Contributed by: Marie'Anne Colavito Durst
Contributor's location on 9/11: Fort Myers, Florida
Contributed on: September 13, 2002

On September 11th I dropped my children off at their elementray school and stayed for a fund-raising meeting. As I was leaving the school one of the teachers said a plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers. I realized my brother had an office in the World Trade Center Marriott Hotel, and three of my cousins worked in the World Trade Center. I spent most of the day feeling useless in Florida calling back and forth to my mother and sisters and sister-in-law. My brother was in the Marriott at the time of the crash. He thought it was a small plane so as Director of Service he was organizing his staff and helping the injured people out of the hotel. He walked one injured woman out to an ambulence when he looked up and saw the gaping hole in the tower. As he was watching he saw the second plane crash into the south tower. He watched in horror as people jumped out of the windows, and ran in terror with the masses of people toward Battery Park as the massive cloud of ashe and debris chased after them. Fortunatly, my brother was pushed onto a Circle Line and eventually made it home to my parents house.
One of my cousins did not go into work that day, he was playing a bussiness round of golf. And another one of my cousins planned to go into work late, after taking his pre-schooler to his first day of school. Unfortunatly, my cousin Loretta Vero (a corporate travel consultant) was in her office at American Express on the 94th floor of the North Tower. She was never recovered.

Cite as: Marie'Anne Colavito Durst, Story #6977, The September 11 Digital Archive, 13 September 2002, <http://911digitalarchive.org/stories/details/6977>.
Archival Information: 290 words, 1507 characters
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