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Twin Towers burning on Sept. 11, 2001 (photos courtesy of Richard Hagan)

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Customs Fastener Specialist Escaped World Trade Center
October 18, 2001 FIN – On September 11, 2001, the fastener import specialist for the U.S. Customs Service was in her office in 6 World Trade Center. She heard a low flying plane overhead and knew there was trouble.

The plane crashed into One World Trade Center, and the explosion sent debris blowing past Kathy Campanelli’s fourth floor window.

“I knew there was trouble,” Campanelli recalled. “We started yelling, ‘Get out!’ and we all ran out of the building.”

Campanelli waited with others by the river for a signal to go back into the eight-story building neighboring the Twin Towers.

Then the second plane struck. Those waiting as well as the world watching on television knew then that the first plane was not an accident.

“We all scattered,” Campanelli recalled.

She was able to catch a subway to Brooklyn before the trains were shut down and from there went to her home on Long Island.

Having been on the scene, Campanelli feels lucky. “As bad as it is, it could have been worse. There could have been 50,000 people caught in the World Trade Center, she noted.

Campanelli escaped without injury. “I did not even get a blister from running in heels.”

The 6 World Trade Center building she once worked in later collapsed.

Customs lost its paper files and much of its computer-based information. Though Campanelli said she regularly backed up work, the server was in the building and her files are gone.

“I always thought, ‘Keep your work at work and home at home,'” Campanelli remarked. “Now my PowerPoint presentation is gone. You never think a whole building will be gone.”

Papers from World Trade Center offices were blown far from the scene. One Customs letter was found in a backyard in Brooklyn.

All of the Binding Rules Program applications will have to be resubmitted, Campanelli said.

“We are back at an office with desks and interim phones,” Campanelli said of her new office in One Penn Plaza in Midtown Manhattan. “We are slowly getting supplies.” ©2001/2009 Fastener Industry News

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September 26, 2001 FIN – When the first plane struck the north tower of the World Trade Center at 8:48 a.m. Tuesday, September 11, most of the 30 people working at fastener distributor NABS headquarters were at work five blocks to the north. “Most people werein the office. Some were on the way in and saw the crash,” executive vice president Sam Laufer recalled.

The head of engineering was on the Brooklyn Bridge and saw the crash. Minutes later Laufer himself came out of the Chambers Street subway stop and noticed “tons of people looking up. Everyone was in shock.” The street level office in five-story Tribeca building was disrupted as everyone watched hundreds of emergency vehicles heading past. Many witnessed the second airplane and explosion.

“We deliberated about what to do,” Laufer told FIN. “It was a balancing act. We were in a safer environment with electricity, telephone and bathrooms. There were 100,000 people fleeing through the dust and smoke. We decided to stay put, because at that point it was difficult to get home.”

Police and rescue crews came in during the day for water and the bathroom.

The Twin Towers are “Ground Zero” and Laufer referred to his location that day as being so close that it was “Ground One.” About 2:30 p.m. Laufer decided to close the office and allow employees to make their way home. The next morning they opened a temporary office at their IT provider in Midtown Manhattan. They spent the first couple days letting customers know they were okay and that NABS would continue to service them. Power and phone service had eventually been cut off at the headquarters, but was back by Saturday, September 15. They reopened the headquarters on Monday.

Staff must go through security checkpoints to reach the office, and no commercial traffic is permitted below Canal Street. NABS, founded by current president Jack Laufer in 1953 as North American Bolt & Screw Co., supplies fasteners and C Class components to the computer and electronics industries.

NABS provides vendor managed inventory, so customers had “buffer stock at their various locations,” Laufer reported.

Customers around the world were not disrupted because of onsite inventories and the 19 NABS locations.

“It is a testament to the model of vendor managed inventory,” Laufer told FIN. “There was no need to use airplanes to rush delivery. There was total continuity of supply.” Laufer said none of the 30 NABS headquarters staff lost family in the tragedy. “We were very lucky,” Laufer observed.

They know of one former employee who was hospitalized. Laufer lost a classmate, which “etched it permanently on my consciousness. It will always change the way we see things.” “The knowledge that so many people are buried there makes it a difficult environment to work in and difficult to keep focused,” Laufer observed.

NABS is providing counseling. “Overall, we are okay.”

The tragedy showed “the incredible response of so much of humanity,” Laufer noted.

Lower Manhattan once had many fastener suppliers, but “we are one of the last,” Laufer stated. ©2001/2009 Fastener Industry News.

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Hagan: Neighboring Buildings Closed
Richard Hagan was inbound on a commuter train when the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center, just two blocks from his office. His assistant, Josie Inoa-Lazarini, was inbound on a bus from Brooklyn.

Pinnacle Capital Corporation is located on the 12th floor of 74 Trinity Place. It is directly south of the Twin Towers that once dwarfed the 28-story building. Trinity Place is just west of the historic Trinity Church, which was spared in the destruction.

“Neither of us made it into Manhattan, because the train under the Hudson River into the WTC basement and the tunnel under the East River from Brooklyn were immediately shut down,” Hagan said. “I watched the carnage from across the river.”

Pinnacle specializes in putting together fastener company mergers and acquisitions. Since 1997 Hagan has compiled an annual list of the Top Fastener Company Transactions.

It wasn’t until eight business days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack that Hagan could reach his office to retrieve his computer and critical files.

On Thursday, September 20, he was escorted by police inside the restricted zone to check out his office.

Electricity has subsequently been restored with mobile generators, and Hagan said he would return to the office when phone service is restored.

“The physical damage to our offices was minimal – just some minor smoke damage,” Hagan observed.

Though his building escaped with only smoke and ash problems, even the contiguous building sustained serious damage.

“We consider ourselves very lucky and lament the terrible damage inflicted on so many of our neighbors,” Hagan told FIN. When Hagan was able to check messages, he was heartened by the calls and e-mails from the fastener industry “just checking to make sure that we were OK.”

“The patience and understanding of our clients has been greatly appreciated,” Hagan said.

He will be working from home until Trinity Towers reopens as the recovery process progresses. He hopes that will be within a week. ©2001/2009 Fastener Industry News.

For information on permission to reuse or reprint this article please e-mail: FIN@GlobalFastenerNews.com.