9/11, 20 YEARS ON ‘HOW WE SURVIVED A NIGHTMARE’

There was no sense of dread or panic inside the stairwell as Wendy Lanski joined the throng of people making their way down the World Trade Center’s North Tower on the morning of September 11, 2001. Minutes earlier, Lanski and her colleagues on the 29th floor had felt the building lurch following a “tremendous thud” and rumours quickly spread that a small aircraft had accidentally struck the Manhattan skyscraper. But the evacuation felt more routine than necessary.

“It was orderly,” the healthcare executive tells WHO. “People were chatting and courteous, holding doors open at each floor as people came in.”

But once the 31 year-old got to the lobby, it was clear something catastrophic was playing out in the upper floors of the World Trade Center’s iconic twin towers. “Both buildings were on fire and there were people