My office at Morgan Stanley was on the 69th floor of the South Tower. I had a great view of the Statue of Liberty and I was staring out at her, talking on the phone, when a swirl of debris — burning debris — suddenly floated by my window.
Our head of security, Rick Rescorla, had always said to us, “No matter how innocent something looks, you get in the stairwell and you start walking down the stairs.”
He had constant drills and fire marshals on every floor. Sometimes I’d think, “This is overdone.” But when there’s chaos everywhere, that training is the only thing on your mind.
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There was about 20 of us, and we counted heads and then headed for the stairwell to start our 69 flights down.
At the 44th floor, the Port Authority made an announcement. “Stay where you are,” we heard. “Don’t exit the building.”
Then a tremendous impact tore through everything. Smoke and debris were everywhere.
The second that floor stopped shaking, everyone knew to get back into the stairwell. I could hear Rescorla on his megaphone telling people, “Come this way, let’s keep it moving, you’re all going to be fine, everything is going to be all right.”
His voice echoed up, and it’s something I’ll always remember. His voice was with us the whole time going down that stairwell. “Just keep going,” he said, and he was very calm.
When we got to the mezzanine level the workers kept telling us, “Don’t look outside.”
I could see the big globe that used to stand out there and the ground littered with jet parts and also people parts. Parts were everywhere.
Rescorla and his security team never got out of the building. They had gotten us all outside but returned to do a final sweep of our offices. They all perished in the collapse.