South Bay Couple Focuses on 'Bigger Story' of 9/11

Back at his hotel just minutes after escaping attacks on the south tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Michael Noble thought carefully about what belongings he would need in the coming days.

No time to pack everything, he grabbed a cigar. Assuming he’d sleep outside somewhere that night, he took a jacket. Finally, he picked up a book to keep himself busy.

All of this in hand, Noble walked out of his hotel back onto the streets of the terrorized city he would end up living and working in for the next two years.

Noble and his wife, Becky, former longtime Palos Verdes residents who recently moved to Hermosa Beach, still reflect on their experiences 10 years ago.

Both have tried to move on as much as they can, though they remain frustrated by what happened that day.

Before 9/11, Michael Noble, now retired, spent much of his time on business in New York City while his family lived in Southern California. He worked in offices in the south tower, where he found himself on that fateful day.

He was on the 66^th floor when he felt the impact of American Airlines Flight 11 hitting the north tower, he said. Noble took an elevator to the 44^th floor as a man with a bullhorn urged everyone to go back to their desks, he recalled. He ignored the order and headed down the stairwell to exit the building.

He had just reached the ninth floor as United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the south tower.

“My initial thought was that the north tower fell into the south tower,” he said. “The stairwell immediately filled with smoke and dust, people were screaming. … That’s when I set my coffee down.”

After escaping the south tower, Noble began the walk to his hotel. On the way, he saw a man fall from one of the buildings.

“I just remember him grabbing at air,” he said. “It was the last time I looked up.”

Despite narrowly avoiding situations that surely would have gotten him killed, Noble insisted he did not have a near-death experience that day.

“I had a lot of choices. … There was a guiding hand,” he said. “I kept opening up the right doors.”

Now the Nobles focus on the bigger picture of what happened during the 9/11 attacks.

“The story isn’t only about the victims,” said Becky Noble, the community service director at Chadwick School in Palos Verdes. “It’s a bigger story than that. It’s changed our world.”

Though it's been 10 years since the events of 9/11, the couple believes there’s still a real risk to the American people.

“We’re foolish not to at least embrace that and realize it’s still there, there’s still people that want Americans killed,” Michael Noble said.

He’s still angry about what happened, though he said he’s moved on.

“Originally … it probably impacted me as much as it did anyone in my age group. You’re angry, want revenge, want to fight back,” Michael Noble said. “I think the residual feeling now is that I remain angry; [it’s] righteous anger.”

Becky Noble said the two have probably been affected more than they acknowledge or recognize. Neither lives in fear of what could happen next, she said, but like her husband, she harbors some anger.

“I continue to be angry with those who choose to ignore the significance of the event and to dismiss it,” she said.

And though he survived while nearly 3,000 others didn’t, Michael Noble said he doesn’t feel guilty about anything except not grabbing a wedding ring from a dead man’s finger to send to his wife.

It took almost one year for Noble to receive the rest of his belongings from the Embassy Suites hotel he was living at during the time of the attacks.  

And though he's moved on, he hasn’t forgotten.

“At least once a week I picture that man falling,” he said.