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CNN Live Today

America Under Attack: View From the 86th Floor

Aired September 12, 2001 - 14:26   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Louis Lesce was on the 86th floor of the 1st tower when it was hit, and he joins us now on the phone.

Mr. Lesce, tell us about what happened. What did you think happened? And how close were you to the impact?

LOUIS LESCE, SURVIVOR: I was on the 86th floor. I was reviewing some work, and it was 10 to 9:00 and the building shook. I thought there was an earthquake, and it didn't bother me because I felt the building could sustain earthquakes, they were built for that. Then there was a huge explosion and the ceiling fell.

I got out of that conference room and there were five other people on the floor. And we decided to leave, but when we opened the door there was a black wall of smoke. So we closed that door right away and we sat in the conference room and the debated what to do. We decided to break the windows.

One of the gentlemen found a ball peen hammer, and then we said, well if we break the window what's going to be the effect? Are we going to be sucked out? Is the smoke going to be sucked out, or is air going to come in? Well, we had no alternative, so we broke the windows. At that point glass flew in, as well as hot shrapnel. We didn't know where that came from.

The smoke began to subside because it had begun to fill the office. Finally, about 20 minutes later someone came up and said we're going down. And we started to walk down. There was gray smoke. Could only see the shadow of flashlights.

And between the screaming and the sirens, which is very eerie, and water coming from the walls and the ceiling, much like a shower, and about two inches or three inches of water cascading down the steps, we started to make our way. About five minutes, or six minutes into the descending, the lights went out.

ALLEN: Could you feel, as you descended, the heat coming down on you?

LESCE: No heat.

ALLEN: No heat.

LESCE: Just water, and that's all it was. And we would be going down, the lights came on, we'd go down maybe five or six stairs, stories, and then it would be absolutely dry. We would go down some more, and then there was a shift from stairway A to B as things got congested.

There were people passing with bruises and bleeding, and some people being carried down. What was marvelous was we were on the right side, and here were firemen carrying maybe 30, 40 pounds of load going upstairs. Where we trying to escape, they were going into it.

ALLEN: Did you have idea, as you were trying to make your way out of building, what had happened? Were people starting to talk about what it could have been?

LESCE: No, nobody knew what happened. Nothing. People were comforting one another. Someone said to me, you look kind of tired, buddy, let me hold your jacket. And he did. Someone else asked to hold my briefcase. We made it all the way down, I don't know where those people are.

We were in the mall, on the mall level, and there were about 30 people with me as we were walking down, and they said, OK, go left. As I went left into this passageway, which is sort of right by the path train, I heard a huge (MAKES NOISE) in back of me. And I turned around and something -- it was collapsing, the building was collapsing. And the next thing was this huge rush of wind pushing me, and I fell down immediately and hugged the ground, and debris went over my head and just buried me. And all of those people I was with, I heard nothing.

I kept voice contact: Hello, hello, hello? Nothing. Finally a pin of light showed, and after about 10 minutes that pin got bigger and bigger. Someone picked me up and we walked out. He said there's right or left. Let's go left.

We went up into light. Kept walking along. Some other people were with me. Then we went down an escalator that wasn't moving. Then it was maybe seven people with me.

As we went down, we were told to go up, because probably we had under -- an underground passage to an obstacle that was at the top. As I went up, now there was only five people with me. One guy went his own way. The policemen went to get him, then he disappeared. Now there was only four.

We through another area. And then there was another policeman came. He went to an emergency and said stay here. One guy left, then there was only two of us.

The one guy said I'm going to go through that broken -- through that door. It wasn't a door, it was really broken glass. And he went. And I went about 20 feet behind him, and he disappeared. And that was the eeriest thing. Of all those people I was with, they disappeared.

When I step out -- stepped out into the plaza, there was nobody. It was like the last man on earth except for about four inches of white soot, it looked like snow. It was really ash, I guess. And I walked through it, and I saw nobody until I had reached I guess 100 yards from the building, and things were falling down and there were pockets of fire all around.

And it wasn't until I reached about that 100 yards that I began to see another human. And I walked up to Nassau Street and started to make a call to my wife, and just then there was another (MAKES SOUND), and another part of the building collapsed, and this black roar came back again and turned the day absolutely black.

So I had turned the corner, threw myself on the ground, and waited a second time for the blackness to stop. And finally it did and there was a little pin of light, somebody's voice asking me to stand up, and I stood up in the dark.

And imaging, OK, this is Nassau Street and there's going to be a cross -- you're going to go down a curb, go up. I saw the light get larger and larger. He came and got me, and we went into a store. And there were five or six people there. One guy gave me his t-shirt.

I had looked like somebody had poured black plaster-of-Paris all over me. I couldn't swallow. I spit out black. And then I was told to walk up to Beekman Hospital. But as I started walking up, I got as far as federal courthouse and the police captain said, you can't go up there.

They put me in front of a hydrant and poured water all over me. Took me up to a triage center. Police up there washed me ...

ALLEN: Mr. Lesce?

LESCE: Yes?

ALLEN: Mr. Lesce, we have to interrupt your chilling account. And we thank you so much, but we have to go the Secretary of State now.

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