Did You Hear About The Last Person To Be Found Alive In The Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 Genelle McMillan?

On September 11, 2001, Genelle Guzman-McMillan’s life was forever changed. At 30 years old, she was working as an administrative assistant for the Port Authority on the 64th floor of the North Tower when two hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center.

When the second plane hit, Guzman-McMillan and her coworkers rushed to the stairwell. Holding hands with her friend Rosa, she made her way down until an explosion around the 13th floor knocked them off their feet.

“When we reached the landing on the thirteenth floor, I let go of Rosa’s hand to yank off my heels,” Guzman-McMillan recalled. “There was another loud explosion... Suddenly, everything went dark.”

Buried beneath concrete and steel, with her body crushed and her right leg shattered, Guzman-McMillan was trapped for 27 agonizing hours. The only part of her body she could move was her left hand. “I was thinking I’m going to die... I just kept begging and praying, just asking God to show me a miracle,” she said.

That miracle came the next day, on September 12, when she felt someone grasp her hand. “My name is Paul. Just hang on. They’re going to get you out of there,” her rescuer told her. Doctors initially considered amputating her leg, but after several surgeries, it was saved—leaving her with a limp, but alive.

Guzman-McMillan shared her story in her 2011 memoir, Angel in the Rubble: How I Survived for 27 Hours Under the World Trade Center Debris, and has been featured in multiple documentaries, including Twenty Years Later: The Women of 9/11 and 9/11: One Day in America.

Today, Guzman-McMillan serves as a supervisor for the Port Authority at LaGuardia Airport and works as a motivational speaker, inspiring audiences worldwide with her powerful testimony of survival, faith, and resilience. She remains a living reminder of hope rising from tragedy.