In Palm Harbor, Sept. 11th survivor calls for unity, giving

PALM HARBOR, Fla. - Greg Amira has something in common with the steel slab at the 9/11 memorial at the Curlew Hills Memory Gardens in Palm Harbor: Both were pulled from the wreckage of the World Trade Center.

"Seeing the steel does bring it back," he said. "I woke in the emergency room with them shoving tubes up my nose, down my throat, to get me breathing."

On September 11, 2001, he had just gotten to work at Morgan Stanley in Tower 2 at 8:46 am.

"Number 1 was hit on my way to (the 44th floor)," he said. "The 44th floor was the Sky Lobby."

As confusion reigned, an evacuation was eventually ordered for both buildings. 

At 9:03, he was on the phone with his wife, from the staircase.

"[I said] 'If anything happens to me, tell my daughter I love her, and I love...' Phone is dead. She watches my building get hit."

He was captured in a photograph by a photographer named Bill Biggart, who was killed that day. 

Amira had gone back into the lobby, telling people to beware of falling debris.

"My first instinct is to go in and help people," he recalled.

At 9:59, from the lobby of Tower 1, he felt Tower 2 come down.

"I am watching those glass doors and revolving doors blow out," he said. "I am leaving my daughter without her father for what reason?"

He was trapped in the rubble for five hours. 

He donated the steel he was awarded for heroism that day to the memorial at Curlew Hills.

"That was given to me on the 10th anniversary," he said.

The cemetery's CEO, Kennan Knopke, has called for eternal lights to be lit this week, to honor those who weren't as lucky as Amira.

"Now the lights can go as far as the lights can go," said Knopke. "There has to be a heaven out there somewhere. That's where they are."

Nineteen years feels like it was yesterday to Amira, who says this should be the lesson of 9/11: "Remember the unity. Remember the giving. Make it a day. Just one day out of the year to pay it forward."

He's giving the keynote speech at Friday's memorial.
    
Instead of it being held in person this year, it will be available online at Curlew Hills' website.