Surviving the 9/11 Attacks, With the Help of a Seeing Eye Dog

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Updated: 8:27 PM May 17, 2006 Surviving the 9/11 Attacks, With the Help of a Seeing Eye Dog It would be an incredible story anyway, but Mike Hingson who was working in the World Trade Center the morning of 9/11 escaped with his guide dog. Posted: 3:59 PM May 17, 2006 Reporter: Carrie Hutton Surviving the 9/11 Attacks, With the Help of a Seeing Eye Dog

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She's as calm now as she was in Tower One of the World Trade Center minutes before it fell on September 11, 2001. And that's part of the reason Roselle and her owner, Mike Hingson are alive today.

"It's my job to know where to go and how to get there," says Hingson, "It's Roselle's job to get there safely, so for me, it was teamwork." He'd been preparing for a training session that morning in his 78th floor office. Hingson says he took his cues from Roselle who didn't act nervous when the building shook and started to lean. The yellow lab, her owner and a colleague headed down the stairs to evacuate.

"Nobody knew what happened, the airplane hit on the 96th floor on the north side of the building and we were on the south side," remembers Hingson. But Hingson says strangers formed a team that day during the hour-long escape.

Once they'd made their way out, the reality started sinking in. "It was this deafening roar, like a train and it was Tower 2 coming down."

Hingson says Roselle kept taking directions through all the noise and chaos. Then they found themselves outside, but caught up in a dust cloud. "I could feel it in my lungs, in every breath," says Hingson.

Looking back he realizes how easily his story could've ended tragically but he gives speeches like this so that people can better understand that the blind are just as capable as sighted people even in the worst of times.

To learn more about Guide Dogs for the Blind, call 1-800-295-4050 or at their Web site, www.guidedogs.com.