Ground Zero Death Calls
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Ground Zero Death Calls
The Calls
At 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001, a plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The day that followed brought fear, confusion, and enormous loss. This original historical-fiction passage follows a fictional emergency dispatcher named Elena. It does not describe a real person's experience. Elena sat at a dispatch desk several blocks from the towers. Phones rang so often that their sounds seemed to overlap. She wrote down locations, repeated instructions, and sent information to responders. Every message had to be clear. A mistake could send help in the wrong direction. Then a caller's voice came through, thin and unsteady. The person asked whether anyone was coming. Elena wanted to promise that help would arrive right away, but she did not know how quickly responders could reach that location. She took a breath and said, “I hear you. I’m sending your message now. Stay on the line if you can.” The call ended before Elena could ask another question. For a moment, the room seemed to go quiet, though the phones were still ringing. She pressed her pencil so hard that its point broke. Then she picked up another pencil and continued writing. Later, a supervisor told the dispatch team that some calls had ended without a chance to say goodbye. Elena looked at the notes filling her page. Each line stood for a person who had reached out and hoped to be heard. She could not control what happened next, but she could make sure each message was passed on carefully. She straightened the page and answered the next call.
Read Closely
Use the passage to answer. For questions that ask you to explain, support your thinking with a specific detail from the text.
- Elena is sitting several blocks from the towers.
- Phones ring so often that their sounds seem to overlap.
- Elena uses a pencil to write notes.
- A supervisor speaks to the team later.
- She is frustrated or tense.
- She is bored with her work.
- She is excited to finish her notes.
- She is confused about where she is.
- Small acts of careful communication can matter during a crisis.
- People should avoid asking questions in an emergency.
- A dispatcher can always know what will happen next.
- Writing notes is more important than listening.
3 printable pages
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
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