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By 9:35, the West Street lobby level of the South Tower was becoming over-
whelmed by injured people who had descended to the lobby but were having
difficulty going on.Those who could continue were directed to exit north or
east through the concourse and then out of the WTC complex.
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By 9:59, at least one person had descended from as high as the 91st floor of
that tower, and stairwell A was reported to have been almost empty. Stairwell
B was also reported to have contained only a handful of descending civilians
at an earlier point in the morning. But just before the tower collapsed, a team
of NYPD ESU officers encountered a stream of civilians descending an
unidentified stairwell in the 20s.These civilians may have been descending from
at or above the impact zone.
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North Tower.
In the North Tower, civilians continued their evacuation. On
the 91st floor, the highest floor with stairway access, all civilians but one were
uninjured and able to descend.While some complained of smoke, heat, fumes,
and crowding in the stairwells, conditions were otherwise fairly normal on
floors below the impact.At least one stairwell was reported to have been "clear
and bright" from the upper 80s down.
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Those who called 911 from floors below the impact were generally advised
to remain in place. One group trapped on the 83rd floor pleaded repeatedly to
know whether the fire was above or below them, specifically asking if 911 oper-
ators had any information from the outside or from the news.The callers were
transferred back and forth several times and advised to stay put. Evidence sug-
gests that these callers died.
96
At 8:59, the Port Authority police desk at Newark Airport told a third party
that a group of Port Authority civilian employees on the 64th floor should
evacuate. (The third party was not at the WTC, but had been in phone con-
tact with the group on the 64th floor.) At 9:10, in response to an inquiry from
the employees themselves, the Port Authority police desk in Jersey City con-
firmed that employees on the 64th floor should "be careful, stay near the stair-
wells, and wait for the police to come up." When the third party inquired again
at 9:31, the police desk at Newark Airport advised that they "absolutely" evac-
uate.The third party informed the police desk that the employees had previ-
ously received contrary advice from the FDNY, which could only have come
via 911. These workers were not trapped, yet unlike most occupants on the
upper floors, they had chosen not to descend immediately after impact.They
eventually began to descend the stairs, but most of them died in the collapse
of the North Tower.
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All civilians who reached the lobby were directed by NYPD and PAPD offi-
cers into the concourse, where other police officers guided them to exit the
concourse and complex to the north and east so that they might avoid falling
debris and victims.
98
By 9:55, only a few civilians were descending above the 25th floor in stair-
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