Public Employee Press

2001-2011
"It was really crazy"

Police Communications Technicians continue to be shaken up about handling phone calls from the people trapped inside the Twin Towers after terrorists rammed two planes into the buildings.

"It was really crazy," said PCT Lisa Johnson. "People were overwhelmed - yelling and screaming on the phone," said Johnson. "We had to keep our
composure."

The Police Communications Technicians talked to Police Officers who were at Ground Zero in addition to many of the more than 2,600 people stuck inside the buildings, who later died when the Twin Towers collapsed.

"We were dispatching information to them about people calling in on cell phones who were trapped and where they were located," Johnson said. "One caller asked a PCT to pray with her."

Ten years later, the operators still talk to each other about the horror of that day.

"The feelings are still with us-sadness because so many people lost their lives," Johnson said. "One co-worker's brother was a pilot of the plane that hit the Pentagon. You can still see the sadness in her eyes."

—JL