story7340.xml

story7340.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-14

I was working that day in Midtown at a hotel. When the 2nd plane hit, our hotel immediately went into recovery mode. We had to plan how to protect our guests and team members. We knew that our guests who had departed that day, really had no way to get out of NY, so we anticipated their return and held their rooms for them. That left few rooms for new guests to purchase.

I stood in our lobby that day and turned away rooms for thousands of people. I saw people of all walks of life, many of whom had just walked from the WTC area, even guests of those WTC hotels.

I felt helpless. But, even as the Towers came down, I never once stopped to think that I should be scared, that our city was in danger, or that I was in danger. It was the longest day of my life - because I worked all throughout the the hotel to help any guest I could.