9/11 Stories: NYPD Mike Gerbasi

Still an NYPD office to this day, now working with the Highway Patrol in The Bronx, Mike Gerbasi was just 26 years old with 3 years experience as a New York City cop on September 11. Then assigned to the first precinct in Lower Manhattan, Mike and his partner were in their patrol car at Spring Street and West Broadway when they heard a loud explosion. Looking up, they could see a smoking, gaping hole in the North Tower and immediately headed down to The World Trade Center. After they parked, the two cops grabbed some medical equipment and made their way inside the North Tower. Their supervisor ordered them outside to help direct the office evacuees to go up Church Street, away from the danger.Gerbasi vividly recalls a man standing in the middle of the street, laughing as he spoke on his cell phone. Cell phones were rare in those days and it was so bizarre to see someone laughing like he was enjoying a day in the park as the horror unfolded. Gerbasi says he tried to get the man to move out of the street to safety when he heard a second explosion. Debris rained down after the 2nd passenger jet hit The South Tower. Officer Gerbasi felt something hit his shoulder. Profusely bleeding, his right arm was nearly severed. He had to hold it with his left hand as he made his way into a subway station. Miraculously, his partner was there along with another cop. They ushered him into an ambulance. His arm was successfully re-attached but it took another year and a half before he would return to full active duty as a New York City Police officer. To this day, Gerbasi isn’t sure if that man laughing into the cell phone was real or if it was an angel, preventing him from re-entering the North Tower to help others out to safety. Had he gone back inside, he could have been one of 23 NYPD’ers killed that day by the collapse of the twin towers.
► Listen LIVE: q1043.iheart.com/
► Facebook: / q1043ny
► Twitter: / q1043
► Instagram: / q1043

[@bobporch]

Only the Emergency Service Units (ESUs) of the NYPD were ordered into the Towers on 9/11. All the other officers who risked their lives to save others did so on their own volition, as did Officer Gerbasi. Of those who went in on their own, 9 died along with14 ESUs. Hero is a word that is tossed around too loosely at times. For me a hero is someone who deliberately puts them self in harms was to help someone in distress, without the thought or reward or receiving anything in return. Officer Gerbasi certainly qualifies as a Hero, as do so many others that day. It is my opinion that when a angel appears it is always in disguise.

[@NickyD]

hero should only be used for em cops firefighter or army thats it

[@teddyhaynes9876]

Not true , regular people can be hero’s lol , can’t believe you think that

[@LLandP]

To think that you were LUCKY to have been injured so badly is almost unbelievable! Thank you for your service and congratulations on surviving that horrible day.

[@johndaniels7609]

I can't stop watching these....it's like there hundreds of them. And this guy is lucky to be alive. Sad to say but I think his arm injury saved him. Got him away from the buildings. Edit....I wrote that thing about his arm before I watched it all!

[@MareRS357]

Wow what a horrible accident. That God he is alive and still has his arm. God Bless you! ❤️

[@uscitizen4172]

Lucky Mike! Thank you for your sacrifice and service. 🇱🇷

[@kevindoyle8721]

Upmost respect for P.O Gerbasi! I felt weird when the lady asked him “why he thinks he was spared”??? Seems if he does have survivors guilt which he shouldn’t nor should anyone, it would spike it!

[@truthprevails7085]

Stupid question, indeed.

[@katelynbrown98]

I think she asks that because she wants others to understand their perspective.

[@teddyhaynes9876]

Dumb ass question I agree

[@CandiceGoddard]

I'm glad you survived.

[@davepowell7168]

Surprised the plane wasn't heard screaming at nearly 580mph before the explosions. Excellent witness testimony. Thanks sir

[@eh1702]

It is very weird that 20+ years later, you’d make such a PALPABLY FALSE claim. IT’S ON VIDEO. And audio. In that city of 20 million, the news crews were already out and about. One crew were interviewing a fire service officer when the first plane roared over. They caught it, sight and sound. Sound comes out of the BACK of jets. When you stand in front of one and hear its screaming, you are actually mostly hearing soundwaves reflected off everything in the environment, including the ground. Each plane was going at about half the speed of sound, and the sound of its engine is focussed in the opposite direction. The first one hit tower one at around 1100 feet, directly below, the sound would take almost exactly a second to reach the ground. When you are watching an airliner cruising in the sky, you are hearing its sound many seconds after it has exited the back of the engine, reached the ground and bounced around the landscape for a bit. This plane was very low, only audible to those on the ground ahead of it for a very brief moment. And partially blocked from sight by all those buildings (many 200-400 feet high) it reached many people no sooner than the sound of its impact. As for the second plane, there are very clear videos of it by people filming tower 1 from the waterside as the second jet roared in over their heads. Perhaps because water reflects sound so well, they were able to hear it and say things like, “Oh, god, it’s another one!” before it passed overhead. The cameraman on the boat turns and has difficulty focussing on it - it is low and moving fast - but its roar is impressive. even above the extraordinary roar of the existing conflagration, thousands towards the south and west heard it.

[@eh1702]

This man would have been to the north of the south tower. The sound of its approach was (a) baffled by the south tower (b) partly drowned out by the noise of the giant tower 1 fire over his head already, and (c) not far ahead of the plane. Since the jet sound goes out the back and has to echo around a bit to be audible to him, whilst the explosion sound came out the front towards him, the impact is what he would hear first, followed by the fuel explosion. He would have heard them almost a second after they happened about 800 feet up.

[@purplebunny7728]

Angels come in all sizes and types. So glad you were able to get safe. So sorry about all your brothers and sisters. Thank you for generously sharing your story.

[@FarmerC.J.]

What a crazy question...”why do you think you were spared.....”🙄 yes...Angels are all around us! God bless🙏🏻✝️🙏🏻

[@vzvicstar7]

Thank you for what you do sir. And for the lives you saved on that horrible day.

[@alipanroosendaal9503]

What a compelling story. (I personally cannot imagine a supposed benign supreme being sanctioning any of what happened that day, though)

[@katelynbrown98]

Yes. It is horrific and unexplainable to credit God for saving them while others were crushed or burned alive.

[@punkyspray]

God bless the victims, their families and the survivors, I pray for you daily ❤️🙏💪

[@leesher1845]

Why do you think you were spared? There’s no answer for that.

[@alluvialedaempfer962]

„why do you think you were spared“ is one of the dumbest questions I have heard in years. It implies fatalism as a basic principle lense to life.

[@katelynbrown98]

It does. But i think it's difficult to not think that yourself if you did survive something that so many others didn't. L

[@daisy2217]

Thank you very much for your service. ❤️

[@robbieogle8622]

Its shocking that he didnt lose his arm.

[@davidfigueroa2979]

God bless you for real I see all you survivors to be heroic for being there you would not believe I see you ppl to be real American dignity !

[@k.gspianoworldjourneyschan437]

Thank u Michael! For a lifetime of wonderful service! Another hero I can admire for tangible reasons! Huggs kenny! 😉 🤙❤💙

[@NJBeachlover1]

Thank you and God Bless you.

[@californiahiker9616]

Thank you for telling your story, and thank you for your service!

[@richardtaylor8595]

Never forget 9/11

[@lisajohnson2534]

Love 👋 ❤️

[@theresaann7388]

What you saw in the middle of a street, Was an angel. He kept you from going in that building and getting killed. What happened to your arm Probably the least of what could have happened to you that day. Chalk. It up as intervention. Godbless.

[@breh7661]

this is so sad

[@nikkidark5617]

I thought the comment "you were basically a kid" was quite insulting 😯

[@leesher1845]

What was with all the ringing?

[@lisasmokette6511]

Answer the phone!

[@johndaniels7609]

Sounded like a phone right out of the 80s....

[@robbieogle8622]

Lol

[@desertbreeze69]

Does anyone besides me wonder if there were terrorist outside watching the devastation and feeling a victory by the catastrophe?

[@hizgrase]

I wondered

[@katelynbrown98]

I certainly hope not. I think perhaps that man he saw laughing was an angel.

[@katelynbrown98]

It makes me sick to think there could've been ones that watched in glee.

[@eh1702]

Maybe the man really was on the phone laughing: laughter is a modified fear response. In some countries it is exactly the normal reaction to a near miss. Although it is not culturally accepted in the USA unless there are casualties, laughing in relief &/or from shock, is still common.

[@eh1702]

Also, sobbing can sometimes sound like laughter. And so can some words in foreign languages. To English-speaking viewers, Japanese people going, “Nononono!” In Japanese as the 2011 tsunami came in sounds like laughter - Ya-ha-ha-ha!

[@jackgilley7425]

Having watched many of these and reacting as others have, I'm reluctant to bring up thoughts that might be thought abhorrent.