Customer Reviews

102 Minutes : The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers

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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Finally the story of what really happened inside will live forever. I've only been through it once but so far Dwyer has most of his facts straight, as far as I saw. Without intending to dishonor those who died that day, but out of respect for the truth, I will say the author is, believe it or not, kinder to the Fire Department then he might have been. Remember the term soldiers in Vietnam used for some of their missions? A cluster* operation? That more accurately describes the NYFD that day, with plenty of exceptions, obviously. Look at page 251: "If history is to be a tool for the living, it must be unflinchingly candid." Those paragraphs will cause sorrowful, heated arguments for a long time, but that's the truth. And again, whether they knew it or not, the authors might have been much harsher towards the NYFD 'brass'. Not only did hundreds of firefighters die needlessly, but so did many more people simply because the firemen slowed down the evacuation by clogging up the stairways.

I will also say that to some extent this factual reporting of the matter does not capture the sheer horror we went through. Yes, you do get a sense of what it was like via many, many passages throughout the book. No question about it. And it is true that on the staircase people were quite collegial about the whole thing (1 WTC, above 40, at least), even throwing around nervous jokes. But between those times the horror of *knowing beyond certainly* death is imminent overwhelmed everyone, again and again and again. It simply cannot be described, nor, do I think, imagined.

As I was searching through the blackness in the hallways for the other exit door I wondered how many breaths of smoke filled air one had to take before passing out. So I don't know if we had 3 minutes left, or 5, or 15. I don't know. But I do know if it were not for Frank and Mak and Pablo, myself and dozens of others on the 89th floor definitely would not be alive. For Frank's family I can only think of the scene from "Private Ryan" where General Marshall quotes Lincoln's letter to Mrs. Bixby: "I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom."

Rick Bryan
New York, NY

This is a vividly rendered book, not remotely exploitative and yet so unflinching in the reportage that it demands your attention and ultimately earns your heart. Authors Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn, both from the New York Times, make this inevitably moving book suspenseful, almost surreal and ultimately a reflection of the human condition under the most dire of circumstances. As comprehensive as the revelatory "9/11 Commission Report" is, the stories in this book represent the missing perspective of that horrifying day, the voices of those who survived and perished in the World Trade Center.

What the authors are effective in capturing is how endless those 102 minutes seemed to the people inside the buildings, how the period between the first crash and the collapse of the north tower was so chaotic that the full scope of what happened was unknown to those trapped inside. Because we were able to watch the news coverage relentlessly that morning, the book clarifies that what was happening was far clearer from the outside than from the inside. Those inside had no way of knowing what happened to them or why, and certainly no way to know if they would live or die. There are stories of personal ingenuity and heroism, like the window washer who used his squeegee to scrape away a wall and manually bored himself and five others through a tiled wall in the 50th floor men's room. There are stories of paralyzing fear, such as the series of 911 calls from the various floors when the south tower started to collapse. And sadly there are stories that will be disappointing for the very acts of desperation they represent, such as people being pushed out of windows so that others could position themselves for fresh air and possible rescue. I doubt if there is a more harrowing story than the one about Stanley Praimnath, who was evacuated from the 81st floor of the south tower only to be told to return to his office and see the United jet come speeding toward him in the office window. These are the moments none of us can forget, and Dwyer and Flynn capture them with all their humanity intact. Essential reading.

The journalists Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn have captured 102 of the most terrifying minutes any group of people have ever faced. The authors focus tightly and breathtakingly on the events in and directly around the towers from the moment of the first plane's impact until the last tower comes down. There is nothing but that story and it is told with great skill from a great many viewpoints, both from workers inside the tower and from rescuers entering the towers. They combine their account effectively with just enough information for the reader to get a little background into the personalities involved and the various elements that structurally in the towers themselves whiced added to or relieved the crisis. This book's strong focus on the fight for survival within the towers makes it an invaluable resource and a testement to what happened that day.

As a survivor of that day, I was on the 98th floor of Tower 2 this book says it all. This is a gripping, well told, accurate account of the horror of many many lives. The authors put into words what so many of us could not for those frightening and unbelievable 102 minutes. A must read for all Americans.

Everyone is familiar with the pictures of the World Trade Center from 11 September 2001. The views from the outside as the planes strike the towers, and then the collapse of one and then the other, with dust and chaos everywhere, possess a grim fascination that even repeated viewings do not dim. But what was going on inside? There were thousands of people already at work in the buildings in that morning. Many had gone through the attack on the basement of the towers eight years before (and sadly may have had false confidence in the buildings' structural integrity because of that first attack). We can imagine what some of them must have gone through, but how can we know? While many of those in the towers that day will never be able to tell their stories, even some of those who perished were able to get through on computers, radios, and cell phones. The interactions of firemen, policemen, and heroic victims did leave electronically recorded trails and memories that can be examined. Two reporters, Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn, have undertaken to reveal the hidden, human aspects of the disaster in _102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers_ (Times Books). Everyone knows how it all turned out, but this is a superbly suspenseful account, mostly of ordinary humans confronting an extraordinary disaster, combined with an analysis of sad error and inefficiency. It could have been worse, certainly, but it could have gone far better.

The fate of the buildings is repeatedly tied to their initial design; the authors explain that the most important actions taken in a skyscraper disaster are those that were laid out in the blueprints. Because engineering of the time was thought to be so much better than in previous skyscrapers, the rules about stairways had been relaxed; there were fewer of them, and they were clustered within the building so that if one got physically damaged, the others were close enough to suffer the same damage. The authors never confuse the real cause of the disaster, the suicidal hijackers and their masters, with mistakes that led to a worsening of the disaster, but for many of the dead, they write, "Their fate was sealed nearly four decades earlier," when the buildings were designed to give maximum rental space often at the cost of safety space. The stories of the individuals who worked in the towers, or happened to be visiting that day, are uppermost throughout the book, however. After the north tower was hit, those in the south tower were rightly concerned that they were at risk, but were reassured that the building was secure. Stanley Praimnath, for instance, went back up to his job at a Japanese bank on the 81st floor of the south tower once a guard told him the building was secure and under no danger. He was on the phone, assuring a colleague in Chicago that he was fine, when he looked out to see an airplane headed toward his window. The caller in Chicago watched the TV in horror, as Praimnath dived under his desk screaming as his ceiling collapsed. There are so many stories here, and so many characters, that it is often confusing to keep them all straight, but in recounting such extraordinary chaos, the confusion is nothing but realistic.

There are plenty of stories of heroism here, and it is good that the book concentrates, at least at first, on the tales of ordinary people who showed it. Such stories were not the center of the initial coverage of the event, which concentrated on the stories of the rescuers. Naturally, the firefighters and police had plenty of opportunity to show heroism, too, and this as well is fully documented, but with the sad understanding that many of their sacrifices were not necessary. Dwyer and Flynn give the history of radio communications for firemen and policemen, how new equipment had been available, and how bureaucratic inertia caused the old to continue to be used. There were also significant problems in communication between the police and the firemen, who had often been at odds. (A couple of cops at the scene joked as they worked with a fireman, wondering if this is what it took to get cops and firemen working together.) The authors frequently compare this disaster with that of the _Titanic_. A few months after the ship went down, George Bernard Shaw commented that the disaster had led to "an explosion of outrageous romantic lying." In hearings after the event, Mayor Giuliani spoke with pride of the heroic firefighters in the remaining north tower who stayed at their posts, rescuing others even though the order had been given to leave. The truth is that communications were so badly confused that many of them never heard the order and did not even know that the south tower had fallen and that theirs was expected to do so, too. Many were taking rest breaks (certainly needed after climbing floor after floor with sixty pounds of equipment) because almost everyone below the strike zone had left the building. No amount of good planning would have completely overcome the chaos those two planes caused, but the bad planning revealed here made it worse. There are lessons here for those who will heed them, but _102 Minutes_ deserves to be read especially for its exciting stories of heroism and sacrifice by ordinary people.

The New York Times has lead the effort to document the history and cost of the events of September 11, 2001. Their staff have written the "first draft of history" with "Out Of The Blue" (the background of the plot with an emphasize on the Twin Towers) and "Among The Heroes" (the story of the passengers of Flight 93 which fought their hijackers). Now two more NYT writers have added "102 Minutes", an account of those caught up in the Twin Towers on 9-11.

These are simple stories, based on countless interviews and transcripts of phones calls, of those who escaped and those who died that day. The writing is clear, the tales are powerful, the vignettes of survival/heroism inspiring. However, this in not a book to be read in one sitting, for the horror of so many deaths can be overwhelming for the reader. But the dead are honored and remembered in "102 Minutes." It is a book worth reading.

I visited the World Trade Center twice as a tourist, admiring the view of Manhattan and New Jersey from the visitor's center atop the South Tower. But I had an uneasy feeling in my chest both times. On one of those visits I commented, "This place is a fire trap. I would never work here." Little did I know how much of a fire trap those towers really were until I read "102 Minutes." The WTC Towers were not only a fire trap--they were the equivalent of a vertical Titanic, which the creators proudly proclaimed could withstand plane crashes and fire.

In the best book I've read on September 11th to date, journalists Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn did a spectacular job of chronologically piecing together the stories of 352 people who had the misfortune of being at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001--people from all walks of life, some of whom survived and some who did not. In addition, they provide diagrams of the buildings, including one that showed the buildings much like a 3-dimensional bar chart labeling the buildings' floors, with the floors of impact in a darker gray. Another diagram showed a cross section of the South Tower stairwells. I was shocked to see that all three stairwells were bunched up in the middle of the building, rather than spread apart as common sense and safety would dictate. The book was full of such shockers, which showed that there could have been many more survivors had there not been design flaws, lax fire and building code, and logistical problems among the fire- and police departments. Among the things I was shocked to learn:

* The Empire State Building was built under the 1938 fire code which required five stairwells placed far apart, including a "fire tower" which functions as an air lock to keep out smoke, and building columns able to withstand fire for 4 hours. The WTC was built under the laxer 1968 code which required only three stairwells (would have needed six under the 1938 code), with no fire tower, and with building columns believed to provide 2 hours of fire protection. One can't rent out stairwell space to tenants, so in 1968, the quest for the almighty dollar won out over safety concerns.

* As I watched the South Tower collapse on TV, I thought that surely the emergency workers would radio to the personnel inside and tell them to get the bleep out of there! Wrong! The emergency command center had no video monitors, no radio communications with other agencies, no way to get reports from police helicopters, and only a limited ability to communicate among themselves, as the radios were working sporadically and the police department and fire department had radios on different frequencies and couldn't communicate with each. It appears the delay in their finding out was 8 minutes, valuable time that could have been spent evacuating the remaining tower. Once they found out, they issued immediate evacuation orders that appeared to only reach some of their personnel.

* When people in the office buildings called the Port Authority for advice on what to do, they were told to either evacuate or stay put depending on who they spoke to. Different people who called at the same time were given conflicting instructions. There was no coordinated emergency procedure.

*Various elevator safety mechanisms that would ordinarily keep people out of harm's way caused a lot of people to be stuck in elevators. Some were never rescued.

There were heroes that day, as well as people who used remarkable ingenuity to escape. Port Authority Construction Manager, Frank DeMartini grabbed a crowbar and along with Pablo Ortiz saved over 70 lives, but lost their own. There were various accounts of civilians, Port Authority personnel and fire fighters carrying disabled individuals who could not walk down the steps. And a group of people stuck in an express elevator which opened only to a wall, were able to slowly break through the dry wall to escape through a restroom.

This book is a fitting memorial to all who perished in the World Trade Center on September 11th. I hope many will read this book and learn from it.

After reading this tremendous book - a few things were very clear to me: true heros were not just the firefighters and the police, they were (to a large extent) just "average joes" working in the twin towers and secondly - the complete lack of clear, concise communication between the Fire Dept. and the Police Dept. played a huge part in getting or not getting people out of those buildings alive. One chapter mentions that up to 200 firefighters were "resting" on the 19th floor of one of the towers when two Port Authority Police officers ran by, having heard over their radios from both police and fire commanders to get out of the the building - that it was going to collapse. These remarks were passed to the firefighters on the 19th floor, all of whom choose to ignore the urgency in the statement. For the fire dept. not to have a radio system in place where their personnel could clearly hear their instructions to leave the towers - well - it made me feel sick. And from what I've heard since this tragic day - nothing has been resolved. There is still a huge rivalry between the two depts, there has been no efforts to get the fire dept. a better system of communication, a system that will allow commanders to be heard no matter where their firefighters are within a building - it is almost shameful that a great city like New York has a problem like this. I live in Calgary Canada, and all our rescue agencies (Fire / Police/ EMS)work together daily - making every effort to leave their "egos" at the door in order to save and sustain lives. New York needs to step up to the plate and get their collective butts in gear to rectify this situation or they may not be prepared if something like this should ever happen again.

102 minutes, an hour and a half and 12 minutes extra- that is what it took to shake the Twin Towers loose from their grounding on that fateful day of September 11, 2001. Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn have written an astounding account of these minutes. Built second by minute from personal, email, telephone and reported accounts, as they happened, in the time. Heroic proportions of a day that will forever remain in our memory.

New York Times reporters, Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn have reported the epic story of the time starting from 8:46 through the next 102 minutes until the last tower came tumbling down and the last person was found alive in the rubble that was left behind.

The stories of the 2,749 people who died in the twin towers are told from a personal perspective. The heroics of all - the English company who ordered all of their people to leave the building immediately to the stockbrokers who were told to stay at their desk. The untold energy of the numbers of people who helped each other down the stairs, out of elevators, injured, maimed and short of breath into the rubble of the earth below them. The Windows of the World restaurant, where business meetings were part of the daily routine- the restaurant workers, waiters and others who were having their last cup of coffee, never dreaming it would be their last cup of coffee, ever. The rescue of some people is so moving and the death of all of the others is so extreme and so hard to understand. Why were some saved and others lost?

The unbiased truth that has come out of this book is that the lack of sufficient and reliable communication, and the competitive nature of the NYPD and the Fire fighters may be one of the reasons why so many died. Since the first attack of the Twin Towers in 1993,no plan for another terrorist attack had really been planned. A lot of talk and a lot of money had been spent trying to devise a plan. But the NYPD and Fire Fighters were never able to sort out their differences. The then Mayor Giuliani raved on and on about the heroics of the NYPD and firemen who were killed trying to save the lives of those in the towers. However, facts have shown that these brave men never got the message to evacuate and were probably fighting their way further up the towers to their death.

The lessons learned from this tragedy are many. The ones we need to remember are that truth finally tells. Improving communication and building relationships among the two departments should be the first steps. 3 ½ years after 9/11 has anything changed?

This is a book for all of us. One of the last heroes is the lapsed paramedic who rose from his bed to find his way to the towers to try and do something. He and two marines were able to extricate two policemen who were buried in the rubble up to their necks. These are the memories. Extraordinary book- recommended for everyone. prisrob

I began reading "102 Minutes" last night and didn't put the book down until I finished it. This is an exceptional offering, told with terrific insight, perspective and candor. The book's epilogue is hard-hitting but balanced.

Although authors Dwyer and Flynn keep the book centered on the people who were in the towers on 9/11 they envelop the accounts of that morning with factual material necessary in completing their work. This includes a description of the planning and the building of the World Trade Center (and why and how it came to be put where it was), the physical layout of the site and the changes in the building codes which weakened, not strengthened the structure (not to mention the elevators and stairways). Dwyer and Flynn save most of their criticism for the fire and police departments with their historic bitter rivalry, culminating in a massive breakdown in communication that morning. For me, this was the biggest eye-opener in the book. Those thought to be heroes in the days and weeks that followed the collapse are reduced in large part, with exceptions, to being ineffective and almost insignificant bystanders in the tragedy. The authors note that the passage of time changes one's outlook on events and they have successfully made a case for gross mismanagement on the part of those two departments and the appalling conduct of city officials who dared not to be challenged when questioned in later hearings.

In a tribute to Dwyer and Flynn, they tell the individual stories with great care and compassion. We've all heard of last-minute calls and emails from those trapped in upper floors, but I was quite taken by the selfless individuals who looked out for one another that morning as they tried to figure out how to descend stairways and help those in worse shape than they, knowing that their own fate might soon be sealed, as so many were.

"102 Minutes" is the most important book written to date about 9/11. It is delivered with great force and assessment and should be read by all.