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CNN Live Today

A Survivor Recalls the Attack on the World Trade Center

Aired September 12, 2001 - 14:27   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: 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 and I was reviewing some work, and it was about 10 to 9:00. The building shook, and I thought there was an earthquake, and it didn't bother me, because I felt the building could sustain an earthquake, because they were built for that. And then there was a huge explosion and the ceiling fell.

And 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 debated what to do, and then we decided to break the windows. And one of the gentlemen found a ball-pin hammer.

And then we said, well, if we break the window, what's going to affected. Are we going to be sucked out? Is the smoke going to be sucked out or is air going to come in?

So we had no alternative, so we broke the window. And at that point, glass flew in as well as hot shrapnel. We didn't know where that came from.

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

And between the screaming and the sirens, which is very eerie, and water coming out of the walls and the ceiling, much like a shower, and about 2 inches or 3 inches of water cascading down the steps, we started to make way our way. And about five minutes or six minutes into the descending, there was a -- the lights went out.

ALLEN: Could you feel as you descended 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. And we'd go down some more, and then there was a shift from stairway a to b as things got congested. And there were people passing with bruises and bleeding, and some people being carried down.

What was marvelous is we were on the right side, and here were firemen carrying maybe 30, 40 pounds of load going upstairs. Where we were trying escaping they were going into it.

ALLEN: Did you have any idea as you were trying to make your way out of the 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 know, you looked 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.

And 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. And as I went left into this passage way, which is, you know, sort of right by the path train, I heard a huge "shhhh" in back of me, and I turned around, and 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 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 my 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 an underground passage through 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 and he disappeared. Now there was only four. We went to another area, and then there was another policeman came. He went to an emergency, said, stay here. One guy left, and then it was only two of us. And 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 eerie thing, of all those people I was with, they disappeared.

When I stepped out into the plaza, there was nobody. It was like the last man on Earth except for about 4 inches of white soot, 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 hundred yards that I began to see another human. And I walked up to Nassau Street and started to make a call for my wife. And just then, there was another (RUMBLING SOUND) and another part of the building collapsed. And this black wall 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 again, there was a little tint of light. Somebody's voice asking me to stand up. And I stood up in the dark and imagining, OK, this is Nassau Street. Now, 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 and one guy gave me his T-shirt. I looked like somebody had poured black plaster of Paris all over me. I couldn't swallow, spit out black, and then I was told to walk up to Beekman, the hospital.

But as I started walking up, I got as far as Federal Courthouse, and the police captain said, you know, you can't go up there. They put me in front of a hydrant, poured water all over me, took me up to a triage center. The 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 to the senator of state now. Colin Powell is beginning a news briefing.

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