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The experience began with an overwhelming sound, a "tremendous roar" that filled the air as debris rained down from above. The narrator described feeling the fierce winds lift him off the ground, prompting him to instinctively crouch down in a corner of the staircase—his small stature allowing him to tuck himself away from the chaos above. In a moment of disbelief and anger, he faced what he thought could be the end of his life in the stark reality of the World Trade Center, a place he had known for work on many bright summer mornings.