TV specials mark attack anniversary
As he lay under a heap of what remained of the World Trade Center’s north tower on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Capt. Jay Jonas considered his options.
“At one point, I said, ‘Well, we have all of our ropes with us. We can rappel down this elevator shaft, find a subcellar in the World Trade Center, find a path to the train station, and walk to Hoboken, New Jersey,”’ Jonas recalled.
The battle-hardened men of Ladder Co. 6 had no idea what had just happened – namely, that except for themselves and a few others huddled in a corner of a stairwell, everyone and everything in the North Tower had been crushed to bits.
Their story is told in “The Miracle of Stairway B,” airing at Monday at 8 p.m. on the History Channel (cable channel 37 in Spokane, 34 in Coeur d’Alene).
It’s part of a wave of television specials airing in the next month to mark the fifth anniversary of the attacks:
•”Countdown to Ground Zero” (Sunday, 8 p.m., History Channel) recounts the lead-up to the attacks and provides minute-by-minute detail of the day from a variety of perspectives.
•”On Native Soil: The Documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report” (Aug. 21, Court TV) includes interviews with survivors’ families and members of the blue-ribbon commission that investigated the attacks. Kevin Costner and Hilary Swank narrate.
•”Nova” (Sept. 5, PBS) will look at the lessons the people who build high-rises have learned from the collapse of the twin towers. It features Leslie Robertson, who engineered the World Trade Center, as he builds the world’s tallest skyscraper in Shanghai.
•”The Path to 9/11” (Sept. 10 and 11, ABC) is a four-hour docudrama that re-enacts key portions of the 9/11 Commission Report. The cast includes Harvey Keitel, Patricia Heaton and Donnie Wahlberg.
•”Koppel on Discovery” (Sept. 10), Ted Koppel’s first major effort for the Discovery Channel, will look at today’s balance between liberty and national security, followed by a live, “Nightline”-style town meeting.
•”America Rebuilds II: Return to Ground Zero” (Sept. 11, PBS) shows New Yorkers still struggling to reach consensus on how to memorialize the World Trade Center victims while allowing new development on the site.
•”Dust to Dust: The Health Effects of 9/11” (Sept. 11, Sundance Channel) documents cases of rescue workers at ground zero who became seriously ill afterward and are suing for compensation.