Actually, if you look at the casualty figures - the life and death decisions of "get my bag or not" where really ONLY in the south Tower ( the second hit) - The "Interesting" part was - if you were below the point of impact, for all intents, you lived (except for folks who stayed, and a few people who could NOT be evacuated - wheelchairs and the like - plus rescue people). If you were ABOVE the point of impact - you died (I think there were what, 4 people who made it out via the damaged stairwell?)

It comes down to - the evacuation WORKED - the lessons of 1993 WERE learned

Like just about any person who lived in NYC that day, I knew someone who didn't make it out - and someone who did. The guy who made it our worked in the North tower - 82th floor I think - basically the jet came in through his office window. The good news was he was on the 4x? floor, at a cafeteria getting a cup of coffee. As he says "my coffee habit saved my life"

I can remember a few things about that day
1)The BLUE sky
2)The phone call from a person in my company who called to complain the the NY AP newswire feed was down, and we should fix our bleeping software, didn't I know there was breaking news. I had to inform the young lady that the AP offices were IN the WTC. She went from screaming to a quiet "oh..."
3)Seeing some video tapes that were never aired - that I hope never to see again
4)Getting home that night, and my wife asking me "what's that smell" (we live about 12 air miles from Ground Zero) and having to explain