9/11 survivor to visit LC church
Published 6:00 pm Sunday, September 8, 2019
Sept. 11 survivor of the World Trade Center attack Stanley Praimnath will visit Power Church, 833 Jefferson Drive, at 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11, for its “Unify” service.
Sept. 11 survivor of the World Trade Center attack Stanley Praimnath will visit Power Church, 833 Jefferson Drive, at 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11, for its “Unify” service. Praimnath, an executive at Fuji Bank at the time, miraculously survived the attack through what he described as only “the grace of God and that one good man who rescued me.”
Praimnath worked on the 81st floor of the second tower to get struck. He is the only survivor of those present on his floor besides an employee he gave permission to leave early that day.
He remembers in vivid detail the moments leading up to and after the attack including the pressure he felt to leave with his nervous employee despite security guards’ assurances that all was well. “No one else walked out. You don’t know how to react when your bosses are there so I walked back in halfheartedly,” he recalled.
When his phone began to ring with news of the second plane headed towards the tower, it was too late. He saw a small gray colored plane growing larger and larger out of his office window which overlooked the Hudson River, Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty.
“‘Lord, I can’t do this. You take over.’ That’s all I remember saying, then upon impact everyone except me was gone,” he recalled.
He described his rescue and the remainder of the day as “total chaos” and a “war zone” but ultimately he arrived home to his wife and daughters swollen, bruised and bloody. “I looked like the terrorist,” he joked.
Praimnath now travels as a minister and motivational speaker sharing his message of triumph over adversity. “I feel in my spirit, way down in my soul that God wants me to tell the good news. That’s why I lived and other people didn’t.”
Sharing his story is therapeutic, Stanley said, and religious or not, he believes guests will find something to connect in his story. “Here I am, a man who went through the fire but came out of the end of the storm unscratched and unharmed. The bottom line is get up and go forward.”
Praimnath will give his entire account of 9/11 at “Unify.” The event is free, open to the public and will honor Calcasieu first responders.