Graduates Search for Classmates

As rescue workers sifted through the rubble at the World Trade Center, Harvard graduates across the country continued efforts to account for classmates and friends who may have been affected by Tuesday’s terrorist attack.

Lists of people who made it to safety began appearing on the Internet and over e-mail lists. One such, list, originally compiled from postings to the Class of 1999 e-mail list, quickly expanded yesterday to include more than 800 graduates from the past decade. Jason E. Whitlow ’99, who has been updating the list on his website, expressed a feeling of restrained relief that many other alumi shared.

“I haven’t heard of anyone who’s not okay,” he said.

Every year, scores of Harvard graduates move to New York to work for investment banks, consulting firms and other businesses in the financial district. The tragedy undoubtedly affected those living and working near the Twin Towers, but with friends and classmates across the city and the nation, its effects extended far past the smoke and flame.

Those who were nearby speak of sights they will never forget, while those observing the events from a distance are still trying to understand what has happened and who may have been hurt.

Close Encounters

Braxton J. Robbason ’97-’98 works at 11 Park Place, three blocks from the World Trade Center (WTC). From his desk he heard a low flying plane followed by a sound “like the the popping of a brown paper bag filled with air.”

Kevin Carr ’01 was getting dressed in his apartment two blocks north of the WTC when he heard an explosion followed by numerous car alarms. He first thought that it was an accident at a nearby construction site, but then his roommate came running into the apartment.

Fernando R. DeLeon ’01 was at a red light on the West Side Highway only a few hundred yards from the north tower when he saw the first plane approaching just seconds before it struck. He said that cars were bumping into each other as drivers took their eyes from the road, and only moments later a police officer had cordoned off the area, trapping cars in the process.

As Robbason ran to the 20th floor roof of his office building, he remembered joking once to his coworkers at BuzzMetrics that if anyone tried to blow up the towers, their office would be crushed. Now he could clearly see the gaping hole where the plane had entered the building.

“I wasn’t expecting anything more to happen,” he said.

Robbason was struck by the reems of copier paper blowing around and countless rolls of toilet paper falling like streamers. He saw what he thought were pieces of a building dropping to the ground but then realized they were people. One person trying to climb from one room into another was clinging onto the building before he lost his grip and fell.

“It didn’t seem real,” he said. “Only the people made it real.”

DeLeon also saw the dozens of bodies flying from the building. Unfortunately, he said, one hit the ground in clear view.

“It was by far the most grusome image of my life,” he said.

For many witnesses, shocked and confused by the scene in front of them, seeing the second plane flying toward the south tower clarified the situation—this was no accident.

“At that point I realized that it was a terrorist act,” Carr said. “It was crazy. It was like being under attack. I didn’t know when it would stop, how many more planes were in the air.”

On The Run

After the second plane crashed, Robbason left the building and headed east for safer ground. Four blocks from the towers, he saw a scattering of bricks and the remnants of what appeared to be an engine that had separated from the fusilage of one plane and hit a building at the corner of Church St. and Warren St.

He and a few friends feared seeking refuge in midtown, concerned that the Empire State Building would be the next target. At that point they had heard rumors that other planes were airborne.

Eventually, they walked to 90th Street, almost 110 blocks away.

DeLeon was on crutches from surgery only a week before and tried to shield himself from the masses that were escaping down city streets.

“I was scared that people would run over me,” he said. “Everyone was looking up at the buildings.”

People began fleeing the scene in any way possible.

Geoffrey A. Fowler ’00, a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, was on the subway on his way to work immediately after the crashes had occurred. Listening to music on his MP3 player, he wasn’t paying attention to the large numbers of people standing around as he swiped his card. Only when he and the other passengers were evacuated from the Chambers Streeet stop did Fowler learn of the tragedy, one stop away from the WTC on the E train.

When the buildings collapsed, the whole city stopped.

“Every one was just in awe,” said Scott Carmack ’01, who was watching the television coverage at J.P. Morgan Chase in midtown. “No one was saying anything.”

Relief

Chaos reigned as New Yorkers faced communication gridlock.

For many of those hoping to contact friends and classmates, the only hope was cell phones, but service disintegrated in wake of the collapse.

“Every pay phone had five to 10 people,” Robbason said.

Confusion mounted for those searching for classmates because many graduates were unsure whether their friends worked at the midtown or downtown locations of bigger firms.

Fortunately, many recent grads seemed to be working in midtown Manhattan rather than downtown, in the financial district.

“I think a lot of people at the WTC were probably higher up in the firms, not younger associates,” Carmack said.

Meanwhile, grads working in other parts of the city waited to hear news of friends and classmates, slowly accounting for those who they knew were in the area.

Jennifer Mrowka ’01 was at a computer training facility in midtown Manhattan when she began to see photos of the towers on the screens of others who had simply intended to read the daily news. She thought it was a practical joke.

Her roommate, Jacqueline Mesnik ’01, had turned down a job at AON consulting, which occupied more than 10 floors of one of the towers. Had she taken the job, Mesnik probably would have been in the building.

“It’s the saddest and most shocking event in our life,” she said.

Both Mrowka and Mesnik learned of five or six friends who had also been lucky. One friend had stopped for coffee on the way to work. Another had been assigned to jury duty. One of Robbason’s friends, Ayesha Malik ’97, was still making her way to an interview at the WTC.

Overall, the number of workers in the towers able to get to safety appeared to be higher than was initially thought.

“We believe that we evacuated our entire staff,” said one human resourse representative at Credit-Suisse/First Boston.

As the wind in New York City shifted around to the south and began to blow smoke uptown, Harvard alumni across the country continued to update electronic lists of secure graduates.

“You have such a wide network of people you know from all different years,” said Whitlow, who lives in San Francisco. “It seems that [the list] just started to spread.”

The list is available at www.jasonwhitlow.com/people.html. Another database with information for Harvard and a number of other schools is available at www.finebrand.com/statuses.

—Staff writer Zachary R. Heineman can be reached at heineman@fas.harvard.edu.