Most nights, George deMenocal can fend off the hellish memories long enough to get some sleep.

But sometimes he can’t.

“I still have nights when I can’t sleep at all,” he said. “But it’s not as bad as it was right after it happened. I had a hard time sleeping for about two months.”

DeMenocal, a senior vice president with Aon Re Worldwide, one of the world’s largest insurers, was on the 99th floor of the World Trade Center’s second tower when the hijacked airliner hit the first tower.

And when the second airliner tore through the second tower’s 78th floor, deMenocal was on the 64th floor.

“I can still see the bodies falling out of the building and parts of people lying on the street,” he said. “And I can still hear the screams and smell of people burning.”

DeMenocal, who lives in Connecticut, is related by marriage to former Lawrence resident Linda Simons, daughter of Journal-World publisher Dolph C. Simons Jr.

An account of his leaving the building appeared in the newspaper’s Sept. 14, 2001, edition.

“That story went all over the world  I’m guessing, over the Internet,” deMenocal said. “I got flooded with calls and letters from friends, business associates and people I haven’t seen since childhood. It was amazing.”

A year later, deMenocal said he realized he left out a few details:

 When the second plane hit the second tower, the people in the stairwell were thrown “like rag dolls” against one wall, then, as the building righted itself, they were thrown against the opposite wall.

“The building moved 100 feet, easily,” deMenocal said. “People were flying, some of them hit the wall, a shoulder or their feet or their heads  those who hit with their heads didn’t make it.”

 Almost 200 Aon Re Worldwide employees died that day.

“I was there for a meeting  there were six of us there, waiting for it to start,” deMenocal said. “Four didn’t make it.”

 On the 98th floor, deMenocal encountered a young woman who was “in the corner, crying and refusing to walk down the stairs.” She had her purse in one hand, a Macy’s bag in the other.

“I took the purse and the bag, and I looked her in the eye and I said, ‘Your purse and your bag are going down with me, so grab my hand and follow me down,'” deMenocal said.

“Once she took my hand, I pulled her close to me and down we went.”

Later, another woman suffered an asthma attack. She’d also lost her shoes.

“Her feet were ripped up,” deMenocal said. “She was having a hard time walking, so she held onto my shoulders from behind.”

Though DeMenocal and the two women left the building together, the second woman ran away.

“I’ve not heard from her,” he said.

DeMenocal held on to the first woman.

“We’ve stayed in touch. She calls me her angel.”

“All I could do”

DeMenocal said he’s not had to wrestle with “survivors’ guilt.”

“The way I look at it, I changed the outcome of two people’s lives. I made sure they survived. I did all I could do,” he said.

“I feel absolutely terrible for all those who didn’t make it, but I don’t feel guilty.”

Still, he knows he’s lucky to be alive.

“I’m incredibly fortunate,” he said. “If I’d waited 30 seconds or if I’d taken those stairs instead of these stairs, I wouldn’t have made it,” he said. “There were people on the 99th floor, who, instead of leaving when I did, went to the other side of the building to see what had happened  they didn’t make it.

“There were people who left when I did, but took a different stairwell  they didn’t make it, either.

“When we got out to the building and the policeman told us to keep moving, we did. But the person next to us stopped to make a (cell phone) call,” deMenocal said. “Thirty seconds later, the tower came down, and he was gone.”

DeMenocal said he planned to spend Sept. 11 at home, surrounded by family and friends.

“I think that’s best for me,” he said. “I have a wonderful family, wonderful friends. I’m blessed.”