Below is the text of an e-mail I sent out to all my friends.  I just wanted to get the word out that I was OK.  But I found out that it was being distributed to people all over the country.  I am now hearing from people as far away as California.  My story is minor compared to what happened to thousands of other people at the World Trade Center.  But it seemed to offer some healing to people I have never met.  I figured I would share it with my neighbors on Roosevelt Island.

I just wanted to send you all an e-mail and let you know that I am still walking the Earth.  I was in the WTC this morning and saw the worst things I have ever seen in my life.  I have been talking to a lot of you today but a lot of you I haven't.  So I'll tell you what happened:

I was walking through the underground mall in the WTC from the subway this morning toward my building.  At my building (which is 1 WTC – the first building hit), there is a bank of 20 or so glass revolving doors that open up into the lobby of 1 WTC.  As I was about 100 yards from the doors, in an instant the lobby exploded and the revolving doors in front of me just vaporized.  Amazingly, I wasn't hit by anything.  But anybody who was in that lobby is gone.  I guess the blast came down the elevator shafts and spread out in the lobby.  So I turned tail and ran out of there as fast as I could.  Since I was closest to the blast in the lobby, I was yelling to everybody that I was passing to turn around and run the hell out of there.  A lot of people wanted a brief explanation but I told them as politely as I could that they were going to die if they didn't run.

I got out of the WTC and ran to a park across the street.  We were being showered with debris from the fire that appeared to be somewhere around the 80th floor.  There had to have been about four or five floors completely engulfed in flames.

Then we saw the people jumping.  It was absolutely horrible.

At one point I turned around and heard a noise I'll never forget.  I could hear a jet and looked up and saw the second plane hit 2 WTC.  The explosion was so huge and we were so close to it that you could feel the heat from the blast.  At this point I really thought I was a goner.  People were running and screaming as pieces of the plane were coming down.  Then somebody tripped in front of me and I fell on top of them.  And more people fell on me.  Somehow I managed to get out of there before I got trampled.

I ran all the way to the South Street Seaport just to get away from any tall buildings.  I finally walked north to at least head in the direction of home.  In Chinatown, I stopped at a corner that had a clear view of the towers.  So I stopped and watched the buildings burn for a good 20 minutes.  And then 2 WTC collapsed.  People, women and men, were screaming and crying as they watched it.  As I saw the dust cloud was heading our way, I again ran out of there.

I finally just kept walking uptown and miraculously ran into a bunch of people I work with.  We stuck together as we all walked.  Eventually we went our separate ways.  I ended up having to walk all the way home.  My feet were blistered and bleeding because I was walking in dress shoes.  But that's a very small price to pay compared to what could have happened.

I have heard from most of the people I work with.  Because we work so low in the building, most of the people at Blue Cross seemed to have gotten out of the building.  But anybody who was in the lobby or in an elevator is probably dead.

I just want to thank you guys who called me and sent me e-mails.  To be that close to getting killed and then hearing from all the people who care about you can really make you feel good.  I just hope we bomb the crap out of whoever is responsible.