CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — My grandfather, Hector Trinidad, had an appointment at the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001. He was there looking for work.
Twenty-five years later, I sat down with him to hear his story firsthand.
He had recently been laid off and had scheduled a job appointment in Manhattan. The appointment card, later found by my grandmother, read: Hector Trinidad. September 11, 2001. World Trade Center. 9 a.m.
When he arrived at the station inside Building 2, Port Authority police were already directing people to leave.
"When we got to the World Trade Center to the station, which was building #2. Uh, we were met by the Port Authority police. They were telling her to get out of the building, but they didn't say what happened. They would say, we just a fire," Trinidad said.
It was not just a fire. The first plane had already struck Tower 1. When he walked outside, he looked up and watched the second plane hit.
"That was because the first plane already had hit tower number one. The second plane missed his turn on the tower. That was the only reason. We get out of the tower without no problem because they missed us. So when I come out to the street, I looked up to the tower number 2… And I saw the second plane came in and hit the tower 2 from the side. Which I was like, unbelievable," Trinidad said.
Before he fully understood what was unfolding around him, he also witnessed something that has stayed with him ever since.
"I count more than 100 people that I count jumping from the window from the top floors, like 40th floor, 50 floor. People desperate. They didn't know what to do. They were just jumping and then they hit the floor. You can hear the pound of the people on the floor," Trinidad said.
"It was like watching somebody, recording a movie. It was crazy because I never see anything like that in my life," Trinidad said.
In the chaos that followed, my grandfather found himself in an underground tunnel alongside then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He made a deliberate decision to stay close.
"So the reason I follow him because I know he was a mayor. If they pulled him out of there because it was safe to get out," Trinidad said.
He credits more than luck for making it out. His years as a Navy sailor and more than a decade driving a limousine in New York City gave him the instincts to navigate the crisis.
"You learn that in the military when you go to boot camp. You learn how to survive," Trinidad said.
"I drove a limousine for 15 years in New York City also. So it's just a lot of that had to do with my background and how you act in the street. It's streetwise," Trinidad said.
Even after they were allowed out of the tunnel, the danger was not over. Police came running, warning people to move because another plane was reported to be incoming. Then my grandfather watched both towers collapse.
"And so we turned around, we saw both towers just disappear on the ground and we're just a big splash from there on," Trinidad said.
With no way to reach his family and no transportation running, he faced one of the longest days of his life. My family had no way of knowing whether he was alive.
"It was another crazy thing because I cannot get a hold of my family. My family cannot get a hold of me. So, uh, they were not able to know whether I was alive or not," Trinidad said.
"Nothing running. No bridge, no tunnel, no, no, no, nothing. Everything was canceled," Trinidad said.
He eventually made his way home through a combination of boat travel and walking on foot, reaching Hoboken, New Jersey, through the Lincoln Tunnel. Before leaving, he went through a decontamination shower.
"So everybody had the contamination shower before they was able to let you get out of the station," Trinidad said.
When he finally got home, my grandfather fell into a depression. He could not watch television for a month because every time he did, he saw September 11.
"It was something that I remember and I don't wanna remember," Trinidad said.
Years later, the effects of that day followed him in a new way. Doctors diagnosed him with stage 4 cancer. Like many others who were at Ground Zero, he believes the dust and ash he breathed in that day made him sick.
"I thought about it all my life. Because I never smoked. It just came out of nowhere," Trinidad said.
The cancer kept him from attending my high school graduation. He says he still experiences war flashbacks.
"It's something that will be with you for the rest of your life… that day. If you get out of something like that, it's just like being in a war," Trinidad said.
But after serving in the Navy, battling stage 4 cancer, and being at Ground Zero on September 11, my grandfather says he was never going anywhere.
"Either you survive or you die, either one of the two. It was time for me to survive. It's time for me to be there," Trinidad said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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