I am OK. I watched part of it from where I work, but I was nowhere near it. You just used to see those buildings from everywhere in Manhattan. Indeed just walking around yesterday was weird. Without knowing it, I had fixated on them as a constant landmark, and learned that anew as I kept on realizing that I was used to seeing them there. Even in strange parts of town I would know where they would be visible.

Many people in my office had many friends in those buildings. Many of our clients worked there. Some of them may effectively not exist as companies. Just to get an idea, here is a list of tenants. The North tower was first hit, according to one estimate around the 90'th floor. The main way that people in companies like Kidder Peabody & Co would survive is that they had not arrived at work yet since the markets don't open until 9:30. The South was second and was hit much harder, much lower. I don't have an estimate as to the floor, but if people didn't get out after seeing the first one hit, I doubt that companies like Dow Jones or Morgan Stanley have many people left. (They may.)

And, of course, the data. On paper everyone has great disaster recovery plans. In practice the techs have a different view. And, of course, the plans plan for a situation where key people are left alive. Even with a set of tapes that might contain information on 500 billion dollars of investments, it doesn't do much good if nobody has equipment to read it, nobody knows the key passwords, and nobody knows how to read the undocumented data format that was used in their home-grown accounts receivable system.

On a humerous note, I live in the hospital complex that includes Tisch and Bellevue hospitals. Do you have any idea how much fun I had convincing the nice police officers that I, a random stranger without any confirming ID, really did live in that building?

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