It's one year later. Where were you then? Where are you now? How have you changed?

Fast Company ^ | September 2002

[mhking]

9/11/02

It's one year later. Where were you then? Where are you now? How have you changed?

by Fast Company
photographs by Geof Kern
from FC issue 62, page 59

Rono Dutta
President
United Airlines
Elk Grove Township, Illinois
The world has been through a lot. The employees of United Airlines have been through a lot -- and more. It wasn't until two weeks after September 11 that I gave myself permission to grieve. I was at the opening night of the Chicago Symphony. I just listened to the music and cried. And kept crying.

I am still grieving. But shock has given way to determination. September 11 forced us to get rid of the BS in our thinking. Before September 11, we wanted to be the biggest and best airline. Today, we just want to survive. Before September 11, we believed that size would forgive a lot of our errors. Now we have no room for error. Before September 11, we took a lot of things for granted: that business would always get better, that demand would grow. We no longer take anything for granted.

That said, our sense of purpose has never been greater. We are returning to our core values. Whether it's in advertising, product positioning, or the way that we view ourselves and our customers, we're more sincere in what we say and what we do.

Business has become more real.

Rono Dutta ( rdutta@ual.com ) and another top executive at United Airlines had gathered in then-CEO James Goodwin's office to report that air-traffic control had lost contact with United Airlines Flight 175 when Goodwin notified them that a plane, which was reported and later confirmed to be American Airlines Flight 11, had just struck the World Trade Center. From there, they watched on TV as their own plane struck the South Tower. Moments later, they learned that they had lost contact with United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania about an hour after the initial attack.

Tom Leighton
Cofounder and chief scientist
Akamai Technologies Inc.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
The day that took the life of my friend and cofounder was also the day that demonstrated the value and the power of our technology.

It was Danny Lewin's idea to take an academic project that we'd been working on, enter a business-plan contest at MIT, and create Akamai. He was our chief technology officer, and he was on board American Airlines Flight 11. Not a day goes by that I don't think about how Danny's death has changed the lives of the people here.

Yet the day that we lost Danny was also the day that this company shined. It was a peak day for Internet volume, and many sites simply couldn't handle it. We signed up all kinds of new customers on September 11 -- news sites, airlines, and government agencies -- and handled their traffic. For many Internet-service providers, the only traffic they could deliver that day was Akamai traffic.

Today, there is a heightened sense of urgency. We've always believed that the work we do is important; now we believe it more strongly. We always took our work personally; now it's even more so. I spent at least four hours a day with Danny for several years. He was killed while working for the company that we created. If that doesn't create an extra edge, what would?

Tom Leighton cofounded Akamai Technologies in 1998 with Danny Lewin and a team of scientists at MIT. Leighton had been working late with Lewin the night before September 11.

Joseph Noviello
Executive vice president, chief information officer, and director
eSpeed Inc.
New York, New York
We are proof that when tested, even under brutal circumstances, people rise to the occasion in miraculous ways.

The morning after September 11 and the days and weeks that followed, we worked around the clock to restore our systems and save the company. People did whatever it took. Those whose managers had died showed their skills as natural leaders. Their instincts for what to do were so strong. They figured out how to contribute based on what they knew. Many of us slept on cots at our computing center in Rochelle Park, New Jersey, where we had duplicates of everything that was destroyed at our offices in the World Trade Center. ESpeed was up and running when the bond market reopened two days after the attacks.

The need to get back to work was intense, and it was amazing how much everyone accomplished. We worked to restore this company for Fred Varacchi, our president, who was such a mentor to me, and for Joe Giaccone, our global infrastructure manager. I can walk into Rochelle Park today and see the eSpeed-orange wall that Joe insisted we paint. It was his passion and persistence that convinced us to create the backup data center in the first place.

Fred, Joe, and so many of the people we lost that day had such an effect on me. I am now more aware than ever of the effect that I can have on other people -- and the commitment that requires.

Joseph Noviello and four eSpeed executives were scheduled to go on a fishing trip the morning of September 11. Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond-trading firm, and eSpeed, an electronic-trading operation almost wholly owned by Cantor, lost 658 of their 900 employees.

Anna Switzer
Principal
Public School 234
New York, New York
People think we were evacuated. We weren't evacuated. We evacuated ourselves. Parents were calling the school and alarms were going off and the building was shaking. As we left, the second tower fell.

I am a much better principal because of what happened. And we have much better teachers too. We share something that's hard for other people to understand. I am much more aware of the power of leadership in a crisis and that leadership can come from so many people, regardless of their formal roles.

At the time, we didn't realize that we wouldn't be back in our school for another five months. The kids wanted normalcy -- their old classroom. We couldn't give them their building. But we could give them their work. In the course of their daily assignments, the kids found comfort. So now we have beautiful artifacts that show what we all experienced this past year. The work is what got us through.

Anna Switzer ( info@ps234.org ) was in the school yard of Public School 234, which is four blocks away from what is now ground zero, when she saw the first plane hit. When the second plane hit, she says, "all hell broke loose." Of the school's 655 children, all were safely relocated. As the second tower collapsed, the last 90 kids were marched two and a half miles uptown by Switzer and a handful of staffers. Over the next five months, students and staff moved three times before returning to their school.

Paul Steiger
Managing editor and VP
The Wall Street Journal
New York, New York
I turned 60 in August, and I've been in this business for 36 years. I can't say that work has become more important as a result of what happened -- it's always been important. But the tape has been running so much faster. There was the horror of September 11. There was the horror of Danny Pearl's death. And it's been one of the most intense years for business coverage: Enron, Andersen, WorldCom, among others.

Our resolve to get stories into the paper and to get them right has never been greater. The Journal's culture has dominated in just an extraordinary way. What we've done is to apply our existing values with greater rigor and more focus -- because the challenges are so much bigger. I have seen such amazing performances from so many people -- at a time when you might expect nothing but sand in the gears.

Paul Steiger ( paul.steiger@wsj. com ) was in his office in the World Financial Center, across from the World Trade Center, when the first plane crashed into the North Tower. The Journal's main offices were evacuated by 9:15 AM, and its staff members were scattered for the rest of the day. Some regrouped at the Journal's South Brunswick, New Jersey office, while others worked from home. On September 12, the paper reached 1.6 million of its 1.8 million readers. Under Steiger's leadership, the Journal won this year's Pulitzer Prize for breaking news.

David Emil
Former owner
Windows on the World
New York, New York
I lost my business on September 11. Big fucking deal. My loss shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as the loss of life.

The fact that 79 people died while working for my company has radically changed my life. I feel a huge responsibility to the people who lost their jobs. I feel an entirely different level of responsibility to the families of the people who lost their lives.

But I'm not superhuman. The physical destruction of our place of business meant the destruction of the business itself. I can't create 350 jobs from whole cloth for the survivors. And no matter how much I do to help raise money for the victims' families, I understand that there will always be raw emotion -- anger and distress -- over an inconceivable loss.

So all I can do is keep building and creating. Noche, a restaurant that we opened in Times Square last June, was the completion of the work of Christine Olender, a senior employee who was killed on September 11. Five years from now, I can imagine that there will be a fabulous building in lower Manhattan, and there will be a restaurant at the top of it that I would like to operate.

David Emil's Night Sky restaurants operated Windows on the World, the restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center. Windows, along with another restaurant and a bar on the top floor of the North Tower, employed 450 people. All 79 who were on duty that morning died. Windows of Hope, a fund that assists families of victims in the food-service industry, has raised more than $18 million.

Joseph Pfeifer
Deputy chief
New York City Fire Department
New York, New York
Heroism? It's about doing an ordinary thing at an extraordinary time. It's what those 343 firefighters who died on September 11 did, including my brother. I know now that when he was coming down from the 30th floor of Tower One, he stopped on the 10th floor and told the captain of Engine 7 that his crew needed to switch to the other set of stairs that led out directly into the lobby. About 30 seconds after they evacuated the building, the tower came down. My brother didn't make it out.

You don't run into a burning building if you don't believe that your essence is being a firefighter, if you don't believe that you can make a real difference in someone's life. But we can't always run toward everything. We did as much as we could that day. We knew what was happening. But what we didn't know was that a high-rise building could collapse. The concept wasn't part of our language, our procedures.

Today, I'm working with a team to help make fire departments safer. Firefighters will always be the first responders no matter what acts of terrorism are wreaked upon Americans, so we're trying to figure out how to make that response safer and still save lives.

Joseph Pfeifer was the first fire chief to arrive at the World Trade Center on September 11 -- in under four minutes. He recently finished working with the New York City Fire Department and McKinsey & Co. on a report on September 11.

Bernadette Kingham
VP, communications and marketing
Saint Vincent Catholic
Medical Centers
New York, New York
There is no such thing as being too prepared for the next disaster, and planning, we have come to learn, requires a serious commitment to collaboration.

September 11 tested the flexibility of more than 100 hospitals in the New York area to respond collectively to a tragedy. Early on, it became clear that our disaster plans were too insular -- families in search of loved ones had to go through the mental anguish of traveling from hospital to hospital, because there was no single place to find out if and where a patient had been admitted. Today, we are developing a central system to locate patients and share information.

We feel a tremendous sense of urgency to be prepared for the next disaster. Nationwide, hospitals know they need to beef up their planning efforts. But in New York, we're actually sitting around a table and making that happen.

Bernadette Kingham ( bking ham@saintvincentsnyc.org ) heard the first plane flying low overhead from her office at St. Vincent's Manhattan, the closest trauma center to the World Trade Center and one of eight hospitals in the Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers system. More than 1,000 victims were treated by the network.

[TomSmedley]

BUMP

[McLynnan]

I was at home on the computer reading FR with the tv on Fox News and saw the first reports. Sat in absolute shock for a few minutes then called my husband. After the second plane hit, I did the most irrational thing -- I took my car and filled the gas tank. To this day I don't know what possessed me to do that. Later in the day I ran the freshman high school carpool and brought home a group of kids who had spent the day watching news coverage at school. Their reaction is when it really hit me. They asked me if we were going to war. I told them yes, something like this can't go unanswered. For the first time in their innocent lives they realized their world was not a safe place. I was an early teen in Dallas when JFK was killed, and remember the horror and sorrow. I think their reaction to 9/11 was similar, only more fearful because this time there is a real enemy who intends all of us harm.

Today I sit in McLennan County, Texas, not many miles from the President's ranch. Everytime the President visits we are reminded the danger is still there by the presence of F-16s patrolling our skies 24 hours a day. The pride the children in this area felt over living near the President has been replaced by an underlying fear when the F-16s return. The younger ones aren't sure they are safe anymore.

I still feel an incredible sadness over the loss of life on 9/11, and my anger has not abated. At the same time, I am heartened by this administration, by our country's pull together reaction to the attacks, I know that difficult times lie ahead, but feel that we are in good hands.

[Ditter]

We were in bed drinking coffee like we do every morning, watching the first building burn. Terrible accident, we thought. Then we saw the second plane hit the second building & I felt like I was watching a movie, like it wasn't real, but I knew it was. Strange feeling. Feeling shocked & stunned all day but also there was a bit of "I told you so" going thru my head, because I felt something awful would happen sooner or later. We, as a nation, had so many warnings the last 8 years. It was terrible but I am glad it was not nuclear.

[gunshy]

I'm still hiding in the basement. Is it safe to come out yet. Thank god for all that Y2K food and water.

[pt17]

I was in my office working when my daughter called from her cell phone saying a plane (the first one) had hit WTC. I rushed down to the building's exercise room to watch the TV and saw the second one hit.

Since it was the only thing on everyone's mind, I let my entire staff off around 11 am. The company followed suit and let everyone go shortly after noon. Over the longer term, our family got directly involved in helping a 9/11 family whose loss was especially difficult.

[ExSoldier]

I was in my classroom waiting for the tardy bell when the first kids came running in asking me if I'd heard. My first thought was some dummy in a Cessna on his first solo flight.

As soon as I got to the Social Studies Office and saw the TV (my portable classroom doesn't have a TV...to easy to break into and steal) I knew we were in a war and it might be fought on our home soil for the first time since the War of 1812 (not counting the War of Northern Aggression).

Then I thought of my few remaining buddies on active duty who were now senior officers and wondered if they could help me get my commission back. Within days I had long letters of recommendation from two full colonels, one lieutenant colonel, one congresscritter and the Governor of Florida. And the US Army said "no thanks." Then I remembered that war is an experience that belongs to the young....now isn't that sad?

This year on September the 11th I'll still be in an inner city high school classroom and I'll STILL have to watch what I say so as not to "offend" anybody and I'll tell the truth and pray they won't start hunting me for my job because I won't push the liberal agenda.....which will be the same situation I have experienced every day for the last fourteen years that I have taught in the public schools.

[cibco]

"I'm still hiding in the basement. Is it safe to come out yet. Thank god for all that Y2K food and water."

You too? I'm going to wait another month...

[RoseofTexas]

I was going to type MY 9-11 experience, but after reading every post, I'm sitting in front of the puter crying my eyes out! I for one WILL NEVER EVER FORGET the terroism our beautiful country experienced that day...NEVER! GOD BLESS AMERICA AND GOD GIVE US THE VICTORY TO CONQUER THOSE DEMON EVIL ISLAMIC B***ARDS!!

[Wolfstar]

Thank you for this post, mhking, and for the opportunity to share my own small story with other FReepers. I was born and raised in New Jersey (East Orange, Jersey City, Union City). My father's whole family had settled in New York City after emigrating from Italy, and my dad is buried in a cemetary on the Brooklyn-Queens border near the BQE. I rented an apartment upstairs from my Uncle Al in Flushing, Queens from 1971-1976. So my roots go deep there, even though I moved to L.A. in Oct. 1976 and have never been back east since.

As a youngster with a growing interest in photography, I used to go down to the Jersey City docks and take pics of the NYC skyline. Still have several I took of the WTC as it was being built. I have one shot in particular that now means a great deal to me. It was taken in 1970 from the Empire State Building observation deck at sunset looking south to the twin towers, which were then under construction. The lights of the city were coming on as evening fell. The lights, plus the glow from the sunset, cast a magical warmth on the scene.

9/11/01: I set my clock radio for 5:45a.m. That morning, it didn't quite wake me up, so I was still dozing here in L.A. when the urgency in the voice of someone on the radio saying, "This is huge," suddenly shocked me awake. I didn't know what the radio guy was saying, but there was sheer terror in his voice. I turned on the TV to see the twin towers in flames. To say that I was stunned doesn't begin to describe it. Like the rest of the nation, I sat glued to the TV, frantically switching channels trying to get as much news as I could. After the 2nd tower fell and the news from Washington and Pennsylvania didn't seem to be getting any worse, I dressed and went to work.

I thought it was very odd that no businesses closed that day. Unlike when Kennedy was shot, the nation pretty much stayed open for business on 9/11/01, except for air traffic, New York and DC. I still think that was odd. Anyway, I spent the rest of the day watching grainy TV at work along with most of my coworkers. I wanted to sit in my cubicle and read posts on FR while listening to the radio, but my cubicle mate nastily complained about having the radio on (for which I have never forgiven him).

It was the first, and only time since I moved from NYC that I wanted to be back there, because I wanted to help in some way. Any way.

That night, people in my locality spontaneously took flags and candles and went to the biggest commercial street here (Hawthorne Blvd.), and spent hours screaming "USA, USA, USA," waving the flags, getting motorists to honk their horns. Whenever a cop or fire truck went by, we cheered as loud as we could, and they would turn on their sirens in response. Big rig drivers would sound their deep-voiced horns. On the corner were I was, there's a Spires Restaurant. The restaurant people could't leave their jobs, so I took a candle they gave me out to represent them. As horrible as the day was, that night spent with others spontaneously defying the terrorists on our particular piece of American real estate was one of the best nights of my life.

How has 9/11 changed me? I don't know the full extent. I find myself much more willing to seek out and enjoy fluff like that silly American Idol series on Fox this summer. I find I want to do something different with my life, but haven't found what, yet. I find that family means more to me than ever. And that includes my dogs, with whom I've walked more this year. I find that material things don't mean as much, and I wish with all my heart there was some way to just drop out of the rat race. I am sadder, lonelier, full of anger at radical Islamists. I have less patience for the mindlessness of the political Left, and even less for the foolish intramural squabbling of my brothers and sisters who are anywhere right of center on the political spectrum.

I believe that the political right in this country may very well be the last bulwark against the very real and present danger radical Islam poses to our country and our way of life. I believe that President Bush knew immediately that morning that this issue trumps all others in importance. Overall, I think he's done a very good job. But I think he and the administration made one big mistake: they failed to engage the country in civil defense activities. There should have been an effort made to mobilize people in a way similar to civil defense during WWII. Coast watchers, airport perimeter watchers, sky watchers, watchers around the perimeter of potential targets like refineries, nuclear power plants, dams and the like. I don't agree the country should have been told to just go on about its business like nothing had happened.

We haven't been attacked in nearly a year. That's to the administration's credit. But I believe with all my heart that we will be attacked again. The nation needs to understand the danger.

[Militiaman7]

I was visiting my cousin just outside of Copenhagen, Denmark. We were watching the CNN (Europe) when it came on. Everyone was glued to the TV.

Back home now. Still pissed off. Wanting the US to Kick A$$ and Take Names.

More vigilant, more suspicious of Middle Eastern people (I think its alright to profile).

[muggs]

Reading the posts had the same affect on me. I have been crying since the post from Wimpycat.

I have trying to compose a post about my experience on 9-11 but first I will have to stop crying.

[Young Werther]

I was already at work CST. I was overworked and now am unemployed. I remember hearing the first report on the radio and thought that another doofus had flown into the WTC just as that idiot Frenchman who had flown a parasail aircraft onto the Statue of Liberty!

High Tech's in the crapper and I feel like fecal matter!

[Wolfstar]

Oh, and one more thing. On 9/12/01, I put up a small flag above my cubicle. It's still there and won't come down until after 9/11/02. I also put up the cover of the Time special issue showing President Bush holding up the flag on top of the rubble pile at Ground Zero, bull horn in his other hand. The TIME title was in red, white, blue and black, and above the title is the headline, "One Nation, Indivisible." That will stay up on my cubicle wall as long as I have this job. In that moment, on top of that rubble, he ceased being just another politician and became a truly great, great man. I will love him always and follow him anywhere he leads.

[spodefly]

My birthday is 9/10, so I was getting a late start for work on the morning of 9/11 ... the TV was on, and I heard the story about a plane hitting the WTC. I knew (not that I am prescient or anything) that it was not an accident. The hole was too big to have been made by a private airplane, and there is no way that a commercial aircraft could have lost its way on a perfectly clear day and hit the building. It didn't really register until the second plane hit, which was broadcast live.

At that point, I had no idea how bad things were going to be. The rumors were rampant of other planes in the air, truck bombs, etc. I filled 3 - 7 gallon water containers, packed up canned goods, MREs, and portable propane stove, grabbed the M5 (corpman's med kit), put the 12 guage, 9mm, and several hundred rounds of ammo in a large black sport bag, tuned the scanners to the local police traffic, and watched the rest of the day unfold on TV.

The water, food, first aid, guns and ammo are still packed.

[rmlew]

At 8:45 in the morning I had just entered teh gymnasium of a local Junior High school to vote. (September 11th was primary day in NYC.) I was wearing my walkman (damn thing is almost an extension of me) but the poll watcher told me to put it away. She said taht radios were not allowed at the booths. I went tothe front desk and then to the appropriate line. I got to the front where a woman was checking voting rolls. I told here that I was here for the Republican primary, but she was a little dense and was still looking through the Democrat book. (I have been a registered Republican and Conservative, never a Democrat.) She finally got the point, only to realise that she didn't have any Republican ballots. Evidently, I was the first person in my district subsection to vote for the Republican primary. 2 minutes later, the machine was set up and I pulled the switch for Herman Badillo. (I suppose I have the honor of having voted 2 twice against Bloomberg in the primary and once in the general.)
I got out of line and there was some commotion outside. I figured some Democrat partisan of Green or Ferare had broken teh rules. (nothing new, I had done poll watching in 1997 and caught quite a few Democrat shenanigans.) I didn't pay attention until I heard someone yell "It's on fire. Tower 2 is burning"
I don't thinki I can explain the cold chill that went through my body as I turned my walkman back on to WABC. It was 8:59. I remember having two throughts in my head.
1. This was a reapeat of the 1946 accident at the Empire State building. I had written about the history of the Empire State building for a class and everything flooded back. I dismissed it pretty quickly, when i realised that it was a beautiful day with high visibility. I knew it was a purposeful act, I just didn't want to believe what I knew to be true.
2. I had this fleeting thought of crawling back to bed and then waking up withthis being a bad dream. It was silly and the notion was soon dispelled.

Like everyone else, I soon found myself running to a local bar where someone had turned on the TV. I had just got their when the second plane hit. It is difficult to explain the shock anger and greif that hit about 2 dozen of huddled around the TV. About one second into this wave of emotions, a glass fell. As if on que, everyone jumped. And then all I could here were two women crying. The anger I felt was nothing compared to the raw hatred evident in some people eyes.
I walked home. On the way I tried to call my parents to tell them what had happened and get the telephone number of some relative who worked near the site. All I got was a message taht the lines were full.

I got upstairs and turned on the TV.

About an hour later, I went to work to relieve a secretary who lived downtown. No one else made it. I just sat there streaming audio over the computer, desperately trying to call relatives.

[muggs]

It didn't really register until the second plane hit, which was broadcast live.

I still gasp whenever I see a video of the second plane crashing into the tower.

[angkor]

The water, food, first aid, guns and ammo are still packed.

Ditto on that, doubled-up. One kit here, another 20 minutes away.

[NewYorker]

Then and now I live in midtown Manhattan, just north of the U.N. I was late for an appointment on West 55th Street that day and had no idea what was going on until I left the building just before 10 a.m. Our elevator man told me that two planes had hit the trade center and I mentally pictured an accident between two small planes.

On 1st Avenue some construction guys had turned on the radio in their truck and people were hovering around listening to the news. As I stood there listening, feeling like I'd just been kicked in the stomach, I turned and looked south towards the trade center. There was an enormous cloud of debris - like a mushroom cloud - exploding over lower Manhattan. The first building had just fallen. At that point I didn't know that my next door neighbor was trapped on the 105th floor of the north tower.

That evening it was heartbreaking to see his footprints on the carpeting from when he left for work that morning and his mail waiting for him outside his door.

I like to think the legacy of September 11th is a greater spirit of community across America and a resurgence of patriotism.

[luckodeirish]

I am on the left coast. Was at work when we got the news. I cannot articulate how I felt then or now. But, to all you good folks from the right coast, not everyone in California has forgotten you.

God Bless America