Thanks for your concern. I'm finally able to talk
about what happened. Please forward to all our
acquaintances.
Thanks again.
FACTS:
------
8:45am - AA 11 crashes into North Tower (Tower I)
9:03 - UAL 175 crashes into South Tower (Tower II)
Sun Field Office occupies the 25th and
26th floors of the South tower at WTC
(Employees vary from System Engineers, System
Support Engineers, Sales Engineers, Recruiters,
Managers, Directors, Client executives, etc...
from Sun Enterprise Services, Sun Professional
Services, as well as Sales and other divisions).
First of all, I would like to thank everyone for all of your kind words
of
support, prayers and solidarity regarding the horrific acts that took
place
earlier this week.
Thank you for your expression of concern and safety about the
tragedy, not only for me but for all of the victims of the
WTC (tragedy), that has so shaken this country and the world.
I have truly been amazed at the varied reactions across America.
In spite of losing all my technical materials, data/mail/home directory
(Sun's mail, home dir servers were all housed at WTC), I am THANKFUL
being alive - being able to share this with all of you - here I am
trying to rebuild and get back to work in "normalcy", so to speak.
Anyways, I know that this may be a little late... finally, able
to send/receive email and to talk about it... but here's my account
of events that transpired during that fateful day - September 11 -
which will now forever be "etched" in my life.
September 11, 2001; Tuesday:
In my office, 25th floor Room 255309 South Tower WTC...
7:45AM Another day at the office. I have all my gear and equipments
ready to go to our lab to
configure and play around with
Sun Cluster 2.2 and 3.0
trying to prepare for an anticipated
cluster install for my account
at Merrill Lynch.
Scheduled the install in
our lab for 9:00AM - The "longest"
9:00AM I'd encounter.
7:48AM Am waiting and looking for other officemates and can't
find any. Strange, even
for a normal day for folks who
work early... (All adjacent
rooms were empty).
8:00AM I decide to login to my Sunray at my office - 25th floor
-
to check email and read
the news (Philippines and U.S).
Philippine Inquirer and
CNN, to be precise.
8:20AM Am answering technical questions on the phone for one
of my Merrill System Administrators.
8:35AM Am emailing and surfing the web.
8:45AM AA 11 crashes into North Tower (Tower I). Our building
gets a
very "quick" jolt - a sudden
but immediate "shake". I am UNAWARE
of the situation. I guess
it's totally different when you're in
the building, isolating
you from the "goings-on" of the outside
world.
8:47AM I try to figure out what had just happened. I look outside
our
window and see what I thought
at that time were "confetti" and
thousands of people on the
streets. I say to myself.... "Hmmmm...
It must be one of our New
York's mayoral campaign `sortee` or
`rally` of some sort", knowing
that that week was indeed NY's
primary mayoral election.
8:48AM Dismissing the event as just being "peculiar" and "odd",
I
continue to do my work on
my workstation, unmindful of what had just
happened.
8:50AM I receive 1 page and 1 phone call from 2 co-engineers at
work.
The page mentioned: "Are you aware that
your building is on fire?",
and the other one said (over
the phone): "A plane just crashed into
the other building, it might've
been an accident. Check CNN".
8:55AM I try to check things out. I couldn't get onto CNN for
some
apparent reason, so I decide to call
my wife. "Pangga, (Love in one of
our dialects - and what we call
each other)... I think something
happene here at WTC. I don't know what
it is, but it MUST be big. I
think a `small` light-plane accidentally
crashed onto Tower I. It
might be another
one of those `terrorist` threats (jokingly said). -
This jokingly said as just 2 weeks before
this incident I learned from a
friend and co-engineer that something
had happened at WTC's parking lot
and that they cordoned this area due to a
terrorist threat, again all
happening unkowingly under our noses with
no inkling whatsoever that such
a situation happened, but a false alarm
at that - I don't
really know what's going on. I'll call you
back."
8:59AM Total confusion and worry is on my face by now, but seeing
no
other Sun employees, no alarms, no anouncements,
no panic... nothing,
I decide to continue working.
9:00AM The alarm in our building (Tower II) sound off... A loud
announcement is heard stating
the following: "Tower I had been struck. Tower
II is however 'secure' and
'stable'. Please remain in the
building. Do NOT go out
of the building!".
I'm thinking to myself... "Struck?
By what? What are the
details? What's going on?
Uh, ok I'll remain in the building as
INSTRUCTED!".
A couple of minutes later...............
9:03AM UAL 175 crashes into South Tower (Tower II), "OUR" building.
BOOM!!!!... A very, very
loud 'explosion' is heard.... and
FELT! I think the
plane hit the 38th flr... ours was the 25th... such
a small distance.
Imagine the impact.
Our building was now "shaking"
violently.... Precariously
swaying left to right...
several times... Debris!... smoke!, soot!, now
it dawned on me that
I "may" and was in fact actually going to
die. There was still power
at this juncture, so I was still able to
call my wife: "Pangga, Please
HELP me!... Our building is swaying
violently, it may
collapse anytime... - Thinking quickly that in the event
of my death - as imminent
death already crept to my mind - Please do
take of our baby.
Take care of yourself too. I love you and Yelena
(my 2 year old daughter)
-sic-. I can't hang on any longer, I need
to hold onto something"....
line was cut!
9:06AM - onwards
Am now holding onto our
room's door... clinging to it as if my
life depended on it...
as the building was still swaying
violently... I hear
and see more "smaller" explosions....
electricity was cut
off...
more debris... broken glasses...
air gushing in... ceiling was
slowly caving in...
I decide to duck and take cover under a table in
our room... At this
point I have certain flashbacks of terror,
death, chaos, panic...
BUT, and I kid you not... there was this calm
voice I could
hear out of nowhere... as if guiding me... as if eerily
soothing and letting me
know what to do...
I tried to focus on this
"voice" and locked into it... totally
blocking out what was happening
around me... Suddenly! Yes a
conscious decision
was made to try to get out. I told myself, that if I
died I wouldn't want
it to happen here... not through a horrific
high-rise collapse...
With all the smoke, and
debris on our floor, I staggered up
searching our
hallway, looking for co-employees, friends, ANYONE!... I
could NOT
find any... I told myself - How could they have announced to
REMAIN in the
building and to NOT go out??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!... then
by the
window I see 4 horrific bodies being hurled out the window...
this must've
been due to the plane's impact...
such a TRAUMATIC and
HORRIFIC site to see... Is this for
real?!!!! Or
am I watching another full-blown action flick?????... By now
I am sick
to my stomach of the events unfolding thru my very own
eyes... walking on
covering my nose (due to the smoke)... I see the
elevators, all
shot and in wreck!...
then by the elevators I
see the "Fire Exit"!...
opened the door... and...
wow! literally hundreds of people
going down the stairs
in a 2-line formation... slowly... orderly...
but clamly... if not,
trying to... I see wounded folks... I see
women bare-footed...
wet, I see unscathed folks all going down the
stairs...I was able to squeeze
myself in and went with the flow...
This must've been the "longest"
stairway descent I've ever experienced...
floor by floor slowly descending
our way out... Astonishingly, there
were security men directing
the flow... telling us where to go... and
unbelievably, firemen going
"UP" the stairs... (surely, they must have
met a tragic end)... as
soon as we were directed out to Liberty Street...
outside the building I was
met with more chaos, panic, bloodied folks -
a total WAR ZONE! I stayed
2 blocks away from our building... waiting,
trying to look for other
Sun employees, acquaintances, friends...
Then.... I lost track of
time... a couple of minutes later... it
happened! Our building (Tower
II - South Tower) collapsed and perished.
People were shouting "Oh
my God!!!"... Eerie screams can be heard
blocks away... Being 2 blocks
away... once the building reached the
ground... a very, very big
smoke formation - resembling that of a
tidal wave - all of a sudden
came rumbling down the streets...
as if chasing us... thousands
of people (including me) literally had
to scamper and run away
to safety... I guess you all saw this on T.V.
too and know what I'm talking
about... jeez!
What an experience...
Then more minutes passed
by, and to our horror we see the other
building collapse too...
by this time however I was still several
blocks away... in total
shock and grief! Frantically trying to
call my wife, friends, relatives...
all for naught... cell phones
and pagers were useless
at that point in time.
Imagine, the pain, grief,
shock, and horror experienced by many
when those 2 buildings collapsed,
which is exactly what my wife
felt... she literally broke
down in tears, not hearing from me,
not knowing my fate and
thinking that I had now become part of
the rubble - such anguish
and pain! Sun HR started calling our
house asking "Have you heard
from him", consoling and preparing
for the worst....
Meanwhile the whole of New
York City is "isolated" from the
rest of the world... all
forms of transportation to-and-from
NYC was cut off... Chaos
still reigned and thousands of
people seen walking in the
streets, all trying to get home...
All other businesses were
shut down, shops/stores closed.
More panic too occurred
as frantic folks ran and scampered
at the onset of "false bomb
threats". Then there was rage...
as seen by me thru several
folks in the streets talking
about "carving up" Osama
Bin Laden... or eradicating the Muslims,
or striking back against
the perpetrators... world war III...
etc... "crazy" talk, if
you ask me at a time where we were still
reeling and trying to recover
from the tragedy that had just struck us.
2:00PM comes...
I was finally able to get
thru to my wife, after walking from
WTC all the way to NY Penn
Station (hundreds of blocks away)...
feet aching, tired, weary
I was rejuvenated to be reunited with
my family... even if only,
by phone! Again there must've been
thousands of commuters all
waiting outside, trying to get home to
their families. NY Penn
Station apparently had also been shut down.
5:00PM Am finally able to board a can of sardines - er, rather
the train.
5:45PM Am reunited physically with my wife and kid, relatives
and friends!
What a sigh of relief!
A TRAUMATIC experience indeed
which I will forever carry with me.
Now my 2 cents (obviously being an "on-site" and first-hand victim):
Like I said, I have been truly amazed at the varied reactions across
America.
I have to say that it is MY OPINION that the war on terrorism really
has
nothing to do with religion. These people didn't do this because of
religion.
They did it for many reasons such as hate and rage. Much of it was
political
and grudges that have been held in the past, slowly building up thru
the years.
They didn't just attack us because of religion.
Which religion were they attacking if that is true? America has so
many, right?
They happened to be extreme in their beliefs. Most Muslims would never
ever do
such a thing. It is not part of their religion. It is not part of the
Christian
or Jewish religions to kill either. There are always those who do evil
and have to find a way to justify themselves.
It is just evil. I pray that the evil people who are attacking Arab
and Muslim
people in America will wake up and realize that hate crimes are not
going to
help anything. They cause God just as much anger and sadness as the
attacks
on America. We should be reaching out all hands together in a time
like this
whether they are Arab hands, Black hands, White hands, Asian hands,
etc. Please we must fight against ignorance and hate. But, I
also firmly believe
that we must do something or this terrorism will only get
worse. There is no talking
to and educating terrorists. They won't listen to anyone's words.
They can't
be rehabilitated. We must do something to protect ourselves and
our way of
life or we will be living in constant fear of another attack
happening like
we had in the past week. I think the U.S. government is obviously
thinking
about all options.
I hope and pray that they have the right answers. But, I know that we
must have
a well thought out plan and the diligence to stick with it but also
there must
be compassion for other innocent people. I am proud that we have done
nothing in anger thus far. I believe we are searching for
the right answers. I think
this is a good time to support our leaders. Pray for them.
Pray for the U.S. as well
as our home country. But, life has changed. We can't go on the
way we were any
longer. We must make decisions and understand that lives
will be changed. Hopefully, we
will be able to feel safe again someday.
Parting, I'd like to pray for all those affected by the tragedy, all
the victims
as well as everyone else who's lives have changed because of this
event.
Thanks again and best regards to all,
-L. S.
System Support Engineer
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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