Survivors
Only 20 people escaped from the impact zone of the South Tower after it was hit and only four people from the floors above it. Individuals escaped from as high up on the South Tower as the 91st floor after initial impact. They escaped via Stairwell A, the only stairwell which had been left intact after the impact. It is speculated that Stairwell A in the South Tower was not only intact after the impact of United Airlines Flight 175, but that it was also passable until the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 am. Because of communication between 911 operators (FDNY and NYPD responders were disorganized), most individuals who were trapped were unaware of the passable status of Stairwell A and were instead told to wait for assistance by rescue personnel.
After the collapse of the towers, only 23 survivors who were in or below the towers escaped from the debris, including 15 rescue workers. The last survivor to be removed alive from the WTC collapse debris was removed from the ruins of the North Tower 27 hours after its collapse. The search for survivors did find others who had survived for days under the rubble pile. These people were found with "Life Detector" listening equipment. With this special equipment, their voices could be heard. Rescuers at the surface told them, "If you can hear me, tap on a pipe" and metallic taps were heard in response. But a path through the debris could not be cleared quickly enough to get to them before they succumbed to their injuries. A total of 6,294 people were reported to have been treated in area hospitals for injuries related to the 9/11 attacks in New York City.
Read more about this topic: Casualties Of The September 11 Attacks
Famous quotes containing the word survivors:
“I want to celebrate these elms which have been spared by the plague, these survivors of a once flourishing tribe commemorated by all the Elm Streets in America. But to celebrate them is to be silent about the people who sit and sleep underneath them, the homeless poor who are hauled away by the city like trash, except it has no place to dump them. To speak of one thing is to suppress another.”
—Lisel Mueller (b. 1924)
“I believe that all the survivors are mad. One time or another their madness will explode. You cannot absorb that much madness and not be influenced by it. That is why the children of survivors are so tragic. I see them in school. They don’t know how to handle their parents. They see that their parents are traumatized: they scream and don’t react normally.”
—Elie Wiesel (b. 1928)