More than two weeks have passed since ASU graduate Wendy Manwarren witnessed the World Trade Center crumbling to the ground as she ran for her life, not knowing whether she was going to live or die.
Manwarren lives on Greenwich Street, which is less than two blocks away from the World Trade Center. As she got ready for graduate classes at New York University, Sept. 11, the 2001 ASU journalism graduate never heard the first plane crash into the World Trade Center.
“I was blow-drying my hair when the first one hit, so I didn’t even hear it,” Manwarren said. “I came out of the bathroom and heard tons of sirens but didn’t really think about it; I thought that maybe there was a car accident.”
“My boyfriend Chad called to say that he was glad I hadn’t left yet since my first stop on the subway is the World Trade Center. That was when I found out what had happened.”
After awakening her two roommates, Manwarren led them out of the apartment on the 17th floor so they would not be in danger. As they made their way down the stairs, the second plane hit the south tower of the World Trade Center. “The entire building shook violently,” Manwarren said. “The power went off as we were trying to make our way down the stairs.”
When they finally got outside, Manwarren and her roommates saw the damage. “We could see the south tower, and there was a huge gaping hole, huge flames and black smoke,” Manwarren said. “We could see people jumping out of the buildings.”
Manwarren made the decision that they would be safer the farther north they could get. After running for seven blocks and waiting in line for 30 minutes, Manwarren and her roommates were able to use a pay phone. They contacted their parents to let them know that they were all alive.
They were within seven blocks of the World Trade Center when the north tower began to crumble to the ground. It was chaos on the streets.
“People in the streets were yelling that the planes were going to skid down the streets and that people were shooting,” Manwarren said. “We started running down the street and when we looked behind us, we saw a huge cloud of smoke. This was the only time I thought we were going to die.”
Unsure of where to go or what to do next, Manwarren and her roommates made their way back toward their apartment building. A police officer stopped them and informed them that they weren’t allowed in that area and suggested that they try crossing the Brooklyn Bridge.
After walking 25 blocks, they found the bridge engulfed in smoke. “We had been walking for two hours, our feet were bleeding and we were tired,” Manwarren said. “I remember looking around and for the first time that day, I knew that the sky was blue. New York City looked like a ghost town.”
Manwarren’s boyfriend, Chad Turnbull, works in Bay Ridge, which was about 150 blocks away from where they were. After walking 35 blocks, Manwarren and her roommates hopped on the back of a flatbed truck that dropped them less than 30 blocks away from Turnbull’s workplace.
After walking the rest of the way, Manwarren was reunited with her boyfriend and he took them all to his house in Staton Island.
It wasn’t until four days later that Manwarren was allowed to return to her apartment.
“The entire area surrounding the building was covered in about four inches of dirt with paper covering the streets,” she said.
After she and Turnbull waited in line for over three hours, they had to sign a waiver stating the building was not structurally sound and to tell police officers the name of their next of kin.
Forty-eight residents of Manwarren’s apartment building were escorted into the building wearing gas masks. There was no power in the building.
“The building smelled like death. All of the food in people’s refrigerators had spoiled. My apartment looked fine inside, but other people’s apartments who had left their windows open were filled with dirt.”
Manwarren was only allowed in her apartment for five minutes so she took her grandmother’s necklace, a winter coat and a few picture frames. After they checked back in with the police officers, Manwarren finally broke down for the first time.
“I didn’t cry the entire time until I actually saw the damage surrounding my building. I saw trucks carrying rubble and other stuff away and although I didn’t see any bodies being taken out, I know that bodies are in there.”
Reach Tatum Ostaff at tatumostaff@yahoo.com.
