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?There was just deadly silence ? then it hit'
Tuesday 06 September 2011
Lee guttentag will never forget the chilling moment 10 years ago when she spotted a plane hurtling towards her as she gossiped with a colleague in their 80th floor office in one of New York?s Twin Towers.
Following a massive explosion overhead, Lee joined hundreds of others as they fled to safety down scorchingly hot stairwells in the north tower, unaware the south tower was hit just 17 minutes later in the world?s worst terrorist attack.
Sadly, although Lee escaped, two of her close friends, who?d been working on the 103rd floor, lost their lives.
Speaking on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, Lee, 37, tells Closer: ?I was chatting to a friend when suddenly I saw the headlights of a plane. As it was about to hit the building directly above us, there was just a deadly silence across the office. We couldn?t believe what we were seeing. The noise of the crash was deafening.?
Almost 3,000 people died after 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger planes, crashing two into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon. The fourth ? intended for buildings in Washington� DC ? crashed in rural Pennsylvania after passengers heroically fought the terrorists in the cabin ? though tragically, all 40 on board died.
Computer programmer Lee, who now lives in Ohio, recalls the moment she sprinted for the stairwell with her colleagues after the plane hit somewhere between the 93rd and 99th floors.
?We ran as fast as we could, but as more people joined the stairwell from floors below us, we couldn?t get down as quickly,? Lee says. ?There was an eerie silence. Nobody wanted to lose control ? that would?ve freaked out everyone even more.
?Occasionally, someone would become hysterical, but it was mostly quiet as people prayed for their lives. Nobody argued or tried to barge past anyone else ? although we?d let someone pass if�they were bleeding.?
In her rush to escape, Lee left her phone in her office, so, unable to reach her, back at home her husband�and mum became increasingly frantic as they watched the horror unfold.
?I knew they?d be ripping their hair out,? she recalls. ?I�was frightened, but I tried not to�think about dying.?
Poignantly, she adds: ?When firefighters passed us going up, I�felt very relieved. They seemed calm, so I assumed it wasn?t as bad as I?d imagined.?
Admitting she?s since been ?haunted? by the thought of how those firefighters may have died, Lee adds: ?I try not to replay it in my mind because it?d drive me totally crazy. But my heart breaks for the families of those terribly brave men who gave up their lives trying to save others.?�
When Lee reached the shopping mall at the bottom of the tower over an hour later, she was covered in ?a blanket of dust.?
Then, suddenly, a firefighter screamed ?get down.? She recalls: ?We all dived for safety. and I curled up in to a ball. I heard a loud rumbling and was covered in debris. It was pitch black and I struggled to breathe. Then a firefighter heard on his radio that the other tower had collapsed. At that point, we hadn?t even known it had been hit.
?The firefighter started to pull away rubble that had fallen all around me with his bare hands. People were groaning in pain, but he tried to reassure everyone.?
Incredibly, the firefighter managed to create a small hole in the debris. Lee says: ?He helped pull me out and told me to ?run and not look back.??
Lee ran through what she describes as ?grey snow.?
?I could see silhouettes of dead bodies and trails of blood in the street,? she says. ?It was barely possible to breathe. I had my sleeve over my nose and mouth because of the dust. I�must have looked like a walking zombie.?
Lee was just two blocks away when her building collapsed.
She says: ?People starting telling me my tower had fallen down too. I kept saying it hadn?t, but when I turned around I�could see another big cloud of grey smoke. I couldn?t hear any noise, I was too numb, though there must have been.
?So many things were going through my head. It was very difficult trying to understand what was going on ? I was so confused. I asked a stranger if I could use his phone, but he wouldn?t let me ? I think he was in a state of panic. He took my details and said he?d make sure his family got news to mine that I was OK, which he did.?
At 5pm, Lee was reunited with her family at a train station near her home in New Jersey.
She recalls: ?Tears streamed down my mum?s face as the realisation hit that I was OK. But it was bittersweet ? I knew my two friends, former colleagues who?d recently taken jobs on the 103th floor, wouldn?t have made it. They?d transferred as the jobs were more stable ? they?d wanted to give their children a good education. It was devastating.?
Lee needed four showers to rid herself of dust. She says: ?The dust was horrible. Even days later, I kept finding little shards stuck to my skin and I coughed up black stuff for three weeks.�When I watched the news on TV, I couldn?t believe I?d survived.?
Incredibly, Lee returned to work four days later in a new building, from which she could see the ?smoking mass? of her former workplace ? which now has a memorial pool in its place. She says: ?I didn?t have to go, but I forced myself to. I�thought it was best to try to keep busy.?
Revealing she had counselling over the phone, Lee adds: ?Going back to work was the hardest thing I?ve ever had to do. The city was on high alert and there were bomb scares and evacuations every day. I dreaded turning on the news. It was an extremely tense time. I felt so vulnerable. When I went to see my friends? widows, they were inconsolable.?
Traumatised, Lee eventually quit her job. She says: ?My high-paying job didn?t matter any more. I was unemployed for eight months and my husband� and I moved to Ohio.?
Sadly, the couple divorced in 2005. Lee says: ?I was a different person after 9/11. My priorities changed. I?d been the higher earner but that changed when I�decided to become an artist.?
Lee also took in three Bull Mastiff puppies. She reveals: ?Having them around allowed me to discover simple pleasures, like taking them out for walks ? something I might have taken for granted before.?
Lee, who is currently single, is�now focusing on her future.
?If I meet the right guy and have kids, that?s great, but if I don?t, that?s not a huge stress point,? she says. ?9/11 taught me there?s no point worrying over something you can?t control.
?Today, I can talk about that awful day, but I try not to watch the coverage on TV when the anniversary comes around.�The last 10 years have been hard, but every day I?m thankful to have been one of the lucky ones.?
By Jocelyn Cook and Rebecca Leach
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