9/11 Survivor Marking Anniversary In Evanston
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Ceremonies today mark the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and one memorial is especially important to an Evanston native who survived the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
Mark Shore worked on the 62nd floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. When the North Tower was hit, he and others made their way downstairs just as their tower was hit by a second airliner.
"We'd just come out of the stairwell. We were standing by the elevator shaft and when it exploded, everyone just kind of simultaneously turned and looked towards the elevator shaft. Anyone who was in the elevator, chances are they didn't survive," he said.
Shore managed to get down from the South Tower and made it outside before it collapsed.
"I look up, and I see this huge cloud of smoke, and then I'm starting to realize I see one tower, but I don't see the other one," he said.
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Though it was the second tower hit, the building where he worked was the first to collapse.
Shore moved back to the Chicago area in 2009. He grew up in Evanston, and that's where he chooses to attend the annual commemoration of 9/11.
"For me personally, it was something I have to do. It's a part of my life now," he said.
Evanston is one of several communities around the country that has a piece of steel from the World Trade Center.
"I understand what the symbolism is about, but for me personally, it doesn't really hit me that way. It's more, just kind of being there," Shore said.
What's important for him is to be at the annual memorial.
"For me, it's a direct connection. It's a part of my life. It's a part of my experience," he said.
The 9-11 Memorial in New York honors three people who were born in Evanston: two who worked in the towers, and one was on United Flight 93, which crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back against the hijackers.
