September 11 calls
This puts a lot into perspective. Enjoy life while you can, you never know what is going to happen, the control we have over our own lives in tenuous.
It is amazing how just reading this causes such an emotional reaction, I had just about forgotten what a horrible and sad tragedy this was.
Families listen to 911 dispatchers struggle with WTC attack
By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press | March 31, 2006
NEW YORK --A group of family members who lost loved ones on Sept. 11 gathered at a midtown law office to listen to the recordings of the 911 calls released Friday, trying to learn more about what exactly happened on that fateful day.
The families listened to the calls on banks of computers set up in a conference room. They took in the recordings and looked at transcripts mostly in silence, occasionally whispering to each other about what they were noticing.
Al Santora, a retired deputy fire chief whose firefighter son died in the attack on the World Trade Center, said he was amazed at the professionalism and calmness of some of the dispatchers. But he was also surprised at how little they seemed to know about what was happening, and at how little constructive advice they had for the people who were trapped.
"It's just incredible to read this. It's an hour in and this is the first time I've heard someone give advice on what to do about smoke," he said.
The families showed little emotion, observing with almost a clinical detachment and taking notes of the details they found interesting.
Recordings of the calls were released as a result of a three-year legal battle by The New York Times and the families of nine victims. The city, citing privacy concerns, had argued that they should remain off-limits.
Only the voices of dispatchers were present on the recordings released Friday.
"I'm hoping that the public and the system will learn how unprepared the City of New York and the Port Authority were on that day," said Sally Regenhard, whose son Christian, a firefighter, died in the attacks.
She said she believed more people would have survived if better information had been available to rescuers.
Regenhard, who was among the relatives who sued for the release of the recordings, said she did not fault the 911 operators for the system's shortcomings.
"They were totally untrained. There was no integrated command structure," she said.
It is amazing how just reading this causes such an emotional reaction, I had just about forgotten what a horrible and sad tragedy this was.
Families listen to 911 dispatchers struggle with WTC attack
By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press | March 31, 2006
NEW YORK --A group of family members who lost loved ones on Sept. 11 gathered at a midtown law office to listen to the recordings of the 911 calls released Friday, trying to learn more about what exactly happened on that fateful day.
The families listened to the calls on banks of computers set up in a conference room. They took in the recordings and looked at transcripts mostly in silence, occasionally whispering to each other about what they were noticing.
Al Santora, a retired deputy fire chief whose firefighter son died in the attack on the World Trade Center, said he was amazed at the professionalism and calmness of some of the dispatchers. But he was also surprised at how little they seemed to know about what was happening, and at how little constructive advice they had for the people who were trapped.
"It's just incredible to read this. It's an hour in and this is the first time I've heard someone give advice on what to do about smoke," he said.
The families showed little emotion, observing with almost a clinical detachment and taking notes of the details they found interesting.
Recordings of the calls were released as a result of a three-year legal battle by The New York Times and the families of nine victims. The city, citing privacy concerns, had argued that they should remain off-limits.
Only the voices of dispatchers were present on the recordings released Friday.
"I'm hoping that the public and the system will learn how unprepared the City of New York and the Port Authority were on that day," said Sally Regenhard, whose son Christian, a firefighter, died in the attacks.
She said she believed more people would have survived if better information had been available to rescuers.
Regenhard, who was among the relatives who sued for the release of the recordings, said she did not fault the 911 operators for the system's shortcomings.
"They were totally untrained. There was no integrated command structure," she said.
posted by CW at 11:26 AM
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