NEW YORK, NY August 17, 2006 —After months of editing, the city released more than 20 hours of dispatcher tapes from September 11. The recordings provide more details about how emergency responders reacted to the World Trade Center attacks. WNYC’s Fred Mogul has more.

Most of the 1600 calls are from firefighters to dispatchers. They show confusion about who was where and when help would arrive. But they also show humanity, with operators trying to provide calm amidst chaos, and even glimpses of order, with one battalion chief getting accurate information about the units in the South Tower.

Retired Fire Captain Al Fuentes said that he re-experienced the frustration of that day while listening to the travails of his friend and fellow captain Patrick Brown.

FUENTES: I’m heading up. He's doing his job, and he's going to continue doing his job. But he can't talk to the command post. Communications was a monumental failure.

REPORTER: Ten of the calls were from civilians inside the towers to 9-1-1 dispatchers, but the voices of the callers were edited out and only the operators can be heard.

Most people are told to stay put because help was on the way. The call for evacuation had not reached the dispatchers. For WNYC, I’m Fred Mogul.