Jesse Levine oral history interview conducted by Julie Broihier, June 12, 2014

About

Jesse was the Assistant Commissioner for Real Estate Services in the NYC Department of Citywide Administrative Services on 9/11. When the first plane hit, Jesse was working about a thousand yards from the World Trade Center. Senior staff decided to evacuate the building, gathered what meager medical supplies they had, and headed to the east side of City Hall Park where the ambulances were stationed. With a hand truck, they brought all the water cooler jugs they could to the corner of Chambers and Centre Street. At this time, this area was the mustering point for the NYPD and FDNY so they gave out water to the soot-covered responders. The next day, he began working 19-hour shifts providing logistical support. Orchestrating such an immense project involved determining where to locate the mountains of donations, where to dispose of tons of debris, as well as the delivery and maintenance of portable toilets. They were coordinating approximately a fifth of the 250,000-person city workforce. He worked directly at the site in this capacity until November. In the summer of 2002, the NYC Law Department formed a World Trade Center Unit in its Torts Division and Jesse became the Assistant Chief of the unit. His main responsibility was defense of property damage litigation. His responsibilities included preparing witnesses for the 9/11 Commission and screening all the audio tapes of the events of the day. He had to listen to each recording of the people who had been trapped in the…

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Library of Congress

Language

English

Country

United States

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