NY B8 Economic Impact Fdr- Interview- 3-24-04 Judy Wein- AON 409

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INTERVIEW WITH JUDY WEIN, AON, 3-24-04, Hollis Hills, Queens

•

JW

was not at the WTC in

1993;

•

Continuing

fire

drills

not

very

helpful;

JW

confirms basic procedure, e.g.,occupants gathered to center of

floor,

told to use phone, check for heat,

informed

about re-entry floors;

fire

drill coordinators blew whistles

for

themto listen,butpeopledid notalwayspay toomuch attention; would have beenmore helpful

to do

actual evacuation drills,

e.g.,

go

into

the

stairwells

and

down the

stairs;

does not recall any

uniform

instructions on which way to go,e.g.,up ordown;

• Aon

occupied most

of floors

98

th

-

105

th

floors

(half

of

104

th

floor

leased

to

different

company),

and 92;

• On

Sept.

11

th

, JW was in her

office

in the

southwest corner

of

the

103

rd

floor;

office

window

faced

West;

• JW

heard explosion

and

felt

the

building shake;

•

Turned toward window

and saw

fireball which seemed like

it was

coming

from

below;

felt

heat

in

office,

like

her

face

was in an

oven,

and ran out of the

room;

•

Screamed

to

everyone

on floor to get

out;

JW

does

not

recall

how

many wereon the floor at that time but it was not filled;

• JW ran

down stairway

to the

78

th

floor;

some people took

the

local elevators,butJW's instinct

after

seeingthe fire was to use thestairs;

•

Stairway

was

already

filled

with people walking down

2 at a

time,

one

holdingonto each side banister; some people were actually going up, perhaps to getsomething they forgot; not great sense of panic in stairwell;

• JW

exited stairs

at

78

th

floor Sky

Lobby, thinking maybe there would

be

moreinformation

there;

there

was no

immediate

PA

announcement

when

the

1

st

plane hit;

• The Sky

Lobby

was

packed,

like

a

subway

at

rush hour, people cramming

as

many

as they could into each elevator car;

•

There were

10

express elevators,

2 of

which

had

been

out of

service

for

months; they were

to the

right

as you

faced

the

elevatorbank, towards

the

center

in a

group

of 5;

• JW met up

with some colleagues

and

stood waiting

in a

group

of

six;

•

Most people

in

JW's group knew

a

plane

had hit the

building,

and

assumed,based on the

fact

that it was a clear day etc, that it was not a mistake; JW

cannot

say

what

conclusions

others drew;

•

Though some people planned

to or

actually

did go

back

up to

personal items,most people in the Sky Lobby were trying to get down;

that's

why they werethere; JW had

left

purse and everything upstairs but had no intention of going

back

up to get it; her boss said, no, you're not going up, and

offered

to giveher money to get home;

•

Then came

the

announcement, which

JW

recalls

as

saying,

the

building

is

secure, it is

safe

to proceed; JW took this to mean it is

safe

to proceed

down.

that

the

building

is

sufficiently

secure

to do so;

could

only assume

that

properprocedure was to exit;Others began going up at that point; 1 person

left

JW's group to head towards

elevator

but JW does not know how far he made it (he did not survive);[JWknowsof one Aonpersonwho gotdownto thelobbyandwent backup,

but

did so of his own volition (e.g., not directed to) to try to help colleaguesabove;]

As

they continued to wait, the 2

nd

plane hit; JW went

flying

and landed on her

arm,

which got broken;

[found

out later she also had punctured lung and

abdominal

bleeding];

Out 5

five

people

in

JW's group,

1

(her boss) died immediately; another

was

pinned

by

marble which broke

his

legs;

1 man

survived

but

stayed

to

helpothers

and did not

make

it

out;

the

remaining lady also

had

broken limbs

(1

arm

broken

and

other

badly

burned];

JW

heard

no

further

PA

announcements

or the

fire

alarm, though

the

sprinklers apparently went off because there water on the floor

(could've

been

a

burst pipe); it was dark but not extremely smoky, there were some ambers,

but no

real

fire in the Sky

Lobby;

JW

walked towards the center of the Sky Lobby, where there was normally aperson stationed at a desk, but all of that was gone; it got darker and darker as

she

wentinthat direction, moreandmore bodies; knewsheshould turn back;Walked backto thenorth sideof thebuilding, nearthewestern wall, wheresome

windows

had

been blown out,

so

there

was

some fresh

air and

light;

on

her

way there, she passed an escalator and there appeared to be fire on ahigher

floor;

could

see 1 WTC

from

window;

JW got the 2

surviving members

of

group to walk to that area;

While

they were, there the "man in the red bandanna" came in and announced

that

anyone who could walk should go down stairs, and those who couldshould help others; JW does not know if he checked other stairways first buthe

led

them

to

stairway

A

(this

was

probably always

closest

staircase

to

people who survived on impact floors); [This man, WellsCrowther,who was

a

volunteer

FF,

came

from

an

office

on SW

corner

of

104

th

floor,

right aboveJW's, but was not from Aon; his body was

found

in the lobby of the tower,where

he

apparently stayed

to

help

FF's

after getting

down];

Therehadbeenaprevious group thatthe mandirected downthestairs,astold

to JW by

Ling Young;

LY

(who

was

badly burned)

had

left

a fire

extinguisher

in

the

stairway which

the man in the red

bandanna

had

given

her and JWremembers

seeing it;

JW

walked down with

2

other people,

her

female

colleague

from

Aon and

another male Aon co-worker who she did not know previously; JW knew thatanother

plane had

hit;

JW

does not know if there were other people alive on the 78

th

floor when she

began

exiting, but her husband later heard that the man in the red bandanna

had

brought

injured

people into the stairways to help rescue workers reachthemand

take

them down;

The stairs were bright and clear and the conditions were pretty normal; ifdebris

was

blocking certain places,

it was

already removed;

at one

point, they

had

to go

under

something,

like

a

pipe,

that had

fallen;

therewas

also

one

section with

a

puddle that

had a

wire going into

it; JW did not

want

to

have

to

go back and turn around, so she walked through and was all right;Somewhere

in the

70's

they encountered

a

person communicating

on a

walkie-talkie; he was not in

uniform

and had no gear; (could have been PA

civilian

or

perhaps

a

fire

warden

from

another

company);

JW

told

him

about

the

injured

people on the 78

th

floor;

he ran up and down past them and thenbackup;About

10

to!5

flights

down,

in the

60's, they began encountering

FF's

in

full

gear who looked very tired; FF's told them to go down to the

40*

floor

for

help;

between

there

and the

40

th

floor,

they encountered 3 or 4

sets

of

FF's;this

was

approx 9:30

AM;

As instructed, they exited on the 40

th

floor, where there was one FF and 2security guards in blue blazers (Summit); JW saw a kitchen, and one securityguard got her some water which she shared with the other two civilians;

1 FF and 1

security guard took them down

in a

small elevator, which appearedto be aninternal elevator belonging perhapsto thecompany whose space theywere in on the

40

th

floor;When they

got

down

to the

lobby,

the FF

went back

up;

[JW's husband laterheard that the next elevator got stuck and presumably destroyed in

collapse];JW did not see the

other part

of the

lobby

but

heard that they were doingtriage there;JW and other 2 civilians were turned over to a uniformed

female

securityguard with

a

walkie-talkie

who

walked them through

the

concourse

to the

designated exit

on

Church

St,

near Vesey;

the

lobby

and the

concourse wereempty, like

a

ghost town; they were

the

only people

in the

concourse; therewere many ambulancesandemergency workersonChurchSt, aswellaspatients, with relatively less serious injuries, waiting

to be

transported;The

female

security

officer

got JW into an ambulance and said she was goingback;

JW

wasthen takenout of theambulanceto fit 2womenwhowere burned(one was Ling Young), but then put back in

after

she told EMS workers ofpainin herchest area (punctured lung);

As

the ambulance was pulling away, JW saw the south tower collapse out oftheback window (heard noiseand sawbillowing smoke); theyhadsomewhatof a

difficult

time driving out, but were able to get to NY PresbyterianHospital where JW was treated;In general: JW

felt

there were not good instructions on what to do;

after

the

first

plane hit,she

left

her floor by her owndecision, becauseshe hadseenthe

fireball

from

tower

one;

also,

fire

drills could

have been more helpful;

of 00

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