until he does, i won t leave. nicolette begins the 900-step descent to ground level. it s slow going as she s helping an elderly visitor with bad knees. partway down she hears that a 5.8 magnitude earthquake has struck the washington area. until that moment, nicolette believes it s a terrorist attack. we work at the icons and our training revolves around training like that. that is the first thought that comes into your mind. it makes sense she doesn t consider an earthquake. this is the first large quake to hit the region in more than a century, but nicolette knows enough to realize the danger isn t over. i let out a sigh of relief initially but then i realized there are after shocks 350 feet up in the air and i still need to move as fast as i can to get the last visitor out. ten long minutes before nicolette makes it to solid ground, but everyone is safe. it will be many months before she can go back inside the monument again.
inaugurations, protest marches, even the threat of a terrorist attack, but when a magnitude 5.8 quake rattles the washington monument, that s not surprising the ranger on duty at the top is a little shaken. a rare earthquake jolts a national monument, and a park ranger faces the test of her life. i felt very, very, very terrified, very scared. thinking that i may not get out of the building. then while inspecting the damage, an engineer is taken for a hair-raising right. nicolette williams has worked as a park ranger at the national mall in washington, d.c., for two years. she enjoys interacting with tourists from all over the globe. every single day, we work at our different memorials and provide historical tours for visitors. on august 23rd, 2011, she s assigned to the washington monument.
debris rains down on the fleeing tourists. the building is rocking so violently, it almost knocks the ranger off her feet. i m terrified. i m thinking, i don t know if i m going to get to the bottom of this stairwell, i really think there s going to be something to knock the whole monument over. once she s opened the emergency door one flight down, nicolette knows she can t run down to the ground level. the ranger must always be the last one to leave. i m standing at the emergency exit, debating this thought, looking at the stairwell as debris is coming down the stairs. i decide i have to go back up, but i m going to run as fast as i possibly can. she sprints up to make sure the floor is clear. i m running around that top level. there s a lot of debris that has fallen now. i go back down, but as i m going back down the other stairwell, a father has run up from the floor below. he was crying his son s name over and over, so i knew that his son was already down because there
cracks. reporter: do you anticipate them finding any chips or i m not really sure. we do anticipate that they ll probably find some nicks in mort ars. reporter: the damage this he s talking about as a result of the 5.8 magnitude arrests quake that struck the east coast, the park ranger nicolette williams recalls the ordl. she told me this morning she was in the top observation deck, that is 50 feet below where you see the man actually preparing the anchor. she was there when the quake hit along with 20 people who had been with her, 20 tourists. her first reaction was, what do i do? what do i do? let s run. and then she realized she was responsible for all the safety of those tourists. she helped each and every one of them get downstairs to safety, then we ran back up stairs again to make sure that she had been able to recover everyone. i m happy to say that everyone
the top part of the monument and the top 100 feet or so. reporter: so the monument remains closed indefinitely. this week engineers will rappel down the sides of the monument looking for more damage. that ranger you may have seen heading down the stairs when the earthquake hit, her name, nicolette williams, the park service tells us she headed back up to the observation deck to make sure everyone got out safely. they re calling her a hero. terry moran, abc news, washington. scary to have been in that building. interesting footage. apparently the worst damage up at the very top. the monument is 500 feet tall. the top 100 feet took the brunt of it. no reopening date yet, but the government planned to expedite the repairs, 20, 30 years it should be back open. they re on top of it. everybody rest easy. moving on. all right. former utah governor john huntsman has been in every republican presidential debate so far, but that might change. cnn, which is hosting a debate october