Twenty-five years after the September 11 terrorist attacks claimed nearly 3,000 lives, survivor Kathy Comerford says the memories remain as vivid as ever — and that a single physical sensation is all it takes to send her straight back to the chaos inside the World Trade Centre's South Tower.
Inside the South Tower on September 11, 2001
Comerford was attending a staff meeting on the 70th floor of the South Tower when the first hijacked aircraft struck the neighbouring North Tower. From her vantage point surrounded by windows, the initial impact was disorienting.
"When the plane hit the North Tower, I was in the South Tower — we thought it was an explosion," she recalled. "We were trained very well to get out of the building, so as soon as we saw the fireballs and all of the debris come flying, no matter what had happened, we were trained to get out."
Comerford and her colleagues immediately rushed into the stairwell and had descended to the 44th floor when the second hijacked plane struck the building they were in.
"The plane hit us and it basically bent the building in half," she said. "The floor was rolling and everything was exploding — the chandeliers, the planters — and all the jet fuel went right down the elevator shafts. They were like fireballs."
The force of the impact hurled Comerford out of her shoes and into a marble wall. Emergency lighting came on, and the building — remarkably — began to right itself. But it was the sensation beneath her feet in those terrifying moments that has never left her.
The Feeling That Never Goes Away
"The way to describe the feeling was if you were standing up on a roller coaster as it was going up and down all of the bends and the curves, because that's what the floor was doing," Comerford said.
Two and a half decades later, that rolling, lurching sensation remains her most powerful trigger. Crowded dance floors at weddings, concert venues where audiences jump in unison — any vibration underfoot can pull her instantly back to that morning.
"It immediately gives a response," she said. "I immediately tighten up, because it just sort of transports you back to that moment of that feeling. That's a feeling I will never, never forget."
Comerford ultimately made it out of the building and home to her three young children, who are now adults. Yet the passage of time has done little to soften the sharpness of those memories.
"It's a double-edged sword. It's something I'll never forget," she said. "I am so thankful" — a gratitude that, given how close she came to losing her life, carries its own quiet weight.
What Happened on September 11, 2001
On the morning of September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger aircraft in a coordinated assault on the United States. Two planes were deliberately flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City, while a third struck the Pentagon in Virginia. Both towers collapsed that morning, and the Pentagon sustained severe structural damage.
A fourth aircraft, United Airlines Flight 93, came down in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew members fought back against the hijackers, preventing it from reaching its intended target. In total, the attacks killed almost 3,000 people and sent shockwaves across the globe — consequences that continue to reverberate for survivors like Comerford a quarter of a century on.
For those who lived through it, the anniversary is not simply a date on a calendar. As Comerford's account makes clear, for many survivors the September 11 attacks remain a daily, deeply embodied reality — one that no amount of time can fully erase.
