I finally have the full picture pieced together, as much as it can be, after speaking with everyone involved.

Jeffrey was ahead of Kevin, running up on the 30th floor when they heard the rumble and Kevin shouted for everyone to move out (Jeffrey is my cousin by blood, and Kevin is married to his sister, Cindy, also my cousin). They turned and ran back. They had made it to the first floor when the building actually collapsed. Kevin, the Lieutenant, and Jeffrey, in that order.

Next, Kevin said all he saw was white, dust everywhere, the firemen still running, and he ran right into a truck he didn't see, the wind knocked out of him. There was zero visibility. They all got down and waited for debris to clear. Last he had checked, the Lieutenant saw Jeffrey right behind him. Yet when they all exited and could see again, Jeffrey was not there.

The first floor is still standing. It is believed by the team that there are still survivors within, as many of the people they've pulled from the wreckage were, in fact, alive. Firemen are a different breed, they are the ones who run towards the catastrophe as everyone else is running away from it.

John and Neil are Jeffrey's brothers. John was a fireman, still has his badge, and Neil has donned an extra badge of Jeffrey's, so that they could get through the lines and into the wreckage to help search. Roger (married to Jeffrey's other sister, Jane, also my cousin) has his own badge, from being on several different forces. They are going back tomorrow morning at 5am to search, and overheard several people say, "We need to find Olsen." That's Jeffrey's last name, if you couldn't gather. I had lost all hope, sitting with my sisters today, crying and recounting "funny Jeff stories".

Now we have hope again, and we are all lighting candles in each of our homes, praying to Saint Anthony (something I haven't done in quite a long time), hoping for a miracle. My cousins are heroes. Jeffrey is a hero. In the day and a half that they've searched so far, they have saved dozens of lives and found even more bodies. They were worried most for Neil, who had never seen a dead person before, but he is right there with them still.

So tomorrow I return to work and await more news. My heart goes out to all of those who have lost loved ones in this surrealistic horror. My heart goes out.

-Barbarella

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