Ted, A friend of mine from San Diego who was there at the time. Got this in the AM
Bill,
It's 10pm in NYC and I finally have some time to tell you a little bit about what is going on here. I'm pretty exhausted so you'll have to forgive me if this e-mail meanders or makes little sense from time to time.
Let me start by saying that it is very difficult to put into words what this day has been like for me. You all have seen the pictures on TV and clearly understand the scope of the devastation to lives, property, the financial markets, and to our general way of life. In comparison to others in this city, my experiences today were very benign - since we were never in any direct danger from the WTC attacks, the experiences were much more emotional than physical. But I can tell you that the initial combination of shock, fear, grief, and anger after hearing and seeing what was going on made for the worst feelings I've ever had - and left me physically shaken for at least a couple of hours this morning. I can also tell you that today's dramatic videos, as terrifying as they were, do not even come close to capturing the emotional tenor of the city - being able to see the huge black cloud in the sky, seeing the skyline without the WTC towers, having conversations with people who had been in the financial district when the attacks/collapses occurred, talking to people who were frantically trying to find out if relatives or colleagues were OK. And all of the time thinking, "we could have been down there".
The day started normally enough. Though we all got in very late last night, MA and I had a breakfast meeting with O at the hotel at 7am and MK had a morning meeting in New Jersey with a trading/research firm. MA and I left the hotel around 8:15am to go to our 8:30am meeting at S Asset Management (7th and 56th - which is about 5 blocks from the hotel). We met with one of the partners there who had an interest in starting to participate in more deals with us. The meeting wrapped up around 9:30am and as we walked through the office toward the elevator, I noticed that there were a few radios loudly blaring with news - which seemed weirdly out of place given that we were in an absolutely beautiful office. Obviously we realized after the fact that they were listening to early news reports of the WTC attacks.
The first inkling we had of any problem was when we reached the street and started checking our voice-mail. Both MA and I had a number of ominous messages from people generically asking if we were OK and wanting to know what was going on. As we started asking each other what could be going on, a woman on the street - who was in hysterics - started telling us that a plane had flown into the WTC. At about the same time our cellular service went out and we were cut off from any additional information. We ran into a hotel across from where our meeting was and went into a bar where a number of people were watching the breaking news on CNN. At this point, we tracked down payphones (since the cell phones were out) to let families and you guys know that we were OK. By the time we finished with those calls and made it back to the bar to watch the TV, the second tower had been hit (I don't remember exactly, but I don't think that the tower had collapsed yet). We watched in shock with a group of about 50 people as the towers burned. After about 2 minutes, it became too gut wrenching and disturbing to watch and we left to make our way back to the hotel.
The series of events that happened over the next few minutes is, candidly, very muddled in my mind. We learned of most of what had happened as we made our way back to the hotel from other people on the street and from trucks parked on the streets with their radios blaring. During the course of this 5-7 minute walk, I think that we learned that the first tower had fallen, that the Pentagon had been hit, and we heard people saying that the Supreme Court, the Capitol, and even the White House were burning. We also heard that as many as 8 airplanes had been hijacked and that at least 4 more were up in the air with USAF trailing them with orders to shoot them down if they came close to the cities. Needless to say, people were getting very frantic and hysterical and nobody really knew what was going on. As we made our way across one of the north-south streets (either 6th or 5th, I think), MA looked south toward lower Manhattan and said, "Oh my God, the second tower just fell" - I didn't see it, but MA did. All I saw was a huge black/gray cloud raising up in the sky.
As we made it back to the hotel, we could tell that the whole city was in mass confusion. No one really knew what was going on or whether there were going to be more attacks. Getting back to my room, I fought to get a working outside line and again touch base with my wife and parents and try to get a fix on where MK was and if he was OK. Of all of us, I was the most afraid for MK since he had an 11am meeting right near WTC in the financial district. Luckily he never made it back into the city from New Jersey for that meeting.
The next couple of hours were nerve-wracking. We were calling around to check on people and to make sure nobody in our immediate circle of investors/consultants/partners was hurt or involved in the wreckage. Thankfully they weren't. Moreover, we were concerned about whether there would be more attacks in NYC and whether we would be safe here (this fear subsided after an hour or so). Like you guys, we learned of most of the developments on the TV news - we camped downstairs in the bar and watched CNN while exchanging stories with the people there as to where they were / what they were doing when this ordeal began. We spoke to a woman whose mother was downtown and she wasn't sure if her mother was OK or not. We also spoke to a young executive whose company's headquarters were in the WTC - he didn't know if his colleagues had made it out OK or whether he had a job to go back to. The woman's mother made it out OK, but I don't know what happened with the young exec.
It took a few more hours, but things eventually calmed down. As you know, airports were closed, transportation into and out of the city was cut-off, and most businesses closed. By about 4pm, the streets were completely quiet - no cabs, pedestrians, buses, cops - nothing. It was incredibly eerie to walk up Park Avenue on a Tuesday afternoon and not see a single taxi cab.
As things calmed down, our priority shifted from making sure we were safe to making sure we could get out of town and back to San Diego. With the markets closed tomorrow (and possibly longer), we decided that there was very little reason to stay here. Unfortunately with the airports closed and NYC airports especially backed-up, waiting until Thurs or Fri to fly was not very appealing. Luckily, MK had the presence of mind to rent a car in New Jersey this morning when he saw what was going on and our current goal is to meet up with him (assuming we can get across the bridge tomorrow morning) and begin driving to Cincinatti - where we have plane reservations home on both Wed and Thurs. If the airports don't open tomorrow, we may be better off just driving all the way home, but we hopefully won't have to do that.
I'm sure all of you were profoundly effected by watching events unfold today. Without sounding too melodramatic, I can tell you that I will never forget my experience here today and what I felt, heard, and saw.
While it is largely an after-thought on days like today, I'm sure that some of you may be having questions or concerns about how these events will effect our business. While it is clearly too early to know completely, I believe that all of this will have very little impact on our business or our growth plans. We will have to see how things pan out in the general marketplace over the next few days, but I have every confidence that the market will bear the brunt of this event and that the need for financing and financial data will only intensify in the days and weeks ahead. I would be surprised if there were not some small set-backs as a result of this (payment delays from PT subscribers, delays with issuers wanting to move forward with us to do their deals, etc.), but none of these things are threatening to our overall business and/or growth plans whatsoever. The meetings that were missed on this trip have largely been rescheduled for our next trip out here (which is currently planned for 2 weeks from now) and all of those parties have already expressed a desire to get things back on track as soon as everything calms down.
As for the rest of the week, I think it is best to for you guys to spend the next few days concentrating on the PT database. Chances are that issuers/investors/acquisition candidates/subscribers are not going to be open to marketing pitches from us right now. Instead I think that everyone should be concentrating on getting the PT up to date on older/incomplete deals - especially since new deals will be non-existent this week. To the extent that R and B can be of help here, H, Z, and M should try to get them involved. I think it is important to keep working through this - not only for the sake of our paying customers, but also for our own sakes. The full implications of today's events won't be known for weeks or months to come and to become paralyzed by the minute-to-minute news updates is only going to draw out the healing and recovery process for all of us.
If you want to talk to me about this (or today's events), you can feel free to call me on my cell phone. Once we are out of NYC, my cell coverage should improve dramatically and I'll have more than enough time to talk to you guys as we make our way to Cincinnati
See you soon.
-B |
