Ten years ago, an editor assigned me to cover a special conference of CIOs on a cruise ship featuring IT management sessions as well as casino gambling and an open bar at night—it was an opportunity to get to know IT executives on an informal level. I had told my editor that I preferred to cover the Risk Waters Financial Technology Congress on the 106th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. She overruled me.
I had worked with many of the people who constituted the Risk Waters Group. Even after I had moved on to another job, I had covered many Risk Waters events held in the north tower. I even had lunch with an engineer who had built many trading floors—he took me to a corner of the Windows on the World restaurant to show me an important air duct; he was very familiar with the construction of the towers. I remember being shocked at the speed of the wind rushing through the shaft. I had the unnerving sense of just how high up in the clouds we were at that moment. My fear of heights kicked in and I had to stop looking downward.
The first day on the cruise was much better than I thought it would be. The sessions were useful and the CIOs were open to chatting. I loved being out at sea—the salt air, the sun and just being out on the open ocean was fantastic. I thought then that my editor was right; I have often wondered what would have happened had she listened to me and sent me to the Risk Waters event instead.
The second day of the event, Tuesday, September 11, started early but the men and women handling registration were whispering among themselves that a plane had crashed into the north tower; the shock I felt was immediate. I had a sick feeling in my stomach because I knew the Risk Waters Conference would have been well underway.
The conference session on the cruise ship continued until the speaker stopped his presentation and announced that a second plane had crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center. The session and the rest of the event were suspended until we could learn more about what was happening in New York and elsewhere. Many of the CIOs were from Wall Street firms. We huddled in our rooms and tried to make sense of the broadcast coverage from Reuters except that the pictures on the TV had no sound for about the first hour.
Turmoil doesn’t even begin to describe the situation on the ship. There was no cell phone reception—we were far enough away from land to cause problems and we later learned that the cell phone providers were having major problems. The IT executives, especially those with staff located at the World Trade Center complex, were freaking out. All of the ports on the Eastern seaboard were suddenly closed to all ships. There were American F-15 fighter planes zooming past the ship—anyone and everyone was under suspicion, including a foreign ship hovering in the waters outside of the metropolitan New York area. At that point in time, no one knew for certain who caused the attacks.
We were quite literally and figuratively adrift at sea far away from lower Manhattan. We had no port to go to and we were heading northward to the UK—the homeland for the cruise ship company—or Canada—it wasn’t clear. How we were supposed to get home from either location was unknown. We got through that horrible Tuesday by just sitting down and talking to each other. Strangers opened up and the walls came down. Formerly uptight journalists, industry analysts and CIOs were talking freely. Some ran to the gambling tables but most were connecting with fellow human beings to desperately try and sort out a horror beyond our understanding.
We had the formal dinner that night but no one wore the required tuxes and formal gowns. I think we recited the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the Star Spangled Banner. The mostly American crowd had come to one conclusion—for all its faults, the US was a great country with so many good people.
By lunchtime the next day, the ship’s crew had suddenly been told that the port of Boston would be opening up and the ship had to get there quickly. We were told to hold onto something as the ship was about to turn around very quickly. I thought that we were going to relive “The Poseidon Adventure.” (After all the free booze, I was ready to do my best impression of Shelley Winters in her swimming-to-safety scene from that unfortunate movie although Bette Midler does a much better version than I ever could.)
We got to Boston by Thursday morning and were told to present our passports or some other form of ID before we could be allowed off the ship. Luckily, I had my driver’s license. I had had an intuition to bring my passport but was told not to by the company running the event. Ever since 9/11, I listen to those persistent inner voices, and I always bring my cell phone and passport whenever I travel long distances within the US.
The best moment for me was when the cell phones finally started to work outside of Boston. I got through to my brother Paul; I was so overcome with emotion I couldn’t speak for the first few seconds when I heard his voice. He almost hung up. I told him that I was fine and asked him to call my parents who must have been worried sick because they had no way of getting through to me. I got through to a friend who lived in Boston and I was able to stay at his house for a few days.
To have lived through that day and the aftermath was one of the most difficult periods of my life.
Like so many others, I had lost so many friends, associates and sources because I had been covering Wall Street since 1997. The pain was particularly acute with the loss of so many from the Risk Waters Group. I had worked closely with David Rivers, Editorial Director, Waters magazine, who was slated to speak at the event on the 106th floor. I had also gotten to know Laura Rockefeller, Freelance Delegate Coordinator, for Risk Waters that day; Laura had directed a reading of scenes from one of my plays and she also got me into several shows for free because of her connections in the theater world.
I often think of David and Laura, the others from the Risk Waters Group, and the men and women I had gotten to know who were lost on that horrible day. David and Laura had never lost their passion for life and I will keep that in mind as I face my own set of challenges. I also cannot forget the human connections I made on that ship that day, and how essential they are for our survival.
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