I received many phone calls and email messages from friends and family who were worried about us. Let me assure you that we are fine. Thank you all for your kind words.

For the record, here is the story of what happened to me yesterday.

As I often do, I waited until the last minute to get up and went straight to Short Hills station after a quick shower. The weather was just beautiful and I got on the 7:52 train to Hoboken, which happened to be running a bit late that day. In retrospect, that may have been a good thing.

In Hoboken, I went downstairs to catch the PATH train that would bring me to the World Trade Center at about 8:50, just after American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the north tower. As soon as the doors of the train opened, I noticed a faint odor which must have been the smell of the Boeing 767's fuel. There are lots of strange smells in New York though so it did not occur to me that something had happened at that point.

The train tracks were located deep underground. You had to go up a flight of stairs, exit through the ticket gates, and go up two more escalators just to reach the basement of the World Trade Center. I finally realized that something was wrong because there were several police officers urging people to get out. I took a quick look towards the back of the building and saw white smoke slowly filling up the corridor. A hysterical man ran past me towards the nearest exit, screaming "Fuck that! I'm never coming here again! Fuck that!"

I eventually reached street level at the corner of Church and Liberty and like everybody else, I looked up: the top of the north tower was engulfed in flames and thick grey smoke. It was exactly like a Bruce Willis movie. Thousands of sheets of paper were gently floating down from the sky, a snow of ash and business documents. I crossed the street, looked at the towers for a few moments, then quickly dialed home on my cell phone. Walking towards my office on the other side of the island, I left a message to Yumi on our voice mail to let her know that I was OK.

People were crying and I started hearing rumors about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. I found this hard to believe and kept walking down Wall Street, looking back from time to time at the column of grey smoke rising into the blue sky. I called home once more and left a second message for Yumi. As I reached Hannover Square, I heard what sounded like a jet plane zooming above my head followed by a loud explosion. It was 9:05 and United Airlines Flight 175, another Boeing 767, had just hit the south tower.

I went up to my office on the 31st floor of a building on the east side of Manhattan. People were so shaken that it was difficult to obtain information but the situation was eventually explained to me. Within minutes, our building was evacuated and we gathered outside the entrance, waiting for management to let us go. I was not particularly nervous at that point and even bought a grande latte at a nearby Starbucks. Nevertheless I quickly walked to the ferries hoping to find one that would take me to New Jersey as soon as we were released from work. I learned from experience that when travel plans go wrong, it is usually better to make alternate arrangements as quickly as possible. I decided that this also applied to emergency situations such as this one.

I hooked up with a group of six colleagues who also lived in New Jersey. One of them kept receiving email updates on his BlackBerry from friends in other countries. We were soon informed that a third plane had crashed into the Pentagon. The situation was getting unreal.

Two boats finally arrived at the pier. We managed to position ourselves so that we could board the Port Liberty ferry. The boat had almost docked when we heard a loud rumble and thick clouds of white smoke came billowing towards us from between nearby buildings. Now I was nervous! It looked as if bombs were exploding all over downtown Manhattan. It was actually 9:59 and the south tower of the World Trade Center had collapsed in a plume of ash and debris.

The ferry eventually departed leaving hundreds of people waiting for the next boat. Sailing through thick white smoke, I could not see anything for the first part of our trip. When the smoke cleared, many people rushed to starboard to see what was going on. I did not bother.

We reached Port Liberty without problems and three of our colleagues went to get cars. Waiting for them, I stood on the shore contemplating what was left of the World Trade Center. I watched in fascination as the remaining north tower collapsed. It was 10:28.

I got home around 3:00 PM, hungry, tired, but essentially unharmed.