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The Fourth Estate

The Student News Site of Laguna Blanca School

The Fourth Estate

9/11 10th Anniversary

PHOTO%3A+ELLIOT+SERBIN
PHOTO: ELLIOT SERBIN

 

 

LBS Sophmore Grace Wolf interviewed 9/11 Witnesses Bob and Margie Niehaus in order to report their stories:

Margie’s responses:

1) What were you doing that day?  Visiting NYC for a trip with Bob.  He was there for a breakfast meeting.  We were staying in the WTC Marriott Hotel (part of the WTC).  I went to breakfast.

2) What was your first indication that something had happened?  There was a very, very loud swooosh and then a hug boom, like a sonic boom, but closer.

3) What did you do initially, and what were you thoughts?  When the first plane hit the tower and blew up (like a bomb) the force shattered the glass walls and ceiling of the Greenhouse style restaurant, where I was completing my breakfast (about 800 feet above my head).  Like the other patrons, initially I got under the table to avoid falling glass, then when the employees started shouting “Bomb, bomb, I picked up my purse and ran out (what had been a wall of glass) and right onto the Plaza Terrace.  I looked up and saw the building on fire 3/4 of the way up right over my head.  I used our only cell phone, and called David’s office in Century City to tell him I was okay and not in that building.  Then the cell phone rarely worked for the next several hours. There was a lot of debris falling from the sky.  I then went into the tower that had not been hit, but was instructed to leave and was walking right next to that building when the second plane came in right over my head.  I thought—this is the most scary and horrible thing I have ever seen, and I am probably going to die.  And it seemed like a movie.

4) What were other peoples reactions?  People were stunned, afraid, angry, worried, looking for loved ones, busy getting away.  Except emergency personel who were doing their jobs.  They were working to get people out of there and away from the buildings.  My “reaction” was that people where dying, as I knew that ladders wouldn’t go up that high, and that people were trapped up there and dying hideous deaths.  It made me very sad, and I know that I was in shock.  There was blood on the back of my top, and I have no idea how it got there.

5) What was you course of action?  Prior to plane #2 hitting the second tower, I was trying to stay nearby and see if I saw Bob, or develop a plan.  When Plane #2 hit the second tower I moved quickly away to the area near the river where tourists go to see the Statue of Liberty. (I had gone there the previous day with Arlene’s sister).  I had the idea that if more planes were coming that I should be prepared to get in the river to survive fire.  I put my drivers lic., cash and credit card inside my bra in case I was separated from my purse.  I wanted my body to be identified if I died.  I huddled underneath a big dump truck parked next to the river and after a while heard the loudest sound (and most surreal) of my life and then a wave of thick brown debris was rolling towards us.  I pulled a bit of my shirt in front of my face and slowed my breathing as much as possible to avoid breathing more than necessary.  After a while the air cleared a bit, and then I talked to a man who helped me get down to the Staten Island Ferry Depot.  When the next ferry docked with emergency vehicles, he pulled me on and we ran to the front of the ferry.  It took me to Staten Island, where I got on the commuter train, and rode it all the way to the end.  Then I found/asked for help, got a motel, some supplies and waited until Bob and I could reconnect.

Bob’s Responses:

1 – Margie and I were at the Marriott World Trade Center Hotel, which stood between the two towers. It was a much smaller building than the towers – only 22 stories compared to the towers, which were 110 stories each and nearly a half-block on each side. I was attending a business conference in the hotel.

 

2 – I was at a breakfast meeting with about 300 other people in a large conference room when the entire building shook from an enormous explosion. We could not see any explosion or fire, but the hotel seemed to jump six inches into the air and come crashing back down again.

 

3 – There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that this was a bomb of some kind. Everyone in the room with me immediately moved to the exits. The hotel employees helped everyone out of the room and escorted us toward the main lobby so we could leave the building. I stopped at a hotel phone in the lobby and called our 17th-floor room to find Margie. There was no answer, and I concluded that she had already started to leave the building. I wanted to go up to the room to check, but the elevators were locked down and the hotel security guards would not let anyone go up the stairs. Hundreds of people were coming down the stairs from higher floors but Margie was not among them. I did not know at that time but she had been on the second floor when the attack occurred and she had already left the building through a shower of broken glass in a different direction.

 

4 – No one knew what kind of explosion it was because all of us had been inside the building and had not seen the first airliner strike the North Tower. Everyone around me seemed subdued and concentrating on moving quickly but without panic to the hotel exit. The security guards helped keep order, and one of them personally escorted me out of the building about 9:00 – 14 minutes after the attack. Just then I looked up and saw the second plane fly into the South Tower. At that point, from the street, we could see the flames on both towers and some people falling from the upper floors of the buildings. Many people went into shock and some collapsed. Those of us who could helped others to get to a bench or to walk away escorted.

 

5 – I stayed near the buildings as long as the police would let me, but gradually I was escorted away. About 11 am I spoke briefly with Margie through our son David’s office phone and learned she was on Staten Island. I followed her there, and we met about 2 pm at a pizzeria well away from Ground Zero. We rented a car the next morning and drove to Santa Barbara.

 

 

Bob Niehaus also gave a speech at the SB Courthouse for the 9/11 10th Anniversary Memorial:

SEPTEMBER 11 REMEMBRANCE CEREMONY, 9/11/2011

REMARKS BY BOB NIEHAUS

Good morning. My name is Bob Niehaus, and I am a long-time resident of Santa Barbara. Thank you all for being here today to remember America’s heroism in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. My wife Margie and I were at the World Trade Center in New York City that morning. The firefighters and police officers on duty, as well as the people of New York, helped us escape with our lives. These past 10 years have been wonderful ones for us. Both of our sons are now married, and we have three grandchildren – Cassidy, Brandon, and Zachary – who are here with us today.

But, like the rest of America, we did not look at the world the same way after the attacks as we did before. Those of us born in the United States in the middle of the twentieth century had known security at home, general peace abroad, and ever-increasing prosperity our whole lives. Now we realized we were all under attack by ruthless Islamo-fascist enemies – for the simple reason that we were Americans. So we responded like Americans.

Americans caught in the center of the attacks – on Flight 93 over Pennsylvania, in the burning corridors of the Pentagon, on the fire engines racing toward the flaming towers – reacted with defiant courage.

Americans on the fringes of the attacks moved in to help, with offers to assist strangers, to staff aid centers, and to bring food and supplies to first responders.

Americans throughout the land felt the emotional impact of the attacks first hand. Thousands volunteered for the Armed Services as we mobilized to fight back. Sally Brown formed the Santa Barbara Angels to provide loving care-packages to our deployed troops. Margie and I volunteered with dozens of others in the Santa Barbara Firefighters Alliance to make our community and our first responders safer.

But most importantly we resolved to do what is needed so that America is never again attacked in this way. Our enemies threaten our continued freedom. America is their prime target because we have declared liberty to be the right of people everywhere.

To all of you – firefighters, police officers, Marines of the 3/5 Dark Horse Battalion, other service members, and everyone here today – thank you for all you do to keep us safe. We have an important job to do. After all, our grandchildren are counting on us. Thank you very much.

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9/11 10th Anniversary