CommunityPeopleNews
Special People in Don Budge's
Home community,
Pike County, PA
Habitat for Humanity Volunteers
Pike County Habitat for Humanity annually honors volunteers.
This event, the Fifth Annual, honored Reverend Niels Nielsen
of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. It was held at a Harvest
Luncheon Dance held at The Waterfront at Ehrhardt's
Restaurant. From the left were Habitat for Humanity Pike
County President Jack Dennis, Co-Volunteer of the Year
Mike Donlon, Event Chairperson Alison Cosham, Co-Volunteer
of the Year Richard Heck, Sr., and Nielsen,
pastor of Holy
Trinity Church in Dingmans Ferry. For years, Cosham
contributed her volunteer services full time for various
local not-for-profit organizations. For Habitat, she wrote,
printed, assembled, published this organization's annual
publication. She also did all teh cold calling and secured all the
ads for this work. She also did simlar tasks for several other
organizations. She set the bar high for other volunteers. But,
Donlon also works full time each week as a volunteer for
Habitat and other organizations. This Habitat organization
builds one home a year. By 2011, they completed 17. Nielsen
started and runs a food pantry and social-services outreach
that serves those living in eastern Pike. Dennis also devotes
a huge amount of time with Wayne Memorial Hospital.
World Trade Center
(WTC) Interviews by Ken
Baumel
The Engineers' Point of View
Two Pike residents had the opportunity to lend their engineering expertise on
the World Trade Center buildings and shared their observations on the events
that occurred on September 11. One engineer chose to remain anonymous because he did not want to be inundated with calls.
But, Engineer Bill Borland shared his
views. He lived in Pike until
the middle 1990s before he passed on. Prior to settling in Pike, he worked for the Port Authority
(New York City and New Jersey) as a materials engineer on
the WTC project during the planning and construction of the Twin Tower tower
projects. (The buildings were owned and operated by New York and New Jersey Port
Authority.)
Borland said that the tower design was
progressive and creative, built around a central core that held the building up.
The elevator shafts were built within the core area that he estimated to be more
than 150-feet wide. The core was srrounded by long with thick steel beams going straight up from the
foundation.
The buildings, completed in 1973, were
each over 1350 feet high. American architect Minoru Yamasaki, who was selected
over a dozen other architects, designed the two 110-story towers. The World
Trade Center project was part of a complex of seven buildings.
The towers were a state-of-the art
engineering marvel. The complex included a commercial shopping concourse and business
center. The concourse courtyard was modeled on St. Mark's Square in Venice,
Italy. At the time
of completion, the towers were the tallest buildings in the world.
One of the two towers had been the target
of a previous terrorist attempt to bring down the tower. A massive bomb was
planted in the garage of one of the towers in 1993. The bomb was placed to
destabilize and destroy the building, according to experts.
The Pike engineers agreed that jet fuel
was the undoing of the North Tower, the first of the two towers to be hit. Jet fuel burns between
1300 and 2200 degrees. Steel starts to deform and melt at 1100 degrees. It took
over an hour for the steel of the central core of the North Tower to weaken
enogh to cause the building to collapse. The jet airliner entered the building
and went in just to the side of the core.
Once the structural supporting central
column was weakened by high heat in the area of the jet entry, the floors above
that area collapsed. As the weight of the first section collapsed onto the floor
below, the additional weight cause that floor to collapse. Then, in a domino
effect, the weight and impact of one floor after another dropping down around
the central core destabilized the floor it fell on, causing the floors below to
collapse one at a time in quick succession. This process continued until all the
floors collapsed.
"The building was supported by the
outer wall and the central core. With the core gone, there was no support for
the outer wall. The weight of the upper floors fell on the remaining section of
the core, which caved in," said Borland.
Since all the floors collapsed around the
central core, unlike trees that fall, the building fell straight down, instead
of falling on its side. It took four years to build the seven buildings, but
fires, within a day, caused all seven World Trade Center buildings, including
the two towers, to be destroyed.
The jet hit the central core of the South
Tower right away. The heat from the fire took out the central core faster than
the North Tower.
The rigid hollow-tube concept, with a
central-supporting core design, helped make the building very stable. This gave
time for many to escape. But, the towers were also designed with aesthetic and commercial
benefits. The central core allowed a clear space from the core to the outer
wall, which lent itself to better and more open-space office environment. The views
showed terrain 45 miles away from the upper floors. The space design allowed
many variations of office design.
The central core and unusual elevator
design that used local and express service allowed 25 percent more commercial
space to be available than a conventional building design. Further space savings
came from drywall (sheetrock) affixed directly to the steel core rather than on
studs.
The building architect was quoted in a
book on significant architects, Paul Heyer's "Architects on Architecture:
New Directions in America," as saying, "The WTC should,
because of its importance, become a living representation of man's belief in
humanity, his need for individual dignity, his belief in the cooperation of men,
and through this cooperation his ability to find greatness."
Ironically, the grace and beauty of the
buildings and its massive scale quickly made them symbols of the dynamic
cultural and economic energy of the downtown business district in Manhattan.
This symbolized the financial and economic leadership of the nation in the world
arena. This visbile symbol was therefore targeted by terrorists who declared war
on the United States. The terrorists also considered the Pentagon as a symbol of
the military power of the nation, according to experts.
The Pike engineers indicated that the
construction of the building gave enough time for many to escape. Jerus said
that after the bombing attempt in 1993, the Port Authority improved safety
standards, such as installing sprinklers, complying with city code (which is
tougher than state codes), some asbestos removed and others encapsulated.
Even with these upgraded standards,
asbestos may have been released and toxins from the jet fuel burning plastic and
other materials released a tremendous amount of toxins in the air. Fortunately,
the wind blew south, away from Manhattan and New Jersey during the morning of
the tower collapses, but the next day the wind shifted north.
Air samples have been taken and it rained
the next day, which dissipated what could have been a toxic disaster.
Only dance halls, stadiums, and rocket
bunkers are generally designed to withstand a measure of impact loads, according
to Jerus. The towers were designed to withstand hurricane force winds, and
smaller impacts, such as a small recreational plane colliding into the building,
but not the major force of a jet fuel-laden aircraft.
Jerus said that one of the
recommendations of the mayor's committee was to improve the stairwell
pressurization, which helped keep smoke out of the stairwells.
Borland said that one lesson of this
tragedy in our world today should be that no further massive building projects
of this magnitude be undertaken because it was too risky to house so many people
in one place.
Survivor's Point of View - Escape from Terror
Despite the devastation in the lives of
World Trade
Center victims and the impact on the nation and the world, the tragedy was
tempered by the extraordinary number of people who escaped the devastation
because the buildings did not collapse right away. Among the survivors were a
blind man and his seeing eye dog, but Stanley Praimnath's story was especially
unusual because one of the jets came through his office. Praimnath worked as an
officer for Fuji Bank in the WTC South Tower. The following is an interview with
Praimnath a few days after September 11, 2001.
Stanley Praimnath recalled that leaving his home on the morning of September 11,
2001 that he had an uncomfortable feeling and felt like he should pray while
getting ready to go to work and on the way to work from his home in Long Island.
Other than that feeling, the day seemed like any other. He had just arrived at
work and began his normal work routine.
Praimnath worked as a Fuji Bank Loans Division vice president on the 81st
floor of the World Trade Center South Tower. He looked out his window and saw
flames shooting out of the World Trade Center North, the building next door to
his
South
Tower building.
When he tried to immediately leave the building, security guards told him and
his fellow staff members to go back upstairs since the South Tower was secure.
Praimnath went back upstairs to his office. When he looked out the window he
saw a jet airliner coming right at him. "I looked up and it was like eyeball to
eyeball with the plane. It was coming right at me.
"I took out my Bible and put it on the top of his desk. I crawled under the
desk just as the plane came through the window. I cried out to Jesus Christ even
as the plane came right through my department. I was still alive. I was crying.
‘I said Lord protect me, please. Send someone to protect me and help me.’
"I saw that the plane had crashed through at an angle on our floor," said
Praimnath.
"The wing or a piece of it was hanging out of my office door 20 feet away. It
was starting to burn. I started crawling over a piece of the wing to get away. I
couldn’t see the rest of the plane. .
"I was crawling over the rubble, but it was hard to see where I was going
because the rubble was so high and it was dark. The rubble was at least
four-foot high and in some cases shoulder high. I am five-foot 10 inches tall.
It was dark. I was screaming for help. I was praying., ‘Lord please help me.
Send someone to help save me.’ Suddenly, a light shown in the distance and I
crawled over and through the rubble to reach the light.
"I continued crying for help. Suddenly, someone answered. The person dangled
a flashlight over a hole in the wall separating us. He said his name was Brian
Clark, a senior executive who worked on the 86th floor of another
company and had worked his way down to the 81st floor with half dozen
of his employees.
The debris was so high that the employees decided to go back upstairs,
according to Praimnath.
Clark stayed behind to help Praimnath, who was continuing to scream and cry
for help. Clark told Praimnath that if had not been for the screams,
Clark would have gone back with the
others.
Said Praimnath, "I reached over the part of the wall that was open and
Clark
grabbed my hand. He pulled me through. I pushed the wall as well. I felt some
supernatural strength come over me. Part of the wall collapsed and we fell onto
each other. We prayed together, calling on Jesus’ name. We were near the stairs.
There was no door blocking the way. We made our way down.
"Along the way, on a lower floor, we saw man who had injured his back and was
on the floor. We offered to take him down with us, but a security guard said no,
they were waiting for help and that the man might be further injured if he tried
to move him. We saw firemen going up the stairs.
"Amazingly, there was no smoke in the stairs. Clark and I talked about God,
about Jesus, and we just wanted to go to a church and pray. We made our way out
of the building and walked to the nearest church. It was Trinity. We got as far
as Trinity on Broadway and I reached over to hold onto the fence. I was bruised
and gashed.
Clark
was not hurt. As I reached over to hold onto the iron fence at Trinity Church, I
looked over to the towers and just as I looked, one of the towers collapsed.
"We stayed for a while at Trinity and then went uptown. I called my wife. At
first she did not know who I was. She did not believe that it was me who was
calling. She actually thought it was someone else. She thought I had died and
that it was impossible to have survived and that someone else had called. She
thought someone was playing a terrible practical joke. "Please don’t do this to
me," said his wife.
"I know God had answered my prayers. I grew up as a Catholic, but my wife’s
family were in the ministry and I started to attend a full-gospel church years
ago. I can’t explain it, but I had a power in my body that I had never felt
before in my life right after the plane crashed. It seemed like I just touched a
wall and it collapsed. I don’t know where it came from, but that strength must
have been God’s power that helped me to survive.
"Even though I thought Clark saved me, he said I saved him because if I had
not asked him to stay, he would have perished with the others in his department.
God savedus both."
----------------
Saved by the Grace of
God t The Potters Share Their Testimony t
This year is the 10th anniversary of 9/11. It took Dan and Jean Potter of Hemlock Farms 10 years before they
agreed a book was needed about how they survived 9/11.
Jean, in summer 2011, published a hardcover and paperback book about their experiences. The book is entitled “By the Grace of God, a 9/11 Survivor’s Story of Love, Hope, and Healing.”
Jean announced that she is dedicating a portion of the proceeds of the book to Wounded Warriors Project
(an organization dedicated to help wouned veterans) and Feal Good (an
organization dedicated to helping NYC Fire Dept. 9/11 survivors who have health
issues related to their service at WTC during 9/11).
Dan was a New York City Fire Dept. firefighter who was assigned to work at a site between the two World Trade Center (WTC) towers
druing 9/11. He is now retired.
Jean was an executive secretary who was on the 81st floor of North Tower when the plane hit. After both towers collapsed, Dan thought his wife had perished.
The couple lived in an apartment at Battery Park Terrace, a couple of blocks away from the tower. So, Dan went back to his apartment. A photo of him, sitting on a bench in front of the building with him covered in dust and ashes, holding his head in an attitude of grief, was run world wide by major news sources.
Immediately after 9/11, that photo prompted numerous media interviews, but the Potters were not ready to write a book or tell their full story, noted Jean.
Jean said, ““We were going through post-traumatic stress. And, we didn’t want to offend people who still were looking for their loved ones.
“But, two years ago, I started a journal. That became the book. It was slow at first. Each day, I did one sentence. But, then it started to flow out. It was a cathartic experience.
“My editor and co-author Rob Kaplan said that as he was reading the draft, he would start to cry. He said, ‘I can’t put it down.’
“So much of what we went through had to do with our faith in God, in Jesus Christ. We knew the hand of God was on our lives.
“The book is faith based. Each chapter heading is a quote from the Holy Bible. But, I believe even non believers would understand what we went through.
“We have been asked by the National September 11 Memorial Museum to put this book in their collection.”
Explaining how she thought God had worked in their lives, Jean said, “A few years before the towers fell, I had a vision of the towers exploding.
“Miraculously, a few days before 9/11, on Good Friday 2001, Dan began to think
about getting a transfer. Only four days before 9/11, he was transferred from Ladder 5 to another unit. Everyone in Ladder 5 was killed during 9/11.
“My stepson (Dan’s son) was a New York City Police officer. He worked in security at the WTC. Just before 9/11, he got another job working for the Banana Republic (chain). So he wasn’t there that day.
“There were just too many coincidences. We just know now that we were very blessed by the hand of Jesus.
“Before Dan was transferred, his captain asked him to do a detail at WTC. Early morning on 9/11, Dan was in Staten Island. He was studying for a (Fire Dept.) test. He arrived at WTC minutes before South Tower fell.
Walking around body parts, Dan went to the firehouse to get his uniform and a tool he needed to enter a building. He brought into the firehouse a victim who was alive, but had been hit by a plane part.
“Just then, South Tower fell and damaged the firehouse. But, Dan survived. North Tower then fell. Dan was assigned to go into the area between the two towers.” That area was later termed the Black Zone. Not many people who were in that zone survived, noted Dan.
Meanwhile, when the plane hit North Tower, Jean felt the building sway. She started to go back to her office to get her pocketbook. She said, “Someone stopped me, grabbed my hand. I started to pray.
“We went to the staircase and got to the 44th floor, but there was a bottleneck. We could see the South Tower hit and flames rising up.
“We went to another staircase. There we saw firemen coming up stairs. One was Vinnie. I knew he was from Ladder 5. He was killed. He left a wife and four kids.
“Water was pouring from the ceiling. We were ankle deep in water and there was broken glass everywhere. People were bleeding from walking on the glass. I could hear bodies dropping on the floor around me.
“We got out through to the Concourse and left the building. At the time, I did not know it was a terrorist attack. I had no sense of time. It was so surreal.
“I went into a subway station. The South tower then fell. The station started filling with grey debris. Someone yelled, ‘Get out of the station.’ So I went back out into the street.
“I walked to our home. I wanted to call the firehouse to let my husband know I was alive. The phone wasn’t working. Everything was covered with dust.
“I walked all the way to Chinatown looking for a phone. There, a Chinese gentleman, Jaime Gong, brought me a chair, a bottle of water, and a phone. I called the firehouse in Chinatown. I called my mother who lived in Hemlock Farms. She contacted Dan’s parents.
“Meanwhile, after the North Tower collapsed, Dan went home. But, he had no key, so he had to break the lock. He found he couldn’t make outgoing calls. But, the phone then rang. My father in law called to let Dan know that I was alive. Dan and I then met at the Chinatown firehouse.
“We are very grateful for our blessings, but we are still heartbroken for the many people who were lost. By the grace of God, we survived, but nothing was the same afterwards.”
Jean said that her career came to a halt and she was unable to find meaningful work. She said, “I struggled about what I was supposed to do with my life. It felt like life was over.
“Then, on Good Friday 2009, someone suggested I write a book. It all started to make sense. I must share what Jesus did for us and continues to do for us. I must get his message out.”
Jean meanwhile started working at Pike County Correctional Facility as a volunteer counselor helping inmates. There she shares her testimony about 9/11.
Jean said, “I tell them Jesus gave us another chance in life. I tell them that they should consider their jail time as an opportunity to take stock in their lives.
“Most recognize that jail is giving them a chance to build a new future and get back on track. With this book and my new work, I know my life is not over. It’s just the beginning.”
Dan is volunteering with Pike County and the fire departments to share his expertise and raise the level of volunteer firefighter training.
For information about the book, contact www.authorhouse.com or call (888) 280-7715.
WTC: View from Ground Zero
Photo courtesy of Don Wall
From the left, at the World Trade Center, during
rescue efforts in the days following 9/11, were, from
the left,
former Shohola Fire Department High-angle Rescue
Chief Mike Donovan, New York City Emergency Medical
Technician Jerome Jewett (Harlem Station 16), and
former Shohola Fire Department Chief Don Wall. Wall
said that he
volunteered to help in the rescue effort
beginning Wednesday, September 12. Working several
stories up on sections of steel beams made slippery by
ash and dust, Wall said that conditions were difficult:
the air heavy with the smell of smoke and death. Wall
fell asleep on the sidewalk the first night, but someone
came over and put a blanket over him. The next day,
chiropractors helped massage rescue workers' backs so
that they could work long hours through the week.
Photo contributed by Wall.
All content ©2001-2011 Ken Baumel. All Rights Reserved.
Couresy of Pike County Dispatch, Milford, Pa.
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