Kevin Woods got annoyed when he had to be in the office, but on Sept. 11, 2001, that’s what saved him.

A stations supervisor with the New York City Transit Authority, the Albrightsville resident got up early every day to ride the bus to the city for his 7 a.m. shift.

By 9 a.m. he was usually ready for his second breakfast, on the concourse below the World Trade Center. But his supervisor sent him to the Queens office to work as office manager that week.

“I was angry. I like to be out and moving around,” he said. “But that’s how God works.”

A strong faith got even stronger as he realized how God protected him throughout the day.

On a normal day, he would have been sitting at the World Trade Center when the plane hit the tower. Instead he said, “God gave me a testimony.”

He tries not to think of that fateful day, but he remembers it like it was yesterday.

“There is very little I don’t remember,” he said.

After the first plane struck the building, Woods was talking to a worker on the phone who was hysterical. He was the office manager that day and his manager wanted him “to stay put.”

Instead, he headed out, telling his employees along the way “to get out.”

He spoke to his wife, Saundra, for the last time in what would be many hours. “She knew a plane hit the building and she knew I was headed down there.”

They didn’t know the extent of what was coming.

“Saundra had a strong faith. I felt she was concerned, but she didn’t say ‘don’t go.’?”

On his way down, there was a service disruption on the train. He got as far as Times Square and had to start walking. In the beginning people thought it was a tourist plane that hit the building. His employee called back.

“She said another plane hit the World Trade Center. I knew something was wrong.”

When he got to Times Square, Woods said, “I could see the fear on people’s faces. Information was limited. The phone service was down.”

That’s when he prayed for God to be with him.

“I heard audibly the voice of God, ‘I am already with you.’ I heard that voice and a calm came over me.”

He kept walking into a surreal situation. Traffic was stopped so he was walking in the middle of Seventh Avenue, hearing military jets flying overhead.

“That’s when I saw people covered in ash. The closer I got, the more destruction I saw, with cars and debris.”

He worked his way down, checking subway stations along the way.

It was early evening when he made it to ground zero. That’s when he believes he saw an angel. He was walking toward building 7.

“Suddenly someone was there. The person said ‘You can’t go any farther. The building is ready to fall.’?”

Woods said he saw a figure, “probably masculine, about the same height as we were.”

He couldn’t give an exact description. “I don’t recall any facial features or whether there was any distinctive clothing. And certainly not a ‘Hollywood’ rendition/creation. I just know they were there, and then they weren’t. And the prediction came to pass just moments after it was stated.”

“Not 15 to 20 seconds later I looked and he wasn’t there.”

The building collapsed.

When they began walking north, people were standing out in the street. “They didn’t know what to do,” he said.

In some areas, people applauded as workers were walking out. They came with water bottles for tired workers.

He returned to his office and worked the phones throughout the night. The next day he managed to catch a New Jersey Transit train out of the city, riding to the last stop. That’s where Saundra picked him up and he crawled into bed and slept, not even reporting off duty.

Moving forward

He returned to work Sept. 13.

“I didn’t feel so much. I had a job to do. I forced myself not to think about it.”

Woods said his faith is even stronger because of the experience.

“I had no concern about getting hurt” that day, he said.

When he was at ground zero, Woods said, “You could smell things in the air that you just knew weren’t good for you. You could see the dust and debris in the air.”

They had masks, but they were the kind for people who worked with cleaning products at the station, not the high grade needed for the situation.

He is part of a World Trade Center health registry, and has reported symptoms such as a change in his voice range. Now 62, he said, “My voice isn’t what it used to be.”

It could be an aging issue, or a 9/11 issue. The registry checks with everyone annually to see how they’re doing.

He retired in 2014 and started working as a charter pilot and flight instructor.

“Mentally I am OK. When I think about it, it comes flashing back.”

The skyline change is still hard to process. “For a New Yorker, those buildings stood for something and to see them crumble,” he said, as he choked up briefly. “To see that happen like that.”

There was always a point where he’d see the World Trade Center as he headed down Seventh Avenue. “That day I didn’t see it.”

Those experiences affirmed his faith. “We need to watch what we cherish. It can be taken away just like that.”

On Sept. 11 and in this pandemic, “God is still here,” Woods said.

As an American citizen, he feels Sept. 11 should be observed in the same way as Dec. 7, 1941. “It’s a point in history, but I think a Christian needs to take it further.”

Woods said he isn’t surprised at world events, and is saddened by all the lives lost on Sept. 11.

“Personally, I have been able to move forward knowing what I know. As a Christian, our citizenship is not here. It’s in heaven.”