From: Bob White [bob.white@lroom.org]



> Dad, were you able to forward this to friends for whom I don't have email
> addresses?
>
> Thanks if you can.
> Larry
> 
> Subject: The WTC disaster
>
>
	Over the past few weeks I have received emails, cards and telephone calls
from many of you and other friends concerned for me and my family.  Thank
you.  I thank you too for your prayers for those that have been directly
impacted by the events of a month ago.  I wanted to write a note to my
family and friends who don't live in the NYC metro area, not to be
self-serving, but because so many have asked of my experience of 9/11,
given that I work so close to the World Trade Center. So please bear with me.

This past Monday I entered my building at 99 Church Street which is off-limits unless you have a law-enforcement escort.  My brother-in-law,
Who is a Secret Service Agent based in New York, was able to get me to the
Site and into my building.  What I found "a rocks throw from my building" was
As horrific as you all have seen on television.  The entire site is a big
Pile of steel, the partial shell of the towers, and pulverized concrete, up to
six stories high.  There's a slight odor of burning soot and other debris.
The remains of the 5,000 or so people who are missing are essentially gone
forever.  There are virtually no remains because of the 1 billion tons of
weight having crushed everything underneath.

A little background:  As soon as I moved to New York in 1987, I knew that
I found a place unlike any other.  The vibrancy, diversity, and life of this
city was and is indescribable.  Since 1989 - my whole career - I've worked
in downtown New York.  I know the area intimately - Loretta and I were
dating and became engaged when we both worked downtown.  I've breakfasted,
lunched, ate dinner with friends regularly in the area.  I've also
clothes-shopped, bought Christmas presents, had my hair cut, and gone to
worship services.  I've attended an annual work-related Christmas Party at
the Windows of the World on the 107th floor at the top of the WTC since
1994 . . . I've shown my family and friends around "my downtown stomping
grounds."  I even worked on the 79th floor in the south tower of the WTC
for 4 years in the mid-90's.
  Currently, I work for Moody's Investors Service, located in a 11 story
Stone building located one block north of the WTC.  Every morning, including the
morning of 9/11, I took a train from my home in New Jersey into the
basement of the WTC and walked the minute or so to my office.  On 9/11, a beautiful dry, sunny, late Summer/early Fall day,  I got to work around 7:15 and was working on my computer in my office.  Around 8:45 a.m., I heard the
incongruous sound of an airplane.  And then boom!  I was rocked at my desk
and ran to the window which faces the WTC complex.  I saw people on the
street below scurrying about and looking up.  I also looked up and saw the
smoke coming from the north tower.  I was shocked and assumed a small
plane accidentally crashed into the tower.  It didn't look so bad to start.
However, the smoke got worse and I saw the fire get bigger.  I saw debris
falling from the building and then I began to see odd looking items
tumbling from the building.  I realized those were people falling or jumping the
1000 plus feet from the high up in the tower.  I was in shock, as were all of
my colleagues at this point.  I was on the phone with Loretta when I was
rocked the second time.  I jumped up and saw the huge fire ball explode from the
south tower.  Colleagues who came by my office were crying, running
around, looking out the window.  I had thrown my telephone down in shock and
Loretta could hear screams and cries, "It was a plane!  Oh my God, a plane!!"
The messages over our company's PA system grew increasingly grim.  First
We were told that an explosion had occurred at the WTC and to move away from
the windows.  Next, people were instructed to disperse from the lobby, as
it was too crowded from people trying to escape the street where debris was
falling.  A call came for help from anyone who was trained in CPR.
Another call suggested that employees head to the cafeteria, which was in the
basement.  Shortly after the second plane hit, we were told to leave the
building and to walk north and east away from the WTC.  A siren sounded
through the building.   In retrospect, I think that in my shock and
disbelief, I would have stood and continued to watch, had the siren not
hurt my ears.   I walked down the short 5 flights of stairs with some
colleagues and walked past City Hall and court buildings with thousands of other
people.  People were in shock for the most part, and it was very orderly,
for NY.  We stopped at a Kmart store a mile or so from downtown, where
hundreds of women were buying more comfortable shoes to walk in.  Many
people had a few more miles to walk to either get home on the upper east
or upper west side of Manhattan, or to wherever they were going.
    I was probably a half mile away when I heard a rumble, which someone
Nearby mentioned was the collapse of the south tower.  I didn't believe them, but I looked back on saw a huge amount of smoke and debris descending upon
downtown.  I still couldn't believe the entire building actually
collapsed.
   The WTC was a "mountain," so I assumed it was the top of the building
Which somehow fell, but I was obviously wrong.  In thinking about it, thousands
more would have died had the towers not fallen straight down, but rather
sideways.  They were a quarter of mile high!
    I continued north, until I stopped at Redeemer Presbyterian's midtown
Office where I had a number of friends working.  I used the telephone at Redeemer to call Loretta, since cellular service in the city wasn't working.  I
Then walked to a friend's home in Grammercy Park, had lunch, and watched TV.  I
heard that ferries were operating from west 38th street across the Hudson
to NJ, so that's where I went.  Walking across town was eerie.  There was
nobody on the street, except for a few emergency vehicles.  I waited in
line for about two hours with thousands of other New Jersey residents.
Conversation was muted.  Everybody just wanted to get home.  As we rode
the
ferry south and west across the river, everybody was looking across at the
hole where the towers once were.  It's impossible to explain how sad it
was.
Those towers defined the landscape of NYC, and now they were no more.  I
didn't know it at the time, but 60 of my former colleagues on the 79th
floor of the south tower were missing.  I got home around 7:30 that night.
	I'm thankful that I'm alive and very sad so many are lost.  I personally
know a half dozen or so of people who are unaccounted for.  Everybody I
know around New York feels as if they lost a close family member.   Most
everybody is getting on with their lives, but the general sadness is
palpable.   Even in London, from where I'm currently writing this message,
people are obviously effected by the Sept.11 events and sympathetic for
Americans.

	Thankfully, I know that God, too, grieves with us.  Jesus wept at
Lazarus's tomb.   I understand that many are now questioning the existence of God in a way they haven't before.  Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian
Church in NYC, speaks for me when he recently said "What if you stood at the foot of the Cross after Jesus was crucified in an apparently senseless act of
violence and tragic waste of life, and you said, "I can never, ever trust
God again after an event like this!"  And what if you went home and
completely renounced all belief in God saying, "this proves that God is
either a monster or indifferent or he doesn't exist." If you did that, you
would have been missing the greatest act of God's love and redemption in
history.  But of course no one at that time (and only a few for a good
while afterwards) could fathom what had happened."  The Cross of Jesus Christ is
the main reason I can trust God after this kind of event.  First, the
Cross is the best proof that God is not remote from us in our suffering.
Second, the Cross and its aftermath shows us how dangerous it is to judge God on
surface appearances.  His way is to work strength through weakness and
bring resurrection and new power through death.

C.S. Lewis also wrote something which I think holds a lot of truth
("Learning in War-Time" published in the 1940's in Britain), "If we had foolish hopes about human culture, they are now shattered. If we thought
we were building up a heaven on earth, if we looked for something that would
turn the present world from a place of pilgrimage into a permanent city
satisfying the soul of man, we are disillusioned, and not a moment too
soon.
  In ordinary times only the wise realize it.  Now (in war-time) the
Stupidest of us knows it."

My building will apparently be ready to be re-occupied early in November.
In the meantime, I'll continue to work in Midtown at a temporary office
Site with many of my colleagues.  Thanks again for your prayers and support.

Larry