The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘IT COULD HAVE BEEN ME’
Stratford resident who worked in the World Trade Center recalls Sept. 11
If he had gotten to work a minute or two earlier, Andy Wynn might not be around to tell the story. The Stratford resident was living in Brooklyn on Sept. 11, 2001, and worked for Blue Cross/Blue Shield in the actuarial department — on the 31st floor of 1 World Trade Center.
The night before, he had stayed late at the office to make a work deadline.
So when his alarm clock rang the next morning, he decided not to get up right away.
“I hit the snooze button, fortunately, because usually I’d get there about 8:45,” Wynn said during an interview at his home last month. “I got there a little later, thankfully.”
The first hijacked plane to crash into the twin towers that morning was American Airlines Flight 11, which slammed into the building where Wynn worked — at 8:46 a.m.
At the time, he was emerging from the subway and was walking toward the elevators into the building.
“Once it hit, it shot a fireball straight down the elevator shaft, and incinerated anyone in it,” Wynn said. “It could have been me.”
At the time, though, Wynn, a Detroit native who moved to Connecticut when he was 5, didn’t have a clear picture of what was happening — other than chaos.
“I heard a noise. I saw people running. Honestly, I just thought it was a bomb or something, because the (World) Trade Center got bombed (in February of 1993),” Wynn said.
“I’m just in shock, I don’t know what’s going on,” he said of his thoughts moments after the terrorist attack — which no one knew was a terrorist attack at the time — began.
Now, two decades later, he said his memories of that day are mostly a blur, with a handful of moments that stick out.
He remembers holding his daily copy of The Wall Street Journal over his head to shield himself from the swirling dust and rubble.
His next vivid memory of the day is more macabre.
“At some point I saw a body come from the building,” he said. “It was surreal.”
Prior to the that day, the prospect of confronting a terror attack was not something most Americans thought about.
“I didn’t even know what to expect. I’m just slowly walking away from the building, but not really thinking ‘What am I supposed to be doing right now? Do I need to go to work? What’s really happening?’” Wynn said. “Everyone was scattering.”
Wynn headed in the direction of City Hall, east of the World Trade Center.
“I believe that’s when I heard the second one hit,” he said. “And that was loud. I thought New York City was being bombed at that point.”
“At that point I just crossed the Brooklyn Bridge and just went home,” he said. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
Wynn’s memory of the attacks’ aftermath is also spotty. But he remembers that communicating with
others was tough.
“Nothing was working. I don’t even know if I had a cellphone back then,” he said. “I know people were trying to get in touch with me. It took awhile for me to speak to anybody.”
“I wanted to get in touch with my parents,” Wynn said. “And they were trying to, and people were trying to get in touch with my parents – ‘Have you heard from him? Have you heard from him?’”
When he did reach his parents, Wynn said, he isn’t sure what was said..
“I know it took some time for me to actually speak with them,” Wynn said. “I was probably still in shock, so I don’t remember what. It was more like ‘Thank goodness you’re alive and we’ll see you soon.’ ”
Thankfully, no one in his office was killed in the attacks. But the loss still hit close to home since he had worked for the New York City Fire Department for about a year and a half as a budget analyst, until May 2001.
He recalls being in meetings with some of the terror attack’s FDNY victims only months prior.
“I know some of them died,” he said. “I didn’t know anybody personally that did.”
Even so, it took awhile for him to deal with what happened.
“I was really shook,” Wynn said. “To me the Trade Center and everything about it, it just meant a lot. It was tough, that first year. I’m pretty good now, I can talk about it, I can see it. In the beginning I couldn’t.”
His office moved to a temporary location in Newark, N.J., for three months, then to Times Square. He said moving away or taking another job wasn’t an option.
“I’m not going to let this affect my life,” Wynn recalled thinking at the time. “I’m not going to let them win. You’re not going to scare us, I’m not going to leave the city because of it. Absolutely no way I was ever going to do that, no.”
Still, he stayed away from ground zero.
“I hadn’t been down there in 18 years,” Wynn, now married and a father of two children, said. “I went there for the first time with my wife two years ago. I never saw the rubble or the new building up until then.”
Wynn now works for a bank, and has been working from home the past 17 months. His office had been in Brooklyn, but when he does return, it will be to a new location — blocks away from the World Trade Center.
“I’m literally going to be back right there again, which I’m OK with,” he said. “We went and visited, so that was probably good.”
Wynn said it’s difficult to draw lasting lessons from what happened — especially seeing how divided the country can be, even in the midst of a pandemic.
“To me, my biggest takeaway, and it’s just because of the culture, I guess, we live in, and everything these days is political — is how united the country was after it,” he said. “I don’t know if it scares me or it’s sad that if something like that ever happened again, I don’t know if we’d be as united as we were back then, just because of the environment we live in these days.
“It’s sad and disappointing and almost makes you realize people didn’t learn from that experience or that time what it really means to be a country that’s united,” Wynn said. “What’s it going to take?”
“I HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON, FORTUNATELY, BECAUSE USUALLY I’D GET THERE ABOUT 8:45. I GOT THERE A LITTLE LATER, THANKFULLY.” ANDY WYNN, WHO WORKED ON THE 31ST FLOOR OF 1 WORLD TRADE CENTER