Message #229598

[Kristin Moore]

 She has already resolved her future association with the trade center, where 50,000 people are employed and 80,000 visit daily. "I'll never go into that building again," she said. "I'm sorry. I'm not going back in there ever."

Phenomenal luck played its hand for some. Brenda Russillo, a Secret Service agent, was returning with two other agents to their office. They swung their car into the parking garage beneath 1 World Trade Center. As she stepped from the car, Ms. Russillo was blown out of her high heels five feet into the air. Landing hard on her chest, she instinctively yanked her coat over her head.

"I screamed, 'We've got to get out of here!' " she said. "I couldn't see. I couldn't catch my breath."

One of the other agents was propelled 20 feet and cut his eye. "I said, 'It's a bomb, it's a bomb!' " he said. " 'There's got to be another one!' "

The third agent thought someone had knocked him over. "I thought somebody is kidding around and slapped me as hard as he could," he said.

Then guilt overtook him. He had been driving and thought he must have been responsible for the explosion. "I thought I'd backed into an air compressor," he said. "I thought I caused the whole thing."