Coincidentally, a friend I hiked with last weekend recommended this book below. An absolutely gripping read, no matter how much you think you know about what happened that day.

High heels piling up in the corners of stairwells as people evacuated. Several men desperately trying to get out of an elevator stuck between floors by clawing through drywall -- none of them had a knife. Others in stuck elevators turning on laptops for light. Survivors desperate for water to quench thirst and reduce smoke inhalation during evacuation. Peoples' physical fitness and split-second decisions having enormous consequences for themselves and others. Stay or go? Up or down? Go back for the purse/briefcase? Mass lack of situational awareness due to lack of communication.

Highly relevant to this entire section of the forum.

"102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers"

http://www.amazon.com/102-Minutes-Untold...5220&sr=1-1

Amazon.com Review
In 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers, New York Times writers Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn vividly recreate the 102-minute span between the moment Flight 11 hit the first Twin Tower on the morning of September 11, 2001, and the moment the second tower collapsed, all from the perspective of those inside the buildings--the 12,000 who escaped, and the 2,749 who did not. It's becoming easier, years later, to forget the profound, visceral responses the Trade Center attacks evoked in the days and weeks following September 11. Using hundreds of interviews, countless transcripts of radio and phone communications, and exhaustive research, Dwyer and Flynn bring that flood of responses back--from heartbreak to bewilderment to fury. The randomness of death and survival is heartbreaking. One man, in the second tower, survived because he bolted from his desk the moment he heard the first plane hit; another, who stayed at his desk on the 97th floor, called his wife in his final moments to tell her to cancel a surprise trip he had planned. In many cases, the deaths of those who survived the initial attacks but were killed by the collapse of the towers were tragically avoidable. Building code exemptions, communication breakdowns between firefighters and police, and policies put in place by building management to keep everyone inside the towers in emergencies led, the authors argue, to the deaths of hundreds who might otherwise have survived. September 11 is by now both familiar and nearly mythological. Dwyer and Flynn's accomplishment is recounting that day's events in a style that is stirring, thorough, and refreshingly understated.