Area native escapes WTC collapse

Submitted photo

Susan Hinton, shown kneeling next to the stroller,

during a visit to the World Trade Center in this May 2001 photo. Her mother Ann Hinton, of Jackson, Mo., is shown at the far right of the second row. By Callie Chitwood ~ Southeast Missourian

While most of us were watching the World Trade Center attack on television, Cape Girardeau native Susan Hinton was living it.

Susan, the daughter of Gerald and Ann Hinton of Jackson, Mo., worked on the 24th floor of the south tower for French financial company COFACE. She missed being inside the building when the attacks occurred by only minutes.

When Susan stepped off the subway a few blocks from the World Trade Center around 8:50 a.m. Sept. 11, 2001, the first plane had already struck the north tower. She heard sirens but thought little of it.

"I was waiting on the train to take me to the World Trade Center. It never came. I remember thinking, it's such a beautiful day I'll walk to work," Susan said.

As she walked up the subway stairs at Chambers Street, she looked up and saw the first tower on fire.

"There was this woman standing there, and I asked her what happened. She said a plane had hit the building. I asked her if it was a small plane, and she said, 'No, it was a big plane with windows.' I totally didn't believe her," Susan said.

Meanwhile, in Jackson, Susan's mother was just turning off the television before leaving for work when she saw the news broadcast about the terrorist attacks. Fearing the worst, Ann Hinton immediately tried to contact her daughter.

"I called her home, but there was no answer. So then I tried her cell phone. She answered, and she was hysterical," Ann said.

"Susan said, 'I've got to get out of here.' As she was talking to me, the second plane hit," Ann said.

The phone conversation and cellular static left Ann unsure whether Susan was actually inside the World Trade Center. Ann immediately called family and friends to ask them to pray for her daughter.

Felt the explosion

Susan had her back turned to the World Trade Center when the second plane hit. While she didn't see the explosion, she felt it.

"Seeing the second tower on fire stopped me dead in my tracks. That's when I knew it was planned, it wasn't an accident. At that point, I was in shock," Susan said.

Unsure of where to turn, but knowing she was too jittery to stand in the long lines to use a pay phone, Susan started walking. A man stopped her and told her people were jumping out of the buildings.

"At that point, I decided I wasn't going to look anymore. I just didn't want to see that," Susan said.

Susan walked about a mile to Union Square, where a crowd had gathered. She stopped to ask a man if the subway was running.

"He just pointed and said, 'Look.' The south tower had fallen. There was this huge cloud, and through it you could see the one tower standing," Susan said. "When I saw the towers on fire, I had no idea they would ever fall. The devastation of that blew me away."

She walked 20 blocks before she was able to convince a store owner to let her use a phone. She called her husband's office, only to be told he was stuck on a subway. She left a message telling him she was safe.

"I kept walking randomly toward my home and my son Eli's daycare," Susan said. "I knew Eli was safe. I would have been completely crazy if I'd had to worry about him."

As she walked further from the World Trade Center, Susan said fewer people seemed to realize anything had happened.

"There were people sitting, eating in cafes. It was obvious they were oblivious to what had happened," Susan said.

Learned of other attacks

After walking 80 blocks, Susan finally was able to catch a taxi. The driver told her about the Pentagon attack and the missing United Airlines Flight 93.

Susan reached her son's day care around noon, and the two of them walked 10 blocks home. When she arrived, she immediately called her family in Jackson. Her mother had been frantic.

"For three hours, we didn't know she was safe," Ann said. "Never in all my years have I had a day like that. Even after I knew Susan was okay, it was almost too much to bear."

More than 2,500 people died in the attack on the World Trade Center. Susan said she still thinks about how close she came to being one of those people.

"If my train had come, or if I'd been five minutes earlier -- who's to say what would have happened," Susan said. "It's like a friend of mine said, 'Somebody tried to kill me that day.'"

Immediately after the attacks, Susan's employer, relocated to Connecticut. Susan still lives in New York and works for COFACE, although she's been on maternity leave since the birth of her daughter, Maya eight weeks ago.

Almost a year after that the terrorist attacks, Susan still can't watch a home video of herself and her family atop the World Trade Center. She's taken several trips to ground zero, but she said looking at the wreckage never gets easier.

"It's hard for me to remember that day and what I saw," Susan said.

Today Susan, her husband Paul Schuchert, her son Eli and her newborn daughter Maya will be in Southeast Missouri for a visit with family. .

A year later, she realizes how much Sept. 11 changed her outlook on life. "Everybody looks at the world differently now. We don't take liberty and safety for granted," Susan said.

cchitwood@semissourian.com

335-6611, ext. 128