Remembering 9/11 with George Sleigh An Account of George Sleigh s 9/11 experience written by his son Stephen Sleigh

Transcription

1 Remembering 9/11 with George Sleigh An Account of George Sleigh s 9/11 experience written by his son Stephen Sleigh September 14, 2001: Written by our oldest son, Stephen living in London To Family and Friends Many of you have shared your concerns and prayers about my Dad, George Sleigh, who was working in the World Trade Center on September 11. In the aftermath of Tuesday I ve had many conversations with my family and have spoken with my Dad a couple times as he recovers at home. He has been eager to share his recollections of the day and told me in our most recent conversation that he remembers everything vividly. Given the enormity of this event in life of our family and in the history of our country I decided to write it down. Hopefully this letter will give you some sense of what my Dad experienced as he lived through the day and what we experienced here in London. 1:50 pm UK/8:50 am EST (5 minutes after the first plane crashed): A murmur starts spreading across the floors of Lehman Brothers in London that a plane had struck the World Trade Center people must have heard from Lehman Brothers colleagues in the World Financial Center or from the television screens on the trading floors. Everyone immediately thought that it must have been a small private plane gone astray. People throughout the office tapped into the live-feed of CNN on their computers. I retreated into my office and as I was logging in I called Dad and left him a voice mail Dad, it s Stephen. I just heard that a plane crashed into the WTC. Can that be true? I hope you are OK. Give me a call. The video images showed that the plane had crashed into what looked like the 80 th floor of the North Tower, flames were coming out of the building. My mind raced, That looks like it was hit by something a lot bigger than a Cessna. What floor did Dad work on? He used to be in the South Tower on the 106 th floor but he moved recently. Where did he move to? I know it was a lower floor and I think it was in the North Tower. But how low was he? Please God let it be below where that plane hit the building. I immediately tried to reach Mom at her office to see if she had talked to Dad or knew anything. I tried several times but her office was not yet open and I was getting the answering machine. I called my brother Brian, who also works in London, to see if he knew. As usual, Dad was in his office on the 91 st floor of the North Tower by 7:30 a.m. At 8:45 he was talking on the phone with a colleague in Cleveland. Looking out his north-facing window he saw a plane flying from the direction of the Empire State Building and head straight toward his building. Man that plane is flying low, he thought. As the American Airlines plane flew at over 500 miles per hour toward the World Trade Center, Dad saw the shiny nose of the plane just before it crashed into the building not more than 50 feet above his head. He dove under his desk as the building shook violently from the crash and explosion. Ceiling tiles rained down into his office and bookcases fell over. He told his colleagues, There s been an explosion. We have to get out of the building. He hung up the phone, grabbed his briefcase and headed for the emergency exit. He hung on to that briefcase throughout. On that morning, only 12 people were in the American Bureau of Shipping offices, usually there are 22. They raced down the stairs together. It was easy going at first with relatively few people on the stairs. The plane crashed into the 93 rd floor, so there weren t many people coming down from above. As they descended, the stairs became increasingly crowded as people on the lower floors joined the mass exodus. The atmosphere was tense but calm, with many having been in these same stairs after the 1993 bombing. Dad climbed down from the 106 th floor then so he had a sense of what lay ahead. 2:03 pm UK/9:03 am EST: We all watched on our screens as a second large passenger plane crashed into the South Tower. The CNN newscasters were speculating that there must be something wrong with the air traffic control system that was misdirecting planes into buildings into New York City. That was clearly preposterous to anyone who was watching. On a perfectly clear day, there is absolutely no chance that two airline pilots would accidentally fly a passenger plane into the World Trade Center. The planes must have been hijacked and flown into the buildings. The office grew quiet as people just sat at their desks and watched the situation unfold. Finally, at a few minutes past 9 am, I reached my Mom. I was so choked with dread that I couldn t speak at first. She kept asking, Stephen, what s wrong? Tell me. I told her that two planes had just crashed into the World Trade Center. Of course she was

2 shocked. She hadn t heard anything from Dad and wasn t yet aware of the crash. She said that she would call as soon as she heard anything. I called Kathleen who was on the Hampstead High Street. As she headed for home, she got her first glimpse of the disaster through the crowd gathered on the sidewalk watching television in Bang & Olufsen s window. She must have had a terrified look on her face because several people asked if she needed to borrow a phone. Dad was about half way down the 91 flights of stairs when the second plane crashed into the World Trade Center. The exploding plane shattered the South Tower and reverberated in the North Tower s emergency exit stairs. No one inside the stairs with Dad knew the reality of what was happening in the world outside but the anxiety level rose. As the crowd on the stairs grew with each floor that passed, Dad was gradually separated from all but one his colleagues. 2:30 pm UK/9:30 am EST: Our friend Karen called Kathleen and asked, Kathleen are you watching what is going on? Yes, Stephen s father is in the building, was Kathleen s worried reply. Karen immediately began praying, asking God to protect him and deliver him safely from the building. 45 minutes after beginning his descent, Dad and his colleague emerged together on the ground floor concourse between the North and South Towers. Ah the welcome site of Banana Republic, Gap, Coach, coffee shops, newsstands, delis and other familiar icons lining the concourse. They were cautiously congratulating each other and joking that they would now certainly be transferred to corporate headquarters in Houston. The feeling of elation was short-lived as the sounds of an explosion rumbled from the direction of the South Tower on his right. Dad began running for a lower-ceiling area of the concourse thinking this would be a safer shelter from the rapidly approaching explosion. The force of the explosion lifted him in the air and flung him across the concourse. Shrapnel from the shattered storefronts punctured his right leg above the right knee. The inside of his left ankle was cut to the bone. Dad thought that he wouldn t survive and prayed for God to protect him and deliver him. (I ve never seen or heard a news account of an explosion at that time; it was 20 minutes after the second plane crashed and 30 minutes before the South Tower collapsed. Maybe it was jet fuel from one of the planes exploding later or maybe it was a bomb planted in the building that went unnoticed in all the mayhem. In retrospect, we concluded that the explosion was in fact the collapse of the South Tower). The concourse was dark and filled with smoke and dust. Dad scrambled to his feet but was disoriented and blinded by the increasing dust and smoke. He and a few others around him started yelling for help. Then as if in direct answer to all the prayers for his safety, a rescue worker appeared with a flashlight and guided Dad and several others through the darkness to the nearest exit. He led them through to #5 World Trade Center, the northern-most building on the plaza. He led them up a set of stairs and out on to Church Street in front of the Millennium Hotel on the east side of the World Trade Center. He was out at last! He walked away from the World Trade Center past the Millennium Hotel and turned left on Broadway. 1

3 Dad walked down 91 flights of 1WTC. After the explosion in the concourse, the emergency worker guided Dad and others through the concourse into 5WTC and then out onto Church Street. (Note that the time is wrong on the collapse of 1 WTC it was actually 10:23. Fox News gets the credit for that mistake) Dad came out of 5 WTC onto Church Street and then across Church Street past the Millennium Hotel and on to Broadway As he walked down Broadway with two men that he didn t know, ankle deep in dust and office paper blasted out of the buildings, a photographer captured their images. In London, I wept on Wednesday morning as I opened the Daily Telegraph and saw a picture of Dad and two other men. They looked like three soldiers emerging from the battlefield, caked with a mixture of blood, dust, soot and water from the fire hoses and sprinklers. Dad s right pant leg was soaked with blood but with adrenaline flowing he didn t know that he was bleeding. A policeman pointed out to Dad that he was bleeding and led him to an ambulance. The first ambulance was full so he was directed to another. As Dad s ambulance pulled up to the central dispatch area, he heard the dispatcher shout to the driver, The Tower is collapsing, get outta here. As the ambulance sped away from the scene, the paramedics wrapped Dad s leg wounds in the ambulance to stop the bleeding but it wasn t until they got to Beth Israel hospital in lower Manhattan that they discovered that his ankle had been cut to the bone. Doctors fixed his wounds with surgical staples without anaesthesia. Dad had to fend off an over zealous, staple-happy doctor who wanted to staple the tiniest little nicks and gashes. They re-wrapped his wounds with fresh dressings and sent him to the Linsky Pavilion wing of the hospital to recover. Dad said the nurses treated him like a king. 3:15 pm UK/10:15 am EST: I arrived home in London to hear that the South Tower had collapsed 13 minutes earlier and watched BBC live as the North Tower collapsed. Not knowing where Dad was at that time I was in unspeakable anguish, losing hope that he had enough time to make it down 91 flights of stairs and then get out of the building and far enough away to avoid the collapsing buildings. We couldn t get a hold of anyone in the US to find out if there was any news of Dad. Repeated calls did not get through; international phone lines were jammed with people trying to get hold of friends and family. We resorted to , sending messages for family members to call us when they heard any news. Lucy came home from school to find Kathleen and I worried and crying. Lorraine, our wise nanny, had told Lucy about the crash on the way home from school so she wasn t surprised when she got home. Kathleen and I had taken Lucy and Sophie into lower Manhattan at the end of August visiting the World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty. We had some great family photos with the World Trade Center in the background. (Lucy and Sophie took those pictures to school on Wednesday in order to share their experience with classmates.) We told Lucy and Sophie that an airplane had hit the building that Grandad worked in and we didn t know if Grandad was safe. Lorraine took all of the girls to the playground to avoid the scenes on television and the scary sight of their parents crying. 2

4 Brian and Siobhan came over to our house so we could be together at this worrying time. We talked on the phone to Mom, Sue, Nin & Sharon (Kathleen s parents), Joel, a friend we hadn t talked with in years called to offer support, and our neighbours, many of whom had friends in New York. 5:15 pm UK/12:15 pm EST: Dad had been at the hospital since 10:30 am EST, trying to get a hold of Mom to let her know that he was OK. The phone system was overloaded and it took him until 12:15 pm to reach Mom. Mom called Susan and said in her quiet voice Hi Susan, it s Mom. Dad s alright. Susan immediately called us. I let Kathleen answer the phone because I couldn t speak to anyone without getting choked up. Kathleen shouted He s OK!! He s OK!! We all hugged and shouted for joy. We shouted to Lucy and Sophie to come downstairs so we could share the good news with them. Everyone at our house wept with tears of joy. Kathleen called Dad s sister Anne in Newcastle to share the news and heard a big cheer go up in the background from all those gathered to support them and pray for Dad. Susan called Sharon & Nin to give them the news. Nin answered the phone and wept when he heard the news. He shared the news with the U.S. Mail lady standing on the front porch and they cried together. That night as our family sat down to dinner, Lucy insisted on saying grace. She gave thanks to God that Grandad was safe and only a little bit hurt. Because the tunnels and bridges between New Jersey and Manhattan were blocked off, Dad could not leave the hospital to go home and Mom could not go to see him. It was an agonising time for both of them, as he would be forced to spend a sleepless night in Beth Israel. At Beth Israel a nurse came to his room to see how he was doing. After inspecting his wounds, the nurse took Dad back down to the emergency room and asked a doctor to change his bandages. The doctor immediately got to work and Dad said to the nurse, You must have some clout around here the way that doctor responded. She said, I m the head nurse in the hospital, I can get things done. Wednesday 5:30 am EST: On Wednesday morning, I wanted to talk to Dad at the hospital before the international phone circuits got jammed. I called the hospital and asked for Dad. He asked the nurse to have me call back in 10 minutes because he had to hobble down to the phone on his injured foot. While Dad and I talked, the nurse got him a cup of tea. 2:00 pm EST: Finally, the George Washington Bridge between New Jersey and New York City opened. Jerry, a long-time driver for ABS and friend of Dad s, drove his Crown Victoria from Hackensack, NJ across the GWB and down to the hospital to pick up Dad and bring him back to Livingston. Due to police blockades, Jerry could only get 4 blocks from Beth Israel. Because of his injured ankle, Dad couldn t walk to the car so a Beth Israel nurse volunteered to push him to the car in a wheelchair. As Jerry and Dad pulled up to the house, Mom came out with tears streaming down her face. Mom and Dad embraced as they were reunited after a horrible 30 hours. Even Jerry, a big bear of a guy, was reduced to tears as he watched their reunion. I can only imagine that these feelings were experienced by thousands of families around the world. Our family is still amazed, grateful and humbled by the reality that our ordeal had a joyous ending unlike so many thousands of others in our position. My prayers go out to those whose loved ones were killed in this act of terrorism and those who died trying to rescue them. I am so grateful to the people that God put in my Dad s path on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 to guide him to safety and repair his wounds policemen, firemen, paramedics, nurses, doctors, and car drivers. I find comfort and strength from the following verse from Psalms. "The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid? When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident." Psalm 27:1-3 May God bless you and be with you. Stephen 3

5 Something to think about: Where were you on September 11, 2001? Words fail to describe the unbelievable tragedy the devastation of that fateful day. At 8:45 a.m., a plane hijacked by terrorists crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. Minutes later, another plane hurtled into the south tower. Massive explosions ripped through multiple floors of both office buildings. As terrified employees on the lower floors scrambled to evacuate, miles away a third plane slammed into the Pentagon building in Washington, D.C. Before it could reach its intended target, a fourth plane nose-dived into a field in Pennsylvania, killing everyone aboard. Back in New York, onlookers watched in horror as one after another, the 110-story twin towers collapsed on the heads of rescue workers, firemen, and police officers. In just a matter of moments before anyone really understood what was going on thousands of lives had been lost. America was stunned. Nothing like this had ever happened in the history of the country, or even of the world. Politicians and pundits struggled to put the disaster in perspective, comparing it to such catastrophic events as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Oklahoma City Bombing. Others insisted that this was the Pearl Harbor of the 21 st century, a new Day of Infamy. President Bush called the terrorist attacks acts of war. An entire generation would now be asking each other, Where were you on September 11? For thousands of people at the World Trade Center and in the Pentagon, the answer would have been simple: at work. It had begun like any other ordinary day. Men and women, parents and grandparents, office workers, visitors and tourists they were all simply going about their everyday lives. Riding in the elevators, sitting at their desks, chatting across the hallway to a coworker, or talking on the phone. Never in their wildest dreams could they have imagined that a commercial jet would come crashing through their office windows, obliterating everything in its path. They had no idea that their very next breath would be their last, that in an instant they would be ushered into eternity. Few of us do. Somehow in spite of the reality of death, we all feel invincible. We think that the things we see in the news couldn t possibly happen to us. We get caught up in the dailiness of living work to do, bills to pay, errands to run scarcely giving eternity a thought. Few, if any of us, wake up in the morning thinking, today may be my last day on this earth. But sooner or later, one way or another, it happens to all of us. The Bible says we re all destined to die once, and after that to face judgment (Hebrews 9:27). The truth is that every one of us will one day die. None of us knows for sure just how and when our time will come. For most of us, it will be a complete surprise. And then we will face judgment. We will be called to account for every one of our sins and failures. We will have to pay the penalty unless we have put our faith in Jesus Christ. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life (Romans 6:23). Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for us. If we believe in Him and receive His forgiveness, then our sins have already been paid for and we can face the judgment without fear. Jesus explained, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die (John 11: 25-26). If we put our faith in Christ, we don t have to live in fear of death. We can rejoice, knowing that God has prepared a heavenly home for us, and that one day we will live there with Him forever. We can rest in the assurance that we are ready for whatever comes our way. On September 11, 2001, thousands of people entered eternity in a heartbeat. Some of them were ready; some of them were not. What about you? Are you ready today? If you haven t already received Christ as your Savior, don t put it off another day! Take time right now to invite Him into your life. Confess your sin. Receive His forgiveness and the gift of eternal life. You might pray something like this: Dear Jesus, I know that I am a sinner in need of a Savior. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. Thank you for giving me eternal life. Help me to live my life in a way that pleases you for whatever time you give me here on earth. I look forward to living forever in heaven with you. Amen. 4