Everything Changed: A Survivor Remembers 9/11

Andrew Oliver heard it before he saw it.

He was in his office a few blocks away from the towers when he heard a massive explosion. When he looked out window, he saw a huge cloud in the air. Reports quickly came in that a plane had hit the North Tower, although at that point it was said to be a single engine plane. After listening to the reports for 10 to 15 minutes, he went back to work. And then the second plane hit.

“That's when you knew we were under attack,” Oliver said.

They evacuated the building. When Oliver went down into the plaza, he could see everything burning. Listening to reports, one of the networks said that one of the towers was leaning, and there was speculation that one them would fall over.

“It seemed inconceivable because these towers were so massive,” Oliver recalled. “You couldn't believe something like that could happen.”

People were walking around aimlessly, watching the events unfold. Oliver was on his cell phone with his wife, who was still in Wisconsin. Papers were fluttering to the ground around them. Oliver spotted personal papers, such as frequent flyer papers. He realized that some of these people were probably no longer alive.

Seized by a desire to help, he started walking towards the towers. Then something told him that he should walk away, mostly due to the reports that the towers might collapse. Then he saw the first tower fall. A massive debris cloud began rushing toward him, and he started to run.

“What you didn't know was if there was all this heavy debris coming at you, or a fireball inside there,” Oliver said. “So everyone started racing away,”

He was still on the phone with his wife when the cloud overtook him. Then his phone cut off. It was two hours before he could get back in touch with her and reassure her that he was alive.

He made his way back towards the Wall Street area. Because of the chaos, he was unaware that the second tower had fallen until someone else told him 20 minutes later. When he encountered firefighters, he asked what he could do to help. One of them was staring blankly at a silent radio he held in his hand. It's an image that has stayed with him throughout the years.

Oliver then decided to go to a hospital to give blood. When he got there, it was packed with people wanting to give blood to assist the many victims they assumed would be arriving soon.

Emotionally drained, he walked up to his brother's apartment and spent the rest of the day reassuring the many people who called him that he was fine, and trying to make sure others were safe.

In particular, 9/11 was also a poignant reminder about how the smallest decisions can change the course of a life.

“The week prior I had canceled plans to go to a conference at a restaurant called Windows on the World (on the top of one of the towers), and I decided not to go to that conference,” Oliver recalled. “If I had gone, I wouldn't have survived. None of those people survived.”

Although many of his friends and family were safe, he would continue to receive news about other colleagues and customers who hadn't been as fortunate.

When the towers fell, he knew immediately that everything had changed. The next day he saw another reminder when he got off the subway and saw National Guardsmen with guns on Wall Street.

“You don't see that in the United States,” he said. When the towers fell, he knew immediately that everything had changed.

Living in New York City changed for him. Even something as simple and everyday as taking the subway became fraught with tension amid reports of bomb threats.

Today it's still hard for him to fathom that someone could fly a plane into a building and kill so many innocent people.

“It probably took me 10 years to start talking about this,” Oliver admitted. “I still have nightmares.”

Oliver left New York City in 2002 and moved back to Whitefish Bay. After years of working in the financial sector, he wanted to do something different with his life. He started researching firefighters and firefighter safety, and started Gear Wash, a business that would help protect firefighters and make sure that their equipment was working properly.

“We need to remember the innocent lives that were lost,” Oliver said. “We need to remember and recognize the people that lost their lives that were there to protect us: the firefighters, the police, the port authority and the security people.”

It's something he knows he will never forget.