9/11 Survivor Shares Story with Students at UWS

SUPERIOR - Thirteen years after the brutal attack on American soil, amazing stories of survival are still being told. Sujo John moved to America only months before the attack stared death in the eyes and lived to tell about it. Now he travels around the country sharing his story, and on the 13 year anniversary made a stop in the Twin Ports at the University of Wisconsin–Superior. "Fire breaks out on our floor, walls quickly begin to collapse around us," John recalls. His story starts in India where he grew up. He met the love of his life and seven months before 9/11 flew to the New York City with two bags and $50 in his pocket. He got a job working at a telecommunications department doing marketing on the 81st floor at the World Trade Center. He remembers that Tuesday morning in September as clear, and while sitting at his desk the first plane crashed a few floors above his office. He said he fell onto the floor and it felt like his ear drums were going to explode when a co-worker grabbed him and they made their way to the stairwell."The jet fuel had come down the elevator shaft; balls of fire were shooting out of that place,” John explained to an auditorium filled with wide-eyed students. “So we fought our way through all that fire and now we make our way onto that stairwell. Hundreds - thousands of people now joining us onto the stairwell." It took John an hour and 20 minutes to make his way down the stairs and once he got outside the once vivid and lively World Trade Center Complex was filled with bodies and rubble. As he looked up into the sky he watched the south tower fall on top of him, and an FBI investigator pulled him out before he was buried. He vividly remembers brave New York City fire fighters and police officers fighting their way up the stairway giving their own lives to save thousands of others including Johns. Looking back on 13 years he says his story is still just one of many.