Metro Manila, Philippines – Twenty-five years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, Filipina Angie Cordova Ciencia still keeps the pink train transfer slip from the morning an unexpected change in her commute kept her from reaching her usual stop beneath the World Trade Center.
Ciencia, who was working as a legal assistant at the time, told NewsWatch Plus that she was traveling from Queens to Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001.
Her office was only a few blocks from the twin towers, and her regular commute took her to a station underneath the complex.
But her train suddenly stopped.
Passengers were initially told there was a police investigation above ground. They remained inside the train without knowing that the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history was unfolding nearby.
“We didn’t know what was going on,” Ciencia recalled.
“Later on, I think we stayed there for an hour.”
Passengers were eventually allowed to leave and given transfer slips to take another train.
Ciencia kept hers.
“Actually, that pink slip is still here with me. I’m really hiding it. I will laminate this. It’s still here. It was on September 11, 2001,” she said.
Ciencia said she had the option of staying behind but decided to take the alternative train. Looking back, she believes the decision kept her away from the World Trade Center as the disaster unfolded.
“I have the option to get left behind. But I didn’t get left behind. Because if I get left behind, the tower will be near,” she said.
She also worried about what could have happened had she been exposed to the enormous cloud of toxic dust generated by the collapse of the towers.
Her diverted train crossed the Williamsburg Bridge.
It was there that Ciencia and the other passengers saw the World Trade Center burning.
“We were all shocked. Because the two buildings of the World Trade Center were on fire. It was on fire. It was really bad,” she said.
After reaching Brooklyn, Ciencia encountered people fleeing the disaster zone.
“They were lucky to be alive. They were covered in blood. They were covered in dust. They looked like zombies with a lot of dust,” she recalled.
At that point, she still did not understand the scale of what had happened.
“It’s like you can say, is this the end of the world? What is this? Another world war? What is this?” Ciencia said.
Her immediate concern was reaching her family.
Ciencia’s son was in fourth grade at the time. She did not have a cellphone, leaving her unable to immediately tell her family she was alive.
She eventually joined others lining up for payphones.
“I have to call my family members. I have to tell them that I’m alive. I’m here,” Ciencia said.
Transportation across New York ground to a halt following the attacks. Ciencia recalled being stranded in Brooklyn with crowds of people and without food or water.
When buses eventually arrived, she described the scramble to get home as “survival of the fittest.”
Ciencia said she could not see another Filipino among the crowd around her. She recalled being pushed away as she tried to board a packed bus but fought to get on because she wanted to return to her son.
“They pushed me out, but I have to, really, I have to fight, to go home, to see my son, and my family,” she said.
It was only after she finally reached home and watched the news that Ciencia fully understood how close she had been to the attack.
“You realize that, I survived. You know, I could have died,” she said.
“If the train hadn’t stopped, and we were already under the World Trade Center, we would all be dead.”
The United States marks a quarter-century since the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Al-Qaida terrorists hijacked four passenger planes two were flown into the World Trade Center towers in New York, another struck the Pentagon and the fourth crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
At the 25th anniversary ceremony in Lower Manhattan on Friday, families again read the names of the victims.
For the first time, organizers added a seventh moment of silence honoring people who later died from illnesses or injuries linked to 9/11.
For Ciencia, however, 25 years have not erased the trauma.
“Even though it’s been 25 years, if I will place myself in that situation again, I feel like crying. It’s like I got PTSD,” Ciencia said.
Her hope, 25 years later, is that another generation will never have to experience what she witnessed.
“My prayer to the whole world is that this tragedy will not happen again,” Ciencia said.
