Local 9/11 Survivor Shares His Story
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – It is a beautiful thing to hear Ed Nancarrow talk about September 11, 2001.
Now a resident of Texas, but formerly of Pennsauken, N.J., Nancarrow came back to South Jersey Sunday to share his story with his old congregation at Saint Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in Cherry Hill.
An employee of the New York State Banking Department at the time, Nancarrow worked at the World Trade Center, and he was on the 96th floor of the South Tower, the second building struck, that morning.
"I only had three more days to go on that assignment," he told the church.
Out of his peripheral vision, he saw what happened to the North Tower – and figured there was an explosion inside the building. He did not know it had been struck by a plane. Still, he was told to evacuate and started down the stairs.
As he was heading down, he said there were several announcements in the building that said everything was fine and workers should return to their desks.
"Something inside me said 'No. You're not going to stop. You're going to keep on going.'"
Nancarrow made it out but was just blocks away when his building fell.
"At that moment, my poor friend Bob Woods said, 'Is this the way it's going to end?' And a thought crossed my mind. I said 'No Bob, this is not the way it's going to end. The Good Lord has not gotten me this far for it to end now.'"
Nancarrow says he tells his story so that others can see that despite all the death and destruction, God was there on September 11, guiding the nation through one of its darkest days.
Nancarrow believes God saved countless lives that day including his own. Nancarrow says God also guided him home to Pennsauken that night despite having no car and very little cash.
"We talk about the 3,000 who died, but those World Trade Centers hold 50,000 workers a day," Nancarrow says. "If those planes had hit later in the day, we would have lost a lot more."
Reported By Ben Simmoneau, CBS 3
