seiu40.xml

seiu40.xml

32BJ

'I thought it was a bomb, or maybe an earthquake. The whole building shook for minutes. The impact threw me across the floor,' said John Cretella, who was on the 61st floor of the World Trade Center's Building 1 when the plane crashed. John, 41, had 19 years on the job as a maintenance worker before terrorists destroyed the building.

'I took the stairs down. At some point, it was like a waterfall. There was water everywhere, and smoke too. Around the seventh floor, I slipped and fell an entire flight,' John said. 'I hurt my neck and my shoulder pretty bad, but I kept going.

'When I reached the Plaza level, it was so terrible. There was blood, and there were bodies, debris. It looked like a war zone. It was so disgusting. I got away from there as soon as I could.' John made his way to the ferry, which took him to New Jersey where he lives with his wife, daughter and two foster children.

'My wife thought I was dead. I couldn't contact her for four hours. She was really traumatized because she thought that she lost me. She knows it was a close call. I'm lucky that I made it. I know 15 guys who are missing. I could've been one of them,' John said.

born-digital

story

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yes

no

2001-09-21