They stand on the patio outside their Holland apartment trying to remember the emotions rom a horrible Tuesday one week ago. But they're together, telling their stories of escape and anxiety -- and that's the best possible way for Chad and Dana Creevy. It could have been much worse. Dana could have been a widow, surrounded by family and talking about what a wonderful husband and father Chad had been and how tragic his death was. Instead, she can sit in a chair on their patio, watching their 1-year-old daughter, Olivia, play, and listen to Chad describe an incredible journey from the 61st floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center to safety. "I was about the happiest person in the world when I heard he was fine," she said, adding her happiness is tempered by thoughts of those killed or still missing in an unprecedented attack by terrorists on the United States. It all began for 22-year-old Chad Creevy in the offices of the securities firm Morgan Stanley in the World Trade Center in New York City on what was supposed to be the second day of a three-week course training to qualify Creevy as a financial adviser. The class of about 275 people had made it through an hour-long talk from one of the firm's trainers and headed into a lobby for a break when Creevy got his first hint something wasn't quite right. The class could see something was wrong with the other World Trade Center tower, but they didn't know what. "We could see debris falling (off the north tower)," Creevy said, adding he could see people on the ground scrambling to get out of the way of chunks of the building. "They told us something was wrong and to go back into the classroom," he said. "Thirty seconds later they said it was an emergency evacuation." Creevy and several of his classmates rode an elevator down to the 43rd floor, where they looked out a window and finally realized what had happened to the north tower. What they saw was amazing -- a gaping, black hole where a hijacked airplane had smashed into the building. "It was like a movie," Creevy said. Creevy and his fellow evacuees figured out the fastest day way down meant going up one floor, to the 44th, where a bank of express elevators running to the lower levels of the building was located. "That's when the (second) plane hit," Creevy said. "It just rocked the building. "It hit on the right side, so everybody fell to the left. You just wondered if the building was going to right itself. "I thought the fire had jumped across to our building and caused an explosion. I felt helpless." After a prayer, Creevy headed for the stairs and a way out of the building. It took Creevy 40 minutes to work his way out of the building, moving down hot staircases with a mass of other office workers. "People started to calm down (on the stairs)," Chad said. "They were very helpful." When he reached the lobby, the exit was blocked by falling debris and the crowd was sent down a nonworking escalator to a lower level and then back up another escalator before finally getting out on the other side. Guiding the mass of fleeing workers was a long line of firefighters and police officers, Creevy said. "My prayers were answered by those heroes," he said. "There were as many people going into the building as coming out. The people who helped were sent from God, that's for sure." Once outside, Creevy wasn't sure where to go. "I was looking for someone else from my class," he said. "I had no idea where I was going. I finally found some buddies and we kind of went together." They walked north, away from the financial district, and found a furniture store that invited them in and offered the use of a phone, but Creevy had a difficult time reaching anyone to let them know he was fine. "I tried for an hour to get out," he said. "I just kept trying to dial numbers." Finally, he found a woman who was talking on a cell phone, and Creevy gave her the number for his parents, who live in Fennville. The woman gave the number to the person she was talking to, and that person called Creevy's parents. That call was welcome news both for his parents and for Dana, 21, who was on her way to classes at Alma College when she heard about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. "I had no clue which tower he was in," Dana Creevy said. "I pulled off the road (when I heard the news) and started calling from a gas station. It was just horrible. "The (gas station) didn't have a television, thank God. I didn't know the towers had collapsed. I was just thinking, 'Did he get out quick?' I was so confused." She describes that time as "the worst day of my life," or at least until she finally heard Chad was unhurt. "I just wanted him home," she said. Creevy was already working on that. After standing in the furniture store for nearly three hours as the towers crumpled, he made his way back to his hotel room, located near the Empire State Building and the United Nations building, traveling about six miles on foot. After a quick packing job, he was off, by foot once again, to Pennsylvania Station where he found a train headed to Albany, N.Y., where he had relatives. Dana and other family members drove 14 hours straight through to pick him up. They made it back to Holland on Friday. Creevy still doesn't know when or where his training will resume, but expects to hear those answers later this week. In the meantime, the Creevys don't like watching replays of the destruction. "It's hard to watch it now," Dana said. But the couple has not ruled out a return to New York City some day. "I'd kind of like to go back some time to pay tribute to those who have died and those who helped," Chad said. "I'd kind of like to take Dana and Olivia and retrace my path." |
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