Terror’s shockwaves felt locally

When four airliners were turned into missiles by terrorists Tuesday, the explosions came just over 40 miles away. The reverberations, however, hit much closer to East Windsor and Hightstown.

By: Michael Arges, T.J. Furman and Scott Morgan
   Until now, it only has happened far away.
   Bombs explode, buildings collapse and throngs of people empty into the streets. Until now, such catastrophes were news from far away.


America attacked:

• Two township residents feared dead (Sept. 13, 2001)

• Terror’s shockwaves felt locally (Sept. 14, 2001)

• Anger, sadness among range of emotions (Sept. 14, 2001)

• Area ministry, schools respond to grief-stricken (Sept. 14, 2001)

• Terrorists ask for war (Sept. 14, 2001)

• Helping children cope with disaster (Sept. 14, 2001)

• Terror attacks claim at least six local residents (Sept. 21, 2001)

• Building a garden to remember (Sept. 21, 2001)

• Former Hightstown man hero of Flight 93 (Sept. 21, 2001)

• Township Council to eye memorial (Sept. 21, 2001)

• Priest’s painting inspires parishoners (Sept. 21, 2001)

• Area Muslims condemn attacks (Sept. 21, 2001)

• Tragedy forces new sense of perspective (Sept. 21, 2001)

• Children want to help, too (Sept. 21, 2001)


   But Tuesday, when terrorist attacks claimed most of the World Trade Center, part of the Pentagon and an ever-increasing number of people, it happened here.
   With the border of East Windsor Township barely 40 miles from the Twin Towers, it is no surprise that some area residents were affected first-hand by the attacks.
   At least two people from the Hightstown-East Windsor area are believed to be dead and at least one other is missing.
   Colleen Barkow, 26, of Jamestown Road in Twin Rivers was at her job at Cantor Fitzgerald Securities on the 103rd floor of 1 World Trade Center Plaza when the first airliner struck her building. Mrs. Barkow’s husband, Dan, said he has not heard from her.
   Mr. Barkow, who was to celebrate his first anniversary Monday, said he would soon be leaving for New York City to bring his wife’s medical and dental records to authorities as requested, as well as a hairbrush from which hairs will be taken for DNA testing.
   United Airlines said Lorraine G. Bay was a flight attendant aboard Flight 93, which departed from Newark and crashed in Stonycreek, Pa., shortly after the first of the two Twin Towers collapsed. The Hightstown dental offices of Dr. John Laudenberger confirmed it has provided dental records to identify a Lorraine Bay of East Windsor.
   Also, the East Windsor Regional School District confirmed that one high school student has still not heard from his or her father, who worked at the World Trade Center.
   Mr. Barkow, 31, said he heard about the events through a phone call from his father and immediately tried to reach his wife’s office, without success. He was at work in Iselin and his father had to pick him up in order to bring him home.
   "You’re in shock," said Mr. Barkow, who was near completion of his and his wife’s dream home in the Pocono mountains. "I can’t believe this has happened. I can’t believe my wife is never going to get to have children.
   "I don’t know how I’m going to survive. I don’t know how I’m going to go on without her."
   Understandably, the tragic events have left Mr. Barkow feeling a sense of rage.
   "For everyone that has been killed here, we should kill 10 of them," he said. "Anyone that has harbored these people should be killed and then we can rebuild the world from there."
   Other area residents, such as Vincent Buttitta, who was having lunch with friends Wednesday at the Court Jester Restaurant on Mercer Street, have children who fled the city amid the chaos.
   Mr. Buttitta’s son, Sid, works at the New York Stock Exchange. Many of his friends and colleagues worked on the 102nd floor of the World Trade Center. Many have not been heard from yet.
   Sid Buttitta was, in a sense, lucky twice. He made it out of New York alive, and so did his good friend, Mike, who Vincent Buttitta calls "almost a member of the family."
   But the wait lingers for many others, for those who simply do not yet know if friends or co-workers or loved ones are still alive.
   Sean and Kelly Geraty of Sheffield Road in East Windsor are continuing to search for Mr. Geraty’s sister, Suzanne Geraty of Brooklyn. Suzanne Geraty also worked on the 103rd floor of 1 World Trade Center Plaza for Cantor Fitzgerald Securities, as did Mrs. Barkow. Approximately 1,000 people work for the company there and as of Thursday morning only 214 survivors had been identified.
   Mr. and Mrs. Geraty came to the Herald’s offices Thursday morning with fliers seeking information about Suzanne and giving phone numbers to call. They planned to later visit bus stops and train stations in the area to post the fliers.
   "It’s been hard for me because I work there too," said Mr. Geraty, who worked in the now-destroyed eight-story 4 World Trade Center Plaza. "I got on a late train to the city."
   Mr. Geraty, who was working at the trade center when a bomb exploded beneath one of the towers in 1993, said all of the co-workers on his floor survived this week’s attack.
   In addition to his sister, the East Windsor couple said they know several friends, including firefighters and police officers, that are missing. Four cousins of Mrs. Geraty’s escaped the buildings.
   An East Windsor woman, Denise Urban, waited by her television, not knowing if her husband was dead or alive until she saw him walking up their street later that day.
   In one of the many twists of fate associated with the tragedy, Ms. Urban’s illness in the previous weeks may have saved the life of her husband, Jeff, who worked in the second tower destroyed by terrorist attacks. She had been ill for two weeks before the fatal Tuesday and so could not drive her husband to the train station.
   As a result, Mr. Urban did not get to the Newark station until after the first attack, and so his PATH train was never allowed to take him to the doomed complex.
   He stayed on the Amtrak train and could see the twin towers from the train window, his wife said.
   "Jeff saw all this billowing smoke on the island and he knew that there was something wrong — obviously. He went into New York and he called his office, but he couldn’t get through," she said. "He turned right around took the first train out of New York."
   As Mr. Urban’s train entered the city, people on the train were receiving cell phone calls from families trying to find out how they were. But the Urbans were between cell phone contracts and so they could not connect. Ms. Urban did not know his fate until she looked through their large front windows and saw him walking up the street.
   Ms. Urban burst into tears as she recalled her relief.
   "I saw him walking a block away from our home and I just ran to him. And I was so grateful! He was alive!" she said. "It was as though he went to war and I thought he was never coming back."
   Having suffered through a couple of hours of agonized uncertainty, Ms. Urban can fathom a little of the distress others are enduring.
   "I listen to the news and I see women who have lost their husbands, and it’s really, really devastating to see them, because they have no idea where they are," Ms. Urban said.
   Dan Buriak, a Democrat running for Hightstown Borough Council this fall, works in New York City. He was not in Manhattan when the attacks came, but many of his friends were.
   "I have lots of friends who are still lost," he said. No one is sure where they are or how they are doing, but, he said, all fingers are crossed.
   For Larry Schneider, a member of the Board of Directors for Better Beginnings in Hightstown, the wait is equally agonizing. Mr. Schneider was due to report to work at 2 World Trade Center Plaza at around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. While driving just outside Newark International Airport, he learned that 1 World Trade Center Plaza was in flames.
   Mr. Schneider, a veteran of the trade center bombing in February 1993, was told by employer Morgan Stanley Dean Witter to immediately return home to East Windsor. On the way, he watched a second airliner plunge into his own office building. He would learn that his own floor, the 56th, was barely 10 floors below the impact.
   Mr. Schneider’s office employs almost 30 people and Morgan Stanley had 3,500 total employees in the towers. At the moment of impact, only nine were at work. One of them, a fellow veteran of the 1993 blast, ushered the office staff out of the building after he saw shrapnel and smoke from the first collision. By the time the office crew had reached the 30th floor, the second plane had hit their own building, Mr. Schneider said.
   "He said the building shook 10 feet to either side," Mr. Schneider said.
   A bit of luck and good timing saved all nine members of Mr. Schneider’s office. But many of Morgan Stanley’s employees in the building are still missing.
   Mr. Schneider said that with his place of business in ruins, the first order of business for Morgan Stanley is to account for its employees. Mr. Schneider himself has received at least two calls from the company, checking to see if he was still alive.
   "I worked there for 11-and-a-half years. It was my home away from home," he said. "My kids pictures were there, my drawings. My life in business for 11-and-a-half-years is gone."
   East Windsor resident Joel Singer was at work at the Century 21 Building across the street from the World Trade Center, so he had a clear view of the horror as it happened.
   "My most vivid memory was of the people jumping out of the windows," he said. "It was hard to tell whether they were people or debris until they came further down and you could see that they were people."
   After the second plane struck, Mr. Singer and his co-workers were ordered to evacuate their building, and began walking north on Broadway.
   "As we were walking up to Midtown we kept turning around," he said, "and saw one tower collapse and all the smoke and everything else and then saw the second tower collapse.
   "I don’t know what’s left of my building. When we left it was intact," Mr. Singer said.
   On television later, Mr. Singer said his building looked as if the lower floors were sunk down a little and all the windows were blown out.
   Mordechai Rennert, an EMT who was allowed to leave his job at the East Windsor Genuardi’s Market to go the World Trade site to assist, recalled his thoughts. He left Genuardi’s at 4 p.m. Tuesday and worked through the night, returning directly to Genuardi’s for his shift.
   Mr. Rennert reached the Staten Island Ferry at about 5:30 p.m. and got to Manhattan an hour later. The ferry was bringing back wounded rescue workers and those suffering from exhaustion and smoke inhalation.
   As soon as he reached Battery Park, the soot from the explosion started covering him, and he experienced the eerie quiet of the besieged city. He spent hours and hours working with others lifting up debris by hand in hope of finding survivors.
   "Everywhere you looked, all you saw was debris," he said.
   As they helped, rescuers had to fight through their own confusion and fear that other buildings might suddenly collapse on them, Mr. Rennert recalled.
   Having directly faced the horror of the act, Mr. Rennert is indignant at the cruelty of the perpetrators: "No one deserves to die a death like this."
Anyone with information concerning the whereabouts of Suzanne Geraty is asked to call either 443-6715, (718) 238-4896 or (917) 992-2831.