up
Offbeat near the top of the debris. When the buildings fell — the
south tower at 9:59 a.m., the north tower at 10:28 a.m. Day 3: Escape route or death trap
Video headlines • Elevators were disaste
— the towers compacted into a rubble pile that filled a
Talk Today six-story basement and rose six stories above ground. • 21 trapped people imp
• Excruciating wait nearl
Other people — no one knows how many — also • Plunge just the start of
survived the immediate collapse. They were heard on
fire department radios, or their bodies, with no apparent

http://www.usatoday.com/news/septl l/2002-09-05-miracles-usat_x.htm 7/8/2004

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Terms: "September 11" & "below the impact" and date(geq (9/11/01) and leq (9/11/04)) (Edit Search)

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The New York Times, January 30, 2002

Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

The New York Times

January 30, 2002, Wednesday, Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk

LENGTH: 2267 words

HEADLINE: A NATION CHALLENGED: FIREFIGHTING INQUIRY;

Before the Towers Fell, Fire Dept. Fought Chaos

BYLINE: By JIM DWYER and KEVIN FLYNN

BODY:
In scores of emotionally searing interviews conducted by the Fire Department for an internal
inquiry, the agency's most senior commanders have provided new and, in some cases,
alarming revelations about the events of Sept. 11.

They said they had little reliable radio communication that morning, could not keep track of
all the firefighters who entered the towers, and were unable to reach them as the threat of a
collapse became unmistakable.

The commanders decided early on that roaring fires on the high floors of the towers could not
be subdued. Many worried aloud that the buildings were in danger of at least partial failure.
Confusion extended, for some, to which tower was which. Although they feared that the
buildings were doomed, they could not bring their troops back in time.

One chief estimated that at the moment the north tower fell, nearly every civilian below the
floors directly hit by the airplane had already evacuated, and that only firefighters remained
inside the stairwells of a building that was seen as a lost cause.

So poor were communications that on one side of the trade center complex, in the city's
emergency management headquarters, a city engineer warned officials that the towers were
at risk of "near imminent collapse," but those he told could not reach the highest-ranking fire
chief by radio. Instead, a messenger was sent across acres, dodging flaming debris and
falling bodies, to deliver this assessment in person. He arrived with the news less than a
minute before the first tower fell.

Taken together, the interviews with virtually every surviving member of the department's top
command offer the most detailed and intimate portrait yet of the strategy and problems on
Sept. 11. By themselves, they do not answer difficult questions such as whether lives might
have been saved with different equipment or procedures. But for the department and the
city, officials said, these accounts will be a starting point in an inquiry about the Fire
Department's emergency response procedures.

For history, these accounts accomplish a separate but equally rich task: they mark with
precision acts of bravery, struggles to live, and the widespread feelings of being unmoored
from reality on that sunny morning.

http://www.lexis.com/research/retrieve?_m=ddb9a93d7d608bd58207d79a26dd5e6e&docn... 2/20/2004
 1 of 3 DOCUMENTS

Copyright 2001 Cable News Network

All Rights Reserved

CNN.com

September 16, 2001 Sunday

SECTION: U.S.

LENGTH: 702 words

HEADLINE: Government failed to react to FAA warning

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

BODY:
Following Tuesday's terrorist attacks on the WorldTrade Center, and for at
least 12 minutes after the Federal AviationAdministration (FAA) warned the
military's air defense command that a hijackedairliner appeared to be headed
toward Washington, the federal government failedto make any move to evacuate the
White House, Capitol, State Department or thePentagon, which was the eventual
target of the attack, senior Defense Department officials told CNN.
Only after the 9:38 a.m. impact into the side of the Pentagon were
othergovernment buildings evacuated, including the White House and the Capitol.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) at Peterson AirForce
Base in Colorado was informed by the FAA at 9:25 a.m. that United Airlines
flight 77 might have been hijacked and appeared headed toward Washington.
Military officials at NORAD ordered fighter jets from Langley Air Force Base
in Virginia to intercept the flight, but neither the FAA, NORAD, nor any other
federal government organ made any effort to evacuate the buildings in
Washington.
Officials at the Pentagon said that no mechanism existed within the
U.S.government to notify various departments and agencies under such
circumstances.
Officials also told CNN that President George W. Bush had not given
authorization to the Defense Department to shoot down a passenger airliner until
after the Pentagon had been struck.
Officials at the Pentagon also said that they were never made aware of the
threat from hijacked United Airlines flight 93 until after it crashed in
Pennsylvania.
The informed defense officials laid out a timeline of the events surrounding
the series of terrorist attacks as follows: (Times are EOT and reflect actual,
rather than scheduled departure times of flights.)
--7:59 a.m.: American Airlines flight 11 takes off from Boston's
Loganlnternational Airport.
—8:14 a.m.: United Airlines flight 175 takes off from Boston's
Loganlnternational Airport.
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OSHA
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