>>> some pretty frightening new video, showing what it was like to be inside the washington monument when the earthquake struck the d.c. area last month. it shows people including a park ranger at the top of the monument racing for the stairs, as you can see the building started to shake quite violently.
>> nicky williams was the park ranger on duty that day. good morning.
>> good morning.
>> there you were somewhat 500 feet up, the mortar is starting to fall from the building. there isn't any audio on this surveillance tape but can you tell us what it sounded like, what it felt like to be that high during this earthquake?
>> it was very frightening and you see the video that i almost instantly look at the camera that's filming me because the metal apparatus for the elevator began to zing and shake. you have people crying out screaming. i eventually make the decision we're going to run down the stairs, i start shouting out go down the stairs, that's when you see the group of people follow me down the stairs, very loud, very noisy but eventually everyone's working together with me.
>> nicky , what did you think was happening, washington, d.c., terror is on your minds. was that the first thought you had, this was some sort of attack?
>> that was the first thought i had, some sort of attack, but i figured whatever was happening the best place was not at the top, but the bottom of the monument. my next thought was to get out of there.
>> in terms of how long it took to you get out, you also helped an elderly woman get out. sounds as though it took you a little bit longer than it took the others. how long did it take you to get out?
>> well we were fortunate, of the 20 people up there, the rest of them were able to rush down the stairs. when i assisted that woman down it took us about ten minutes and it was about two minutes into the whole ordeal is when finally it comes across my radio that it is an earthquake, it was not an attack. i was able to comfort myself and the woman i was helping down the stairwell.
>> meantime, plenty of cracks they discovered in the monument itself. i hear they're going to rappel down and take a closer look today.
>> yeah, they're going to go out all four of the windows and rappel fun all four sides.
>> we can see from your eyes a degree of relief that it was just an earthquake. would you -- rather than a terrorist attack . would you say you have any issues of going back up inside the monument to do your job?
>> if they can guarantee me that it is going to be stable and secure i will go back.
>> okay, well there you go, they've got to guarantee it's going to be stable and secure. thanks so much, nicky , for joining us. good luck and congratulations on doing the right thing up there.
>> thank you.
>> for all of our friends on the west coast discounting that quake look at the video.
>> pretty scary for a lot
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45769610/ns/travel-news/
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