Like the "How did you hear?" topic, I think this is worth its own thread (...sorry our message board software sucks so bad; we're looking into changing it).

BEN SONES WROTE:
Has anyone discovered that someone they know is missing? My brother-in-law's best friend is one of the rescue workers who was in the WTC when it collapsed. He just found out today. I remember him from the wedding. He was a really nice guy.

DAVE LONG WROTE:
My wife's Godmother lives in Brooklyn...she related to us numerous stories of people she knew that worked at the World Trade Center including a waiter in the top floor restaurant. When she called to inquire, they told her that anyone above the aircraft hits was dead.

Her car was covered with glass and debris this morning as was the entire neighborhood. She was also scheduled to attend a function at the Mariott Tuesday night.

The worst thing she related is that she's a school teacher and many of her students had parents that worked in the hotel in the WTC. When they closed school and sent them home, they were unsure if some of them would even have parents to go home to. It's absolutely devastating. One of her teacher friends' parents were both firefighters. This woman had yet to hear from them late last night.

On top of all that, she noted that there were about 17 daycare facilities inside the WTC.

--Dave

DAVID HUNT (DAVIDCPA) WROTE:
My wife's friend who worked on the 89th floor of WTC 2 is still unaccounted for. Not looking good.

I was chatting on battle.net last night and a bud from Massachusetts mentioned that two managers from his company were supposed to be on Flight 11 from Boston to LA, except they were laid off this week so their trip was cancelled. I can't imagine anyone being so happy they were fired.

-DavidCPA

One lady called in to the radio station I listen to, and said her...cousin, I think, works in the Pentagon. Literally seconds before the plane hit, he got up from his desk to walk to a meeting room for a meeting he was scheduled to attend. His office was one of the first ones hit.

One of my colleagues lives in New York, and he said his house his on the closest open street to the triage center. Needless to say, he's not getting any sleep for awhile. He works further downtown, though.

My sister works in Manhattan and her subway destination was about 1 mile from the WTC. The first plane had already hit when she arrived, and she instantly recognized the chaos in the street, though she couldn't see the WTC. She assumed there had been a bomb threat at the federal building across the street from hers.

Once she got the news, she immediately headed uptown to a friend's place. She said she saw both 'holes in the buildings' on her way, but was nowhere near the debris from the collapses. She was unreachable by phone, but responded to my email. Apparently she had 100% access to her local ISP all day long. We exchanged as many emails as we had all year - she had me call another friend who didn't have an email account. She finally made it home (to Brooklyn, formerly with a nice view of the WTC), but was stranded in Manhattan most of the day. Her boyfriend is a doctor from Denmark, not licensed in the US. He works in medical education, and she said he planned to head downtown to help, as he's got more experience than most of the attendings he works with.

My mother also had a stopover in Newark (headed to Albany NY) on Tuesday, but the planes were grounded before she took off from Houston. She was ready to board though, and had trouble calling me in Denver. I had a lot of trouble calling relatives in upstate NY to get them updates on my mom & sister - took a good hour of fast busies to get through.

I was really scared for my sister.

I have a friend at EA. Prior to coming to work at EA earlier this year, she worked on the 93rd floor of 1 WTC. The first plane plowed right into that section of the building. A lot of her friends are gone. It's just tragic. It's things like this that really make this hit home. I want payback; it's personal now.

I have a couple friends who live in Manhattan. There's no real reason for them to have been at the WTC, but I haven't been able to get ahold of either of them... I'm a bit worried :\

I have a friend who works in Washington. He had angioplasty last year and has been afraid of having a heart attack ever since (even though his doctors say his heart is strong).

Here's the email I got from another friend who heard from him:

Charlie lives in Arlington
and works in DC. He was driving to
work yesterday, his route taking him
right by the Pentagon. He usually goes
in early but had taken a swim that
morning so was late getting away from home.

BOOM

flying debris and fireballs rain down
on the highway.

Pieces the size of tv sets totally wiped
out one car. He had all sorts of burning
stuff on his car. He waited till it cleared
a bit, got the snow scraper, got out and knocked
all the burning shit off, the highway was
total gridlock by no so he backed up, crossed the
median, floored it back home, ran into his
apartment, locked the doors, and went into
the bathroom and threw up. Then he called
Mary [Katy's mom].

Charlie used to worry about having another heart
attack every minute of his life, but says now
that if he didn't have the heart attack yesterday,
he doubts he's gonna have another one.

Wow. Nice first-hand account. Thanks Dean.

Haven't been able to come up with how I'd react as a first-hand observer. I suspect I'll never know unless it happens -- and I certainly hope and pray that it doesn't.

My wife's cousin works (worked I guess) in the 2nd tower of the WTC (were in California). She and her co-workers felt/heard the explosion from the first tower and a voice over the intercom told everyone to relax, that the explosion was in the other building. Nervous anyway, they all started walking downstairs. When they were near the bottom floors the second plane hit her tower.

She made it out OK and made the long walk home (five hours total) over the Brooklyn bridge. My wife was having kittens until she finally got the phone call with the news that her cousin was safe.

I've only seen her once (at the wedding) but this person is family. This is more than personal now, it's an obsession. I want blood.

-Biyobi

Another addition: I discovered that one of the flight attendants on the first plane out of Logan was a friend of my parents.

DAVID HUNT (DAVIDCPA) WROTE:
My wife's friend who worked on the 89th floor of WTC 2 is still unaccounted for. Not looking good.


Her husband posted a message for her friends that said she was at her desk on 89 when the 2nd plane crashed into the tower. Little to no hope remains.

-DavidCPA

One of my mother friend's had a daughter on one of the planes.

One of my mother's friends had a daughter on one of the planes.

oop, sorry for the double post...

One of Sony Online's employees had a nephew in one of the buildings who is still unaccounted for.

I should add to the above...the people who buy the goods for the retail stores I work for were on a bus headed into New York City when this occurred. They were right near the entrance to the tunnel. Some do business at the Trade Center...thankfully they usually get there later in the day. Our CEO was with them.

I keep dreading seeing the name of someone I went to college or high school with listed somewhere. So far I haven't...

--Dave

My wife, who like me was pretty much already an emotional wreck after Tuesday's events, had something really nagging at her that she couldn't pinpoint. Finally, she remembered one of her very best friends from high school, who she just got back in touch with last Christmas, had said back during their initial contact that he was working at the World Trade Center.

We looked at her old email and found the mention. He was talking about how weird it was was to work on the 95th floor. Our hearts dropped. He had a nine-month-old baby.

I fired off an email and we heard back within an hour from his wife. He'd gone on a business trip to Chicago. Thank God. Otherwise he'd have been at his desk at 8:30 that morning. His 20 coworkers haven't been heard from.

They've lost many friends in this. I can't imagine how they feel--I know how shaken, horrified, and saddened I am despite not knowing anyone personally who was lost. But at least he wasn't there. I'd guess his office was right about where the first plane hit.

I lived in New York for 10 years. I lived and worked in Midtown. At that time, all my friends and associates lived and worked north of 14th Street. But it's been several years, and it's certainly possible that some of them have taken jobs or moved downtown in the intervening years. I have no way of knowing right now.

What's really getting to me now is that back then, in the 80s, to feed my computer/music habits, I regularly took the subway down to J & R Music World, which is located across from City Hall. And I always got off at the WTC station and walked the few blocks over. There were transit workers, cops, and merchants that I knew by sight if not by name. I look at these scenes on television. I remember how that place looked then. I remember the faces. I haven't slept very well this week.

Thanks for saying that Jason.

I lived in NYC for 10 years, too. I worked downtown for a short amount of time, taking care of office plants while I was in school. I used to cut through the WTC lobby to get to certian accounts. I remember a bunch of us working all night in November to set up the WTC lobbies for Christmas one year. I also knew friends from different night classes who claimed to have worked "downtown" or on the "street" but it was never clear exactly where. Like you, I also knew a lot of people just by their face and dont' really have a good way of coping with such an amorphous loss. In fact, I wasn't even able to give it words until I read your post.

My sister knew and regularly talked to someone who worked in the WTC center as part of her job. She thought that was so cool� now her friend is among the confirmed casualties. I have a friend Todd who works at St Vincent�s (sp?) finishing his internship.

He's a long time friend and was even the one who introduced me to girlfriend who is the mother of my daughter. We haven�t heard from yet though� and his parents haven�t returned my calls yet. Though I figure with everything going on over there, his hospital being the primary location of victim treatment, his just too busy to be making call backs for a bit more.