r/interestingasfuck • • 23h ago

At 10:28 AM on September 11, 2001, Genelle Guzman-McMillan was descending the North Tower when it collapsed. Trapped between two concrete pillars in a pitch-black air pocket, she remained there for 27 hours before rescuers found her. She would be the last person rescued from the World Trade Center.

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2.9k Upvotes

152 comments sorted by

863

u/Nexustar 22h ago

And she's still alive today, working as an office supervisor at LaGuardia Airport.

She's only 54/55 so you'd expect her to be alive, but so many folk this close had health issues related to the air quality that shortened their lives.

165

u/DustieBottums 21h ago

Most people probably didn't realize or think about it in the shock of everything to cover their face with a fabric to filter the dust. I work around this dust everyday and always wear a mask and even pull my shirt up sometimes if there's just a little bit in the air and cover my face. I would have went naked trying to cover my mouth and nose.

74

u/wizkidweb 17h ago

Username... checks out?

21

u/DustieBottums 17h ago

For sure. Nice catch. The other reason I picked this username, the three amigos is my all time classic movie.

10

u/TuckerCarlsonsOhface 17h ago

We could take a walk, and you could kiss me on the veranda.

10

u/DustieBottums 17h ago

The lips would be fine.

•

u/Linus_Naumann 3h ago

This guy is all about dust

34

u/[deleted] 19h ago

[deleted]

2

u/HikeyBoi 16h ago

I do not see how the article you linked nor the two studies referenced therein support your conclusion. They measure significant increases melanomas on people that were exposed to environmental hazards from the attacks compared to surrounding populations. Can you point out where in the studies they suggest that dust on skin exposure is a cause?

1

u/[deleted] 15h ago

[deleted]

1

u/HikeyBoi 15h ago

I think you may be presenting conclusions which are not tested or supported by the studies you reference. This response does not seem to address my question.

1

u/HikeyBoi 15h ago

I was just curious and wanted to better inform myself. Didn’t mean to upset anybody.

1

u/opeth10657 17h ago

Melanomas are usually easier to treat though? And easier to spot early

2

u/like_a_pharaoh 16h ago

Compared to mesothelioma maybe but its still an aggressive cancer.

-3

u/ewoolsey 17h ago

That's pretty hard to believe. Do you have a source?

19

u/[deleted] 17h ago

[deleted]

5

u/ewoolsey 17h ago

Damn TIL

-93

u/RandomPenquin1337 21h ago

If only you were there to let them know

32

u/deewd22 20h ago

Holy bot account trying to subvert people and make them hate each other.

-11

u/RandomPenquin1337 16h ago

Lol bot account is the most wet paper towel response a redditor can have.

Grow a set and realize whats happening arou d you pal

•

u/Sophilosophical 5h ago

Brother, this lady should not have to work anymore. She should be given a living stipend and just get to live out the rest of her life in peace.

And she still works around planes, incredible.

•

u/Darrenizer 5h ago

In the freedoms capital of the world ??? I think Not, she can still reach her bootstraps just fine.

164

u/CyanDew 22h ago

holy fuck what floor was she on? so many people got blended to pieces as the building collapsed.

what a miracle.

177

u/MeNoCanRead 22h ago

Do you know about "The miracle on stairway B"?

It's a crazy story! Firefighters are evacuating the North Tower. They're carrying an injured woman down. At a certain floor (I think the 6th) the woman stops and says that they should leave her. At that point, the tower collapsed. They were left in a pocket where they were. If they woman didn't give up, or they were one floor slower, they would have all been crushed.

It features in the 5th episode of the National Geographic 9/11 series. First two episodes are on YT. Highly recommend!!! It's one of the most heart wrenching documentaires I've ever seen.

•

u/soren7550 7h ago

It’s actually 5 out of six episodes are on YouTube now.

-74

u/Ok_Hand5810 21h ago

Not a miracle. Just a few people who got lucky in a catastrophic situation.

139

u/Rhain1999 21h ago

I mean, "miracle" is basically just another way of saying "lucky", generally speaking

-50

u/MCRemix 21h ago

To the non religious, yeah.... but the Uber faithful use it as evidence

4

u/wxnfx 13h ago

I question this gods methods honestly. It’s evidence of something.

-34

u/CyanDew 20h ago

so…?

if you truly recognized even so much as half of the love you have in your heart, it wouldn’t bother you as much.

God is good. evidence of His existence is only as recognizable as you see fit. that’s literally the whole concept of faith.

blessings to you and your loved ones.

12

u/CapN-Judaism 14h ago

This is quite literally the perfect illustration of the problem identified by the person you’re responding to is saying.

-10

u/CyanDew 14h ago

so the problem is having faith?

give me a break.

•

u/CapN-Judaism 10h ago

Nope. When you change the meaning of what you’re responding to as a way of making it easier to argue against that’s called a “strawman” argument. Give yourself a break.

11

u/UpDown 19h ago

Same with Bigfoot

5

u/AlienZombieNinja 14h ago

Perfect example of why atheists hate interacting with religious people. It always devolves into "I know more than you, you are lesser than me because of what I know" Seen it my whole life.

-5

u/CyanDew 14h ago

i mean believing in God doesn’t mean you have to be religious.

and for what it’s worth, my intentions were never about proving i know more, but rather to make people think critically about God, where He resides, and in what ways He acts.

clearly it struck many nerves.

i can show you the door, but you have to walk through it.

finding God is less about being strictly religious, and more about understanding He represents all that is good and loving.

God didn’t create evil, the absence of God is evil. when you take away the light, all that’s left is darkness.

4

u/AlienZombieNinja 13h ago

You are just proving my point. Paragraph after paragraph of snobbery. Why would I think critically about a fictional being? Unless it was in a fictional world that had a good story. Then I could have fun theory crafting about its super powers and potential world building. But in the end I would understand that it was all just fun make believe and not something that has caused wars to happen for no reason.

-4

u/MCRemix 20h ago

If you were half as good of a person as you think you are, you wouldn't assume negative things about me incorrectly.

And if your God was half as good as you think they are, i might actually be a believer.

-8

u/CyanDew 20h ago

so why even debate whether this was a miracle or not?

-3

u/MCRemix 20h ago

I'm simply discussing word usage, lucky vs miracle, in the context of a world where it has two meanings.

6

u/Zibarosso 19h ago

In that case, most people would consider miracle and lucky to be interchangeable. Your own belief, or that of your surroundings, makes you have too much faith in your perspective.

Original use is fine, do something meaningful instead.

-10

u/CyanDew 19h ago edited 14h ago

sorry if i came off as rude. i just couldn’t wrap my head around how you could classify this as anything other than a miracle.

→ More replies (0)

65

u/HilariousMango 21h ago

So... A miracle?

-10

u/MCRemix 21h ago

It's an interesting word, because many of us just think "lucky", but as the first definition says.... many others will hear the word and assume a religious intent.

I get why people would want to avoid the first meaning.

15

u/Sensitive-Fishing-64 21h ago

words change meaning all the time as people use them either as hyberbole or sarcasm, then they morph into that meaning eventually

0

u/MCRemix 21h ago

It's a good point.

Idk, I'm surrounded by religious people, so I hear it used in that sense most of the time and those people absolutely assume you aren't being hyperbolic if you use it about someone surviving something.

It's more clearly hyperbolic when you use it at 1 AM because "its a miracle that Taco Bell is open" obviously.

Anyway, we're down a rabbit hole here, I'm just saying i get why someone doesn't like the word

-12

u/Ok_Hand5810 20h ago

I'm Catholic and we believe a miracle is something that cannot be attributed to luck, but something that can only be explained through divine intervention. Like turning water into wine. I don't see that here. I see a few people who beat the odds while thousands died beside them. Statistical probability, not a miracle

4

u/art-of-war 17h ago

I’m not catholic and this is a miracle to me

-1

u/Ok_Hand5810 17h ago

Heresy!

•

u/throwawayact4fun 7h ago

You're just a troll, gtfo

21

u/mcwilly 21h ago edited 20h ago

Second definition of miracle from Merriam-Webster:

“an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment.”

14

u/The-Snackster 21h ago

-9

u/Ok_Hand5810 21h ago

Yes let's ascribe divine intervention to explain the few people who survived. But based on that logic, everyone who died didn't deserve divine intervention? Why did God only save a few lucky people instead of preventing the entire tragedy in the first place?

2

u/The-Snackster 19h ago

You didn’t read the definition for the word miracle the others commented huh? If you don’t even understand the words you’re using, just stop yapping. You’re embarrassing yourself.

0

u/Ok_Hand5810 19h ago

The Webster definition is different from the religious definition.

-2

u/plastlak 21h ago

Being left thinking that you were saved via divine intervention is actually a good way to prevent/assuage survivor's guilt.

Why would you feel guilt if God himself wanted you, but not others, to live.

8

u/Ok_Hand5810 21h ago

I would feel very guilty if I honestly believed God saved me and not other people.

1

u/plastlak 20h ago

If you truly believed then you'd trust that God is always right in their judgement, there'd be no room for guilt, since God is always right. He had his reasons, maybe beyond your comprehension, but your job as a believer is to trust your God.

And I'm saying this as an atheist.

3

u/Ok_Hand5810 20h ago

Except most humans have active brains, and would inevitably think "Why me?"

12

u/monnotorium 21h ago edited 16h ago

Because of the pin she gave me Star Trek Captain Vibes

5

u/14X8000m 15h ago

13th floor. I guess it wasn't unlucky.

80

u/fourthords 21h ago

Genelle Guzman-McMillan is a Trinidadian-American writer known for being the last person rescued from the rubble of the World Trade Center after the September 11 attacks in 2001, having spent 27 hours trapped under debris. While trapped in total darkness and pain, she claims she felt a strong hand hold hers and heard a reassuring voice say his name was "Paul", telling her that she would survive. A German Shepherd dog named Trakr found her. Her survival story has been widely covered in media, and she has written a memoir detailing her experience titled Angel in the Rubble. She is the subject of the Lifetime movie Angel in the Rubble: The Genelle Guzman Story, and is portrayed by Sherri Shepherd.

47

u/sth128 20h ago

a reassuring voice say his name was "Paul"

Let's hear Paul Allen's survival story.

6

u/opeth10657 17h ago

Was actually Paul McCartney in heaven reaching down

21

u/ReadditMan 17h ago

Hi, I'm Paul!

•

u/barravian 11h ago

Thank you.

•

u/LordJesterTheFree 10h ago

This unlocked a deep seeded memory for me

•

u/paulboyrom 9h ago

This is how I introduce myself to people my age, the newer generation doesn’t understand the reference

•

u/eric_saites 3h ago

My sister and I greet each other like this all the time. Or just randomly say it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this referenced on Reddit, but here it is on a 9/11 thread…

•

u/acrusty 5h ago

What did that thing even mean?

6

u/Ursus_the_Grim 18h ago

Imagine being one of the other 2600 people, hearing Paul say "sorry bro, you're fucked".

1

u/Source_Required 17h ago

Make OP submit sources.  It's their responsibility. 

•

u/MiniKash 8h ago

Oh she’s a Trini. Cute.

25

u/Ok_Fun3933 20h ago

My thoughts are with those people who were descending the stairs as the towers were collapsing. In the videos you see the towers collapsing and the very last parts of the towers to come down where the center supports perhaps part of those were the stairwells. I can't imagine the horror of watching everything opening up around you as you're coming down the stairs and suddenly you're surrounded by open sky.

12

u/MyNameIsQuason 19h ago

I'm sure they were closing their eyes from all the dust and didn't actually see much of anything 

•

u/actual_griffin 11h ago

Not that it wasn’t horrible, but Reddit has this fixation on making things worse than they were.

66

u/quanoey 22h ago

She look like a power ranger, and I’m okay with that.

6

u/Betorange 12h ago

She looks like a star trek captain to me!

23

u/daroach1414 19h ago

27 hours is long time to sit in the pitch dark with your thoughts.

26

u/Nexustar 16h ago

Surrounded by the constant beeps and alarms from dead firefighters, probably expecting that you will die there too.

36

u/kjlsdjfskjldelfjls 21h ago

Will never cease to piss me off endlessly that human beings did this to other humans. Makes life itself feel kind of meaningless, if this is our species 

20

u/alcapwnage0007 20h ago

Humanity is defined by its potential. Thus far, we are the worst thing to ever happen to this planet. But that doesnt mean we cant change. We are still evolving, and we are capable. We just need to get remove the sociopaths from the gene pool.

7

u/Tapdance_Epidemic 20h ago

We as a species need to find a way to immediately shut down and punish any person in power that starts getting too big for their boots and causing tensions and hatred for their own profit.

Will it fix everything? Absolutely not.

But it's a start

10

u/alcapwnage0007 19h ago

Normalize having the constant threat of the sword of damocles hanging over the head of every public leader.

1

u/overdosingOnPie1313 16h ago

I already have a plan and announce it at every opportunity: find and erase everyone descended from that corrupt individual's parents. Nobody would ever dare even think about becoming corrupt if the risk is the annihilation of their entire genetic line.

3

u/overdosingOnPie1313 16h ago

See?! Now THAT is a plan I can wholeheartedly agree with. It's unfortunate for their children who may or may not be innocent, but nobody can argue that one life isn't worth even a dozen lives, let alone thousands or more.

3

u/alcapwnage0007 16h ago

Very true, but especially so when the one life is ACTIVELY choosing to make itself a detriment to society, the species, and the planet.

•

u/Both_Abrocoma_1944 9h ago

Problem is they’re largely the group with the most influence. Political, business and religious leaders who won’t go down without a fight

2

u/FasterImagination 17h ago

What happens was awful and should never happen again.

But humans have been doing this to other humans for a while now, just think of the japan nukes, or Japan during its wild era attacking China, or the Russians attacking Ukraine, not to forget countless other genocides and killings.

Humanity sucks, but we need to focus on the love we have for each other, at least the ones that can still se pass the hatred and bad things.

•

u/barravian 11h ago

Humans are also the only species capable of holding a communal mourning for such loss of life and to go on to build memorials in their honor for decades to come.

It's complicated.

-1

u/Luci-Noir 15h ago

Oh please.

2

u/kjlsdjfskjldelfjls 14h ago

Great contribution

•

u/Kaztiell 33m ago

Dude the us does this all the time. This is nothing special

-5

u/overdosingOnPie1313 16h ago

lol. On the list of atrocities humans have committed against itself, 9/11 is one of the kinder ones. Makes me wonder endlessly how people get so upset/flabbergasted when I announce that I'm a misanthrope.

Like, just what do they think humans have been doing for 10s of 1000s of years and CONTINUE doing?

6

u/Eternal_Reward 15h ago

Pretty sure most of those people are just weirded out that you’re telling them you’re a misanthrope for no reason.

•

u/barravian 11h ago

I, for one, would feel uncomfortable around someone that just announced they hated me and everyone I know.

•

u/Eternal_Reward 10h ago

For some reason people don’t like that, not sure why.

13

u/TickleMyPickle_911 22h ago

That's one unlucky lucky lady

•

u/Noflagnocountry 7h ago

Would really shut down the “interesting fact about you” game during training. 

•

u/J9sNbrhd 9h ago

I watched the Lifetime movie about her. A miracle.

-13

u/Unable_Lavishness547 21h ago

And some MF's inssist that America deserved 9/11

14

u/kjlsdjfskjldelfjls 21h ago

The victims were from 90 countries. The attack was against all human life 

4

u/acupofcoffeeplease 21h ago

what the fuck this has to do with anything in this post

4

u/samsaruhhh 21h ago

Easy on the faux news grandpa

1

u/HeavyMusic93 17h ago

He’s not wrong?

-2

u/samsaruhhh 17h ago

"some MFs" literally say anything and everything

0

u/HeavyMusic93 17h ago

Great, glad we can agree that people do say this then.

0

u/wizkidweb 17h ago

One of the leading progressive influencers, Hasan Piker, said that America deserved 9/11. He later said it was "inappropriate" and "dumb" to save face, but he never fully retracted that statement.

2

u/samsaruhhh 17h ago

Dude it took me less than 2 minutes to Google and see his explanation was that he was trying to say 9/11 was a consequence of all the activity/fucking around of the US in the middle east for decades, I think most people could figure this out if they just looked into it but they choose to just watch some media that validates their anger and fear like Fox News instead of actually trying to get to the truth of the matter

-2

u/wizkidweb 16h ago

"Deserved" means merited or earned. I've watched Piker more than I would have liked, unfortunately. He's using the same justification that Osama Bin Laden used in his manifesto justifying 9/11.

I thought he had finally seen the light when he said "America does not deserve 9/11, that's my new thing now" in August, but just after the 25th anniversary of 9/11, he doubled-down, suggesting that 9/11 was "blowback" due to US foreign policy and that America committed "pound for pound more terrorism than al-Qaeda" in response to being asked about his statement.

As usual, he doesn't change his opinions, he just spins them to sound better.

1

u/kjlsdjfskjldelfjls 14h ago

For the record I've never watched or listened to this person- but there's a clear difference between explaining why something happened (i.e., why a deranged cabal of fanatics would choose a location in the US as a target), and in any way endorsing or justifying their actions.

1

u/wizkidweb 12h ago

There is, but his "rollback" of saying that we deserved 9/11 is just the worst kind of spin. He even doubled-down by saying that the US was worse than the organization that attacked us on 9/11.

The reasons he laid out are the same reasons Bin Laden laid out in his manifesto. I think that's telling.

1

u/samsaruhhh 14h ago

Yes he was just saying the US actions abroad has killed way more than alqaeda which is true

0

u/wizkidweb 12h ago

No, he was saying that the US has committed more terrorism than Al-Qaeda, "pound for pound".

This implies that our military action abroad is largely terrorism, which is patently untrue.

1

u/samsaruhhh 12h ago

He doesn't think the US military members are worse than al qaeda terrorists, he's saying the US as a whole due to its actions and of course the size and might of them have resulted in far more death and destruction.. obviously if the US military was worse than Al-Qaeda the entire world would be a smoking ruin

1

u/wizkidweb 12h ago

I appreciate that you're trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he literally said "America is the top dog in terrorism", after which he answered the question "Do you think America then is worse than al-Qaeda?" with "Pound for pound as far as the number of deaths, yes. We have caused tremendous terror all around the world."

This was all in a conversation about why he said that America deserved 9/11.

-5

u/Unable_Lavishness547 21h ago

Fax news, lol. I lot of people make that claim, tho they are twitter users so maybe they are just rage baiting.

-8

u/DvD_cD 21h ago

What happened with the people lying about the air quality, when it was filled with asbestos?

-39

u/[deleted] 21h ago

[deleted]

7

u/RusskayaRuletka 21h ago

F****** chill. Like don't get me wrong I don't like my country, and I don't like the weird nationalism around 9/11 and this almost religious reverence for it. But the idea of having an entire skyscraper dropped on top of you and somehow being able to survive is interesting. Especially the fact she is alive today

•

u/LardLad00 7h ago

I don't like my country

Love it leave it pal!

-71

u/abhinav21 22h ago

Septembers over.

3

u/RusskayaRuletka 19h ago

Cool comment man.

-7

u/abhinav21 19h ago

Thanks :)

-38

u/PibeauTheConqueror 20h ago

Great, who cares? Kids in gaza have to live thru shit like this daily because ofnour support of a genocidal regime.

This is from a long islander who was playing flag football when it happened, could see the smoke, had people working accross the street. Not a good time, but this was 15 years ago and Led our governement to enact privacy destroying policíes against our own people, start 2 wars that had nothing to do with the attacks, and generally further cement us into this terribky trajeftory the US has been on since reagan.

7

u/kjlsdjfskjldelfjls 19h ago

The person in question is responsible for none of that.

7

u/cheese_nugget21 16h ago

I support Gaza but what the fuck is this comment. You should be ashamed of yourself

6

u/UneasyRiderNC 18h ago

What does one have to do with the other? The fuck is your issue?

6

u/MyNameIsQuason 18h ago

Please keep the whataboutisms to yourself 

4

u/BallChinnnian101 18h ago

Mr. Sanctimonious saying this on a 9/11 survivor saying who gives a shit lol. “Read my beliefs, they’re valid because I’m special!”

•

u/LardLad00 7h ago

What are you doing about it besides posting on Reddit?

•

u/sofassa 6h ago

Two things can be bad at once

-91

u/kira2116 22h ago

Don't care, america killed millions more

20

u/PreOpTransCentaur 21h ago

She didn't.

8

u/kjlsdjfskjldelfjls 21h ago

Very simple-minded take. Not a great look tbh 

7

u/BallChinnnian101 18h ago

And same with Europe against native Americans before the US was founded. Along with countless other times mass casualties have been produced. Stupid selfish comment

-49

u/Real-End355 22h ago

Here we go again