To all my friends:

The Twin Towers are down.
My office is gone.
Thanks for all your prayers.
I am alive and everything is all right.

There are 4,763 still missing in NYC rubble,
including three of my coworkers,
See Wong Shum,
Charles Lesperance, and
Ignatius Adanga,
working at NYMTC on 82nd floor in WTC One.

Today, September 14, 2001,
three days after the WTC attack,
is the National Day of Prayers and Remembrance.
Please pray together
for all the missing ones
and their families and loved ones

Thanks for all those who tried
hundreds of times to reach me
through phone calls or e-mails.
Messages came from
family members, friends,
childhood neighbors,
and old buddy out of touch
for more than twenty years.
I am really touched
by all the friendship and warm concerns
from all over the U.S.A.

Three days past and
the sorrow remains,
Police siren has been running all over the City.
Bomb treats have joined our normal life.
Wall Street looks like Beirut.
Armed vehicles cruised on the streets.
Tunnels and bridges were shot down.
All the Broadway theaters were dark.

New York Times described:
It was a city of eerie contrasts.
It was a city of postponements.
It was a city of reflection.
It was a city of oddities.
It was a city of occasional panic.
It was a city of reassurance.
It was a city of less:
less noise, less traffic, less certainty.

September 11, 2001
will be a date for many of us to remember
for a life time
with memories and lots of questions.

It started at 8:48 a.m.
when a Boeing 767 struck WTC One.
Several staff at NYMTC
were just several floor below.
Sound of Jet engine approached.
The office was vacuumed,
followed by humungous shaking
and pressure wave.
Pieces of building, paper,
and lots of others
fell past outside the windows.

People were panic and
didn't know what to do.
"Leave everything, just go!"
"I left my brand new MP3."
"I left all my floppy disks."
"I left all my memories."
Tony, our Fire Marshal, pulled everyone
out of their office.
He did just like what he always did
in a drill.
Tony is our hero.
He opened the door
and asked everyone to run.
In five minutes,
they were in the corridor and
started the terrified journey
for their survival.
Thick black smoke filled in the air.
They could not even see their own hands.
"This way!"
Tony led people to the barely visible exit sign.

There was no light.
There was no yell and cry.
Just follow the direction sign.
No one knew what was going on.
People walked down the stairs
with order and calm.

People ran in and out of the emergency stairs
on various floors.
The stairs got more and more people
when getting lower floors.
People let the wounded and handicapped go first.
The fire fighters and police officers walked up
passing the confused crowd.

9:03 a.m.
They past the 78th floor sky lobby.
They witnessed the 2nd Boeing 767
struck WTC Two.
They split into two groups.
Each continued their journey
via different stairwells.
Everyone was calm, polite and orderly.

Ran, ran, ran for their life.
They reached the sky lobby on 44th floor.
Thousand of people gathered there.
"We got to get out of here."
They went back to the emergency stairs.
Everyone got to make their choices.
"Which stairwell should I take?"
"Which direction should I go?"
"Should I follow people to stay in this floor?"
They all made their choices
to go to the unknown.

Finally they arrived the concourse.
It was a life time long journey
from 82nd to the ground floor.

It was 9:59 a.m.
Minutes after they past the revolving doors,
a great explosion occurred.
WTC Two collapsed.
The escalator they took crooked
and fell down behind.
Hurricane wind wiped everyone
through the floor.
They grabbed each other,
all laid down on the floor
and waited for the horrified moment over.
It felt like forever.

The five inches dust on the floor
filled out the air and
made the visibility to four inches.
They formed a human chain and
tried to find their way out.
A fire fighter guided them to a very weak light
that turned out to be the exit sign
to Vessey Street.

"Run, Run, Don't look back!"
Fire was everywhere.
Dusk was on their hairs, their face,
their hands, and their clothes.
They lost their shoes.
They lost their glasses.
They ran, They ran, and they ran.
They past Chamber Street.
They past City Hall.
They ran all the way to 14th Street
or even north to 90th Street.
Some of them walked over the Brooklyn Bridge
with many others that packed the Bridge.

They were shocked.
They were exhausted.
Thanks God, they are all alive.

10:28 a.m.
WTC One collapsed.
Our office was gone
with so much grief and
so much shock.

The Twin Towers were the symbol of home
for many of us.
They were the land mark
we were looking for
when we came back to New York
from each trip we were away from home.

For being there 15 years,
they were part of my life.
I enjoyed the view from 82nd floor.
It was so peaceful up there
when looking down the greatest city
in the world.
You could feel the energy of the City.
You would definitely appreciate
the landscape, the color, and spirit
the view provided.

The Twin Towers are gone.
The spirits they gave you and me
will be with us forever.
They for sure will be in my dream.

Let's pray.
For our missing friends
and all of us alive.

212-938-3300 - it is not working anymore...