15 YEARS LATER: Former Port Authority sergeant reflects on Sept. 11

Michele Grabley escaped near certain death due to a severe car crash 15 years ago this week.

On Sept. 10, 2001, Grabley, a then-police sergeant with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department, was returning home from a doctor’s appointment along the congested New Jersey Parkway during a severe thunderstorm when her car lost traction and crashed.

The extent of her injuries required several months of hospitalization and therapy.

Unbeknownst to her at the time, that near-fatal accident saved her life, as the World Trade Center was one of the facilities the Port Authority oversees.

“I was in a car crash the day before 9/11, otherwise I would have been at the World Trade Center,” she said. “The car accident actually saved my life. When the planes hit, I was in the hospital in a coma.”

The aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack left 37 of Grabley’s Port Authority co-workers dead, some of which were close friends of Grabley, who spent 21 years with the police department. Of the fatalities that day, 2,606 of the 2,996 died in the World Trade Center and surrounding site.

Capt. Kathy Mazza, a very close friend of Grabley, was one of the Port Authority officers killed on Sept. 11.

Grabley said she learned that Mazza led a group of people down the stairs in one of the towers when the building started to collapse.

She said Mazza used her 9mm sidearm, to shoot out glass walls, enabling many in the tower to escape.

Mazza was the first female commander of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department.

While being hospitalized, doctors put up a sign outside of Grabley’s room reminding visitors not to mention the terrorist attack.

“I didn’t find out about it until much later because the hospital staff kept it from me,” she said. “I did not find out about it until about two weeks after. The doctors were concerned about the possible effects it would have had on me while I was recovering from my car accident. We lost 37 members from my department. It was the largest loss of law enforcement officers in a single incident in American history.”

Grabley said she regrets missing the memorial services for those killed in the attacks, due to her hospitalization.

She noted that each Sept. 11, she takes the time to reflect on how the event changed her and the country.

“The whole Sept. 11 tragedy makes me appreciate life more,” she said. “It makes you appreciate your friends and your family. Out of the 37 killed, some of them were friends of mine and some of them I just worked with for many years. It was hard at the beginning because I would constantly remember different stories about them on Sept. 11, every year when it comes around.”

As a New Jersey native, Grabley said those living in proximity to the World Trade Center towers and even travelers always had a landmark if they got lost in the city.

“It’s hard to explain, but anyplace you were in Manhattan, all you had to do was look for those two towers, and you could figure out where you were,” she said. “It was pretty much a landmark for everyone.”

Now retired, Grabley said she uses her leisure time staying active with her church.

“I’ve been to many parts of the United States, but currently, I don’t travel much,” she said. “Now that I’m retired and getting older, I don’t have a need for that.”

Grabley also noted that the Port Authority was the subject of the 2006 motion picture “One World Trade” directed by Oliver Stone, starring Nicholas Cage.

Grabley, who moved to Pahrump in 2003, said she would never return to the World Trade Center site.

“I have not been back to the Northeast ever since,” she said. “I just want to remember the World Trade Center buildings the way they were. I don’t really miss New Jersey or New York at all because I don’t like the congestion and the weather, and I could not see myself getting on an airplane.”

The attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania took the lives of 2,996 people, including more than 400 police officers and firefighters.

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes