BaPo's softball team will meet at 7:30 p.m. om Thursday, Sept. 27, at the Emile Griffith Ballpark.
for further information call manager Elmo Benjamin at 776-3618.

Sept. 25, 2001 – Despite strenuous objections by Government Employees Retirement System and Water and Power Authority officials, the Senate on Monday overrode Gov. Charles W. Turnbull's veto of legislation granting early retirement benefits to certain WAPA hazardous-duty employees, expanding the number of eligible employees to 316 from the present 58.
It is a move that Joseph Thomas, WAPA executive director, calls "a mistake we'll all pay for. We will have to put a rate increase in effect to offset whatever we need to have to pay out. We have been trying to avoid a rate increase, but now our hands are forced."
Thomas said Tuesday, "It would be a lovely benefit if we were rolling in dough when anything's possible, but with the fragile situation that the utility is in, our economy is in, and GERS is in, the legislation is not a fiscally responsible decision."
Thomas said he has had his staff searching to find another utility anywhere that has a similar retirement benefit. At a WAPA board meeting earlier this year, he had said that, "Nowhere in the civilized world does such a program exist." On Tuesday he said, "We were anxious to see if one existed, but we couldn't find anywhere else that it has been done."
He added: "Everybody is aware that WAPA is struggling with cash flow; we're on the very edge. The money we are getting from the government's past due account goes 100 percent for long-term debt-related issues and maintaining rates at the current level. If we hadn't gotten the money exactly when we got it, we would have had terrible problems. Because we did get it, we no longer have a 'qualified' audit."
As far as the government's payment of its past-due accounts, he said, "We are hopeful we will have everybody current by Nov. 15."
Thomas said Laurence Bryan, GERS administrator, has claimed the hazardous-duty benefits legislation would pave the way for possible bankruptcy of the retirement system in years to come.
Turnbull vetoed the measure in August, saying he could not support legislation that would negatively impact the GERS. In a letter to Senate President Almando "Rocky" Liburd covering the veto action, the governor wrote, "The intent of this legislation is admirable, and the Legislature has seen fit to appropriate $1.9 million … to fund the mandate." However, he said, GERS had said the amount was inadequate, given actuarial calculations showing a current 6.63 percent deficit in pension contributions vs. payouts.
Turnbull also chided Liburd, reminding him that senators had been told at a July Finance Committee meeting of the possible deleterious effects the legislation could have on the GERS.
The Senate and GERS have a history of go-rounds regarding retirement funding and the system has a court case pending against the V.I. government regarding funding. The new legislation is projected to increase the system's unfunded liabilities by $1.9 million. Neither Bryan nor any other GERS officials was available for comment Tuesday morning.
Sen. Vargrave Richards, a consistent opponent of the measure, said Monday, "The $1.9 million would be a substantial increase in the unfunded liability in the fund. We've compromised the GERS system through a series of bad legislation to the tune of a $500 million, and still growing, GERS deficit. Frankly, we are talking about the pension plan for all employees of the government every time we undermine the system. We've been given warning that not enough money is being contributed to the system, and with the market slump, this is a swift way to deplete GERS investment accounts."
Richards added, "It's important to understand the integrity of the system. We've done nothing to maintain and sustain it. We may be emotionally attached to this measure, but the reality is this system is one day going to come home to roost. While I support the idea of hazardous-duty pay, I cannot support it now."
Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen succeeded in getting the override on a bit of parliamentary maneuvering around the "closed rule" in effect on all the bills the full Senate is hearing in a three-day session scheduled to continue through Wednesday. When the close rule is invoked, there can be no amendments to a bill before it is put to a vote.
The override passed on a 11-3 vote with Sens. Lorraine Berry, Roosevelt David and Vargrave Richards voting against the measure. Sen. Adelbert Bryan was absent.
Cash flow, fairness are barriers to business plan
In other comments to the Source Tuesday, Thomas expressed reservations about a proposal put forth by leaders of the territory's private sector on Friday as one of numerous steps to help the hospitality sector get through the economic crisis it is facing because of the drop-off of tourists in the aftermath of the mainland terrorist attacks. The hotel associations and chambers of commerce have asked that WAPA allow businesses to defer their WAPA bill payments for four months. They have proposed a similar reprieve from paying gross receipts taxes.
"We are doing something right now that might help a number of businesses and hotels that have been producing their own water and power — to get them on our system at reduced rates," Thomas said. "We are investigating energy-conservation plans and doing things internally that might help. The only problem is that we have cash-flow problems of our own. More than 50 percent of what we receive goes to pay our fuel bill each month."
Further, he said, "The other thing is the fairness issue. We got an earful when it became clear how much the government owed us. I've ordered electricity turned off over much smaller amounts." He said he understands the hospitality industry's problem but added, "We will have to be creative in what we do to help."

Sept. 25, 2001 – Despite strenuous objections by Government Employees Retirement System and Water and Power Authority officials, the Senate on Monday overrode Gov. Charles W. Turnbull's veto of legislation granting early retirement benefits to certain WAPA hazardous-duty employees, expanding the number of eligible employees to 316 from the present 58.
It is a move that Joseph Thomas, WAPA executive director, calls "a mistake we'll all pay for. We will have to put a rate increase in effect to offset whatever we need to have to pay out. We have been trying to avoid a rate increase, but now our hands are forced."
Thomas said Tuesday, "It would be a lovely benefit if we were rolling in dough when anything's possible, but with the fragile situation that the utility is in, our economy is in, and GERS is in, the legislation is not a fiscally responsible decision."
Thomas said he has had his staff searching to find another utility anywhere that has a similar retirement benefit. At a WAPA board meeting earlier this year, he had said that "nowhere in the civilized world does such a program exist." On Tuesday he said, "We were anxious to see if one existed, but we couldn't find anywhere else that it has been done."
He added: "Everybody is aware that WAPA is struggling with cash flow; we're on the very edge. The money we are getting from the government's past-due account goes 100 percent for long-term debt-related issues and maintaining rates at the current level. If we hadn't gotten the money exactly when we got it, we would have had terrible problems. Because we did get it, we no longer have a 'qualified' audit."
As far as the government's payment of its past-due accounts, he said, "We are hopeful we will have everybody current by Nov. 15."
Thomas said Laurence Bryan, GERS administrator, has claimed the hazardous-duty benefits legislation would pave the way for possible bankruptcy of the retirement system in years to come.
Turnbull vetoed the measure in August, saying he could not support legislation that would negatively impact the GERS. In a letter to Senate President Almando "Rocky" Liburd covering the veto action, the governor wrote, "The intent of this legislation is admirable, and the Legislature has seen fit to appropriate $1.9 million … to fund the mandate." However, he said, GERS had said the amount was inadequate, given actuarial calculations showing a current 6.63 percent deficit in pension contributions vs. payouts.
Turnbull also chided Liburd, reminding him that senators had been told at a July Finance Committee meeting of the possible deleterious effects the legislation could have on the GERS.
The Senate and GERS have a history of go-rounds regarding retirement funding and the system has a court case pending against the V.I. government regarding funding. The new legislation is projected to increase the system's unfunded liabilities by $1.9 million. Neither Bryan nor any other GERS officials was available for comment Tuesday morning.
Sen. Vargrave Richards, a consistent opponent of the measure, said Monday, "The $1.9 million would be a substantial increase in the unfunded liability in the fund. We've compromised the GERS system through a series of bad legislation to the tune of a $500 million, and still growing, GERS deficit. Frankly, we are talking about the pension plan for all employees of the government every time we undermine the system. We've been given warning that not enough money is being contributed to the system, and with the market slump, this is a swift way to deplete GERS investment accounts."
Richards added, "It's important to understand the integrity of the system. We've done nothing to maintain and sustain it. We may be emotionally attached to this measure, but the reality is this system is one day going to come home to roost. While I support the idea of hazardous-duty pay, I cannot support it now."
Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen succeeded in getting the override on a bit of parliamentary maneuvering around the "closed rule" in effect on all the bills the full Senate is hearing in a three-day session scheduled to continue through Wednesday. When the closed rule is invoked, there can be no amendments to a bill before it is put to a vote.
The override passed on a 11-3 vote with Sens. Lorraine Berry, Roosevelt David and Vargrave Richards voting against the measure. Sen. Adelbert Bryan was absent.
Cash flow, fairness are barriers to business plan
In other comments to the Source on Tuesday, Thomas expressed reservations about a proposal put forth by leaders of the territory's private sector on Friday as one of numerous steps to help the hospitality sector get through the economic crisis it is facing because of the drop-off of tourists in the aftermath of the mainland terrorist attacks. The hotel associations and chambers of commerce have asked that WAPA allow businesses to defer their WAPA bill payments for four months. They have proposed a similar reprieve from paying gross receipts taxes.
"We are doing something right now that might help a number of businesses and hotels that have been producing their own water and power — to get them on our system at reduced rates," Thomas said. "We are investigating energy-conservation plans and doing things internally that might help. The only problem is that we have cash-flow problems of our own. More than 50 percent of what we receive goes to pay our fuel bill each month."
Further, he said, "The other thing is the fairness issue. We got an earful when it became clear how much the government owed us. I've ordered electricity turned off over much smaller amounts." He said he understands the hospitality industry's problem but added, "We will have to be creative in what we do to help."

Sept. 24, 2001 – Attorney General Iver A. Stridiron was appointed by Gov. Charles Turnbull on Sept. 19 to the Water and Power Authority Board. He fills the vacancy left by the resignation of Planning and Natural Resources Commissioner Dean Plaskett.
The governor said that the appointment does not require approval by the Legislature.
Turnbull also said that Stridiron will not receive any additional pay for serving on the board except for a per diem rate for travel expenses

Sept. 24, 2001 – For the first time in its 14-year history, St. John's Unitarian Universalist Church has a permanent minister. The Rev. Phillip Schulman arrived Aug. 16 to lead the flock of 22 Unitarians and about 30 non-members who regularly attend services.
"We've been working for this for years," member Ken Damon said.
Schulman, 41, comes to St. John after a career in community-based ministries, where he worked with homeless people and others needing social services.
"I tried to bring spirituality as a holistic part of mental health," he said.
With a bachelor's degree in English and social science from Rutgers University under his belt, he started his working life teaching at Passaic County Vocational School in his hometown of Wayne, N.J.
He was studying for his master's degree in counseling when his life led him to the Unitarians. He had attended anti-antiapartheid and nuclear freeze campaigns that met at the local church when he realized the Unitarian ministry appealed to him. He decided to change directions.
"I fit right in," he said.
The son of a Catholic mother and Jewish father, Schulman was raised in the Jewish faith, but saw that the Unitarians allowed him to draw from both religions as well as other spiritual ideas.
After dropping out of the master's program at William Paterson University, he went off to the Thomas Starr King School for the Ministry, associated with the University of California at Berkley. He graduated in 1989. This is his first permanent job heading up a congregation.
While still getting the lay of the land, he faces his first major task — helping the Unitarians deal with the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He said that with a congregation that leans toward pacifism, it's been hard for the members to deal with a government plan that involves violence as the solution.
"It's not black and white. How do we respond to this? We will shape the answer together," Schulman said.
He has other tasks in front of him. He said the Unitarians want to expand the size of their congregation and to become more of a presence in the community.
"They want to be a force for tolerance and religious pluralism," he said.
Schulman has no plans to change the members' extensive involvement in church activities. Except for a few brief stints by visiting ministers, the local Unitarians have always had members of the congregation lead services.
He has nothing but praise for the members, a group he said thrives on discussion as well as song.
Since his arrival, Schulman has been trying to get settled. He has temporary housing until Dec. 1 but, like all newcomers to St. John, faces the daunting task of finding a place to live at a price he can afford.
"I'm on a tight budget," he acknowledged, noting that he needs to factor office space into the financial equation.
He's spent time meeting his fellow clergy in both St. Thomas and St. John and has put in a few hours exploring the islands' undersea life through a snorkel mask.
"I swam with the turtles at Lameshur," he said, as enthusiastic about this side of St. John life as he is about ministering to his congregation.
Unitarian services are held at the Pine Peace School Community Room at 9:30 a.m. on Sundays. Members will pick up anyone coming from St. Thomas at the Cruz Bay ferry dock. Call 693-7572 in advance to arrange for a ride.

Dear Source,
Climax after climax after climax — the anti-climaxes keep on coming.
I thought the U.S. walkout of the August World Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerances was climactic. The end of the conference on Sept. 7 was anti-climactic. The horrific attack in New York and Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11 was anti-climactic. Our abrupt landing in the Cape Verde Islands minutes later was anti-climactic. My firing on Sept. 15 was insignificant, except when viewed as an attack upon First Amendment rights. Then it, too, becomes anti-climactic.
There is so much to tell. So much we have learned and want to share. So much to think about. So much responsibility to help one another grow from the pain and horror. Where do we start in sharing?
Do we look at the pain suffered by each country represented at the world conference as they were confronted by their experiences — past and present — regarding racism and discrimination? At the conference itself, there was so much more than was reported in the general American media:
The Dalits — untouchables of India — insisting that caste as well as race be considered. The Roma — Europe's "Gypsies" — detailing generation after generation of overt and covert discrimination. Women confronting the all-male African panel of "experts," challenging their right as oppressors to speak on behalf of women discriminated against throughout the continent. The Maori of New Zealand, the Inuit of Canada, the Twa of Rwanda, Han ethnics from China, Tibetan exiles — all forcing acknowledgment of past and present imperfections and work still to be done.
Their voices were painful to hear. But hearing them started the healing. Absent were American voices. Our absence was noted, and felt, throughout the world.
The hideous events of Sept. 11 are dominating national conversation, as well they must. There is little media attention to other matters. The disappeared surplus, the Bush tax cuts, campaign financing reform, local election reform, out-of-control violence in our streets, "slap on the wrist" sentencing for perpetrators of statutory rape, the fact that the animal rights bill has been voted down and the child protective bill has not been brought up…
Immediately following the unthinkable, on Day 1, or even Day 2, did you hear anyone besides myself, in an attempt to understand (not justify) the horror, ask, "Why would someone want to commit this evil act?" Or note that in this globalized age, U.S. policy — its actions and inactions overseas (justified or not) — can easily lead to consequences at home? Was anyone besides myself, after coming out of the world conference and experiencing it up close, aware of the extent and depth of anti-American feeling prior to the terrorism?
Is it at all relevant? Deepak Chopra has asked, "What was the root cause of this evil? … Does this evil grow from the suffering and anguish felt by people we don't know and therefore ignore? Have they lived in this condition for a long time? One assumes that whoever did this attack feels implacable hatred for America. Why were we selected to be the focus of suffering around the world?"
America now knows, in the most personal way, to the depths of its civilian vulnerability, that it is a part of the world. Obviously, whoever did this must be found and put away forever. Vengeance is an understandable emotion as the body count and saber-rattling mount. But, as Derrick Jackson of the Boston Globe noted, "… it is also eerie that, suddenly, we want help on terrorism at the very time when we have been isolating ourselves from the world stage, from the environment to racism to missile defense…"
There are those who found my willingness to ask why America is hated — especially at a time of such national pain — to be unpatriotic. There are those who likened my allowing callers to say things like "The chickens have come home to roost" to Tokyo Rose. I said on the air and say now in print that the beauty and strength of America is our diversity: of people, of opinions, of life experiences.
Americans come in all shapes, sizes, races and belief systems. It was the strength of America that we could say all that — and more — on the air. It was that which made us American. Those were the freedoms which made us great. To me, the most precious of all rights in this marvelous country is the freedom to think, write and say whatever is on your mind, subject to the laws of libel. That freedom does extend to thoughts that are stupid, ignorant or incendiary.
No one needs a First Amendment for innocuous ideas or popular points of view. The majority must always protect the rights of the minority to express the most outrageous and offensive ideas. Only then is total freedom of expression guaranteed. To give up those freedoms voluntarily seems to me to be allowing the terrorists to win. We are giving them the right to silence us, to take away the very freedoms we have fought and given our lives for. We are poorer for it.
When asked what the role of the media is in times of military conflict, Prof. Jacqueline Sharkey, author of "Under Fire: U.S. Military Restrictions on the Media from Grenada to the Persian Gulf," replied: "In times of conflict, it is the responsibility of the news media to raise questions and cover controversies by presenting as many points of view as possible. Especially at a time when long-term military options are being considered, it is crucial for the news media to provide the public with an understanding of the political, historical, economic and cultural factors that have created the situation."
As our president prepares for war, students at colleges and universities throughout the nation are petitioning for peace. Alternatives are being sought.
Listen to Chopra again: "There can be no safety until the root cause is faced. In this moment of shock, I don't think any one of us has the answers. It is imperative that we pray and offer solace to one another. But if you and I are having a single thought of violence or hatred against anyone in the world at this moment, we are contributing to the wounding of the world."
Listen to the Dalai Lama: "The only factor that can give you refuge or protection from the destructive effects of anger and hatred is your practice of tolerance and patience."
Now, when jingoism and desire for vengeance are high, remember that the United States remains the greatest hope for mutual accommodation and tolerance in the world. May our leaders find the wisdom to seek out justice, not vengeance. May we confront our enemies with strength and with kindness and avoid today's global patterns in which one wrong makes a wrong makes a wrong. May we realize the need to re-engage the world. The stakes cannot be higher.
Iris Kern
St. John

Editor's note: We welcome and encourage readers to keep the dialogue going by responding to Source commentary. Letters should be e-mailed with name and place of residence to source@viaccess.net.

Dear Source,
The proposed bill that Senators White and Pickard-Samuels are sponsoring sounds as if it is an incredibly bad idea. I am a naval architect, practicing on St. Croix, so I have some idea of the size of boats and the number of passengers involved. Now, I have only read the report in the Source, not the actual bill, I'm not sure where I would obtain a copy of that. Having read the piece, I had several reactions. On one level, I detect a thinly veiled undercurrent of racism. On St. Croix at least many, but not all, of the companies are run by whites, frequently from the mainland. Perhaps there is some resentment against people seen as coming from away taking business away from the taxi van drivers.
The argument about leveling the playing field is completely bogus. Right now, the playing field is level. Passengers coming off of the ships can make a choice: take a taxi van and get a land-based tour, or get on a boat and take a tour from the water. Not allowing the water tour operators to pick up people at the piers is unleveling the playing field, not leveling it.
On St. Croix, there is one sailboat carrying 49 passengers maximum that picks up people at the Ann Abramson pier. As far as I know the Scuba West boat is a six-pack boat, so at most that is six more people the taxi van drivers won't necessarily be carrying. A typical modern cruise ship has upwards of 2,000 passengers. The remaining 1,945 passengers will most likely need taxi van rides somewhere on St. Croix. All of the rest of the dive shops and water tour operators are located in Salt River, Cane Bay, Christiansted, or Green Cay. The taxi van drivers will get all of those rides. Even the people going on the sail or diving in the morning might want a ride somewhere in the afternoon. Obviously there are more water tour operators in St. Thomas but there are far more ships, also.
It is stupid and unsafe to suggest that water tour operators pick up passengers from the ship rather than the pier. The piers are designed to allow people to safely embark and disembark from both cruise ships and smaller vessels. The high-sided ship presents a potential danger to the rigging of any of the sailing tour boats; also, a small boat will react to the swell completely differently from the large ship. Can you imagine the hue and cry if a law was passed not allowing taxi vans to pick up passengers anywhere but at two or three designated spots?
The claim that taxi van drivers would be eased out of their livelihood if the tours expanded to include water taxis is a farce. Many people are going to want to see what St. Thomas and St. Croix look like inland, you can't do that with a boat. Some people are afraid of small boats, but will still get on a large ship, or have no interest in diving or sailing. These people are still going to need rides to some location. Then, there are the people who live here who still need rides on a daily basis.
As far as getting up at 2 a.m. to get in line down at the pier in the "hope of getting passengers" – give me a break. The ships rarely, if ever, discharge passengers before 8 a.m., if not 9 a.m. Certainly many passengers will take a short walk to the waiting boats, but let's do some simple math. Underwater Safaris says that on a busy day they take 125 passengers diving. The Kon Tiki barge holds maybe 150 passengers (frequently 149 is used as a cutoff point due to a change in Coast Guard classification at 150 passengers and above). I don't know how big the Leyland Sneed motor vessel is, nor the Island Girl or Wild Thing catamarans, but let's say 200 each to be safe. That totals 600 passengers for the three of them. The 30 sailboats are almost certainly six-pack boats (6 passengers maximum), so that is 180 people. Total: 125+150+600+180 = 1,055 in round numbers. That is still less than half of a typical large cruise ship's passenger capacity, and if there was only one of those in port in St. Thomas it would not be considered a busy day. Even the Monday after the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania plane there were two cruise ships in St. Thomas with a total of 3,640 passengers on board between them.
If there is any group that is directly competing with the taxi van drivers it is the buses operated by Ann Abramson's bus service. Just one of those buses carries more passengers than the lone sailboat operating out of Frederiksted, and the bus only employs one driver for maybe 60 passengers as opposed to one driver for 15 passengers in a typical taxi van. I do not know if there is a similar large tour bus service on St. Thomas but I would not be surprised if there was.
The final point I have is: Why are the senators even getting involved with this? Having obtained my business license last year I have learned quite a bit about licensing and zoning. As I understand it, the Department of Planning and Natural Resources decides if a business is appropriate for the zoning at a particular location. The Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs then issues a business license for that particular type of business, based upon DPNR's recommendation and other considerations. Where is the need for the Senate to gum up the works? Where is Senator Alicia Hansen who just months ago was blowing her own horn about revitalizing the marine industry in the U.S. Virgin Islands? This is a direct attack on that very industry. Has it occurred to anyone that actions like this might be a big part of the reason that the charter yacht industry in the Virgin Islands is now almost exclusively located in the British Virgin Islands?
David Walworth
St. Croix

Editor's note: We welcome and encourage readers to keep the dialogue going by responding to Source commentary. Letters should be e-mailed with name and place of residence to source@viaccess.net.

Dear Source,
The proposed bill that Senators White and Pickard-Samuels are sponsoring sounds as if it is an incredibly bad idea. I am a naval architect, practicing on St. Croix, so I have some idea of the size of boats and the number of passengers involved. Now, I have only read the report in the Source, not the actual bill, I'm not sure where I would obtain a copy of that. Having read the piece, I had several reactions. On one level, I detect a thinly veiled undercurrent of racism. On St. Croix at least many, but not all, of the companies are run by whites, frequently from the mainland. Perhaps there is some resentment against people seen as coming from away taking business away from the taxi van drivers.
The argument about leveling the playing field is completely bogus. Right now, the playing field is level. Passengers coming off of the ships can make a choice: take a taxi van and get a land-based tour, or get on a boat and take a tour from the water. Not allowing the water tour operators to pick up people at the piers is unleveling the playing field, not leveling it.
On St. Croix, there is one sailboat carrying 49 passengers maximum that picks up people at the Ann Abramson pier. As far as I know the Scuba West boat is a six-pack boat, so at most that is six more people the taxi van drivers won't necessarily be carrying. A typical modern cruise ship has upwards of 2,000 passengers. The remaining 1,945 passengers will most likely need taxi van rides somewhere on St. Croix. All of the rest of the dive shops and water tour operators are located in Salt River, Cane Bay, Christiansted, or Green Cay. The taxi van drivers will get all of those rides. Even the people going on the sail or diving in the morning might want a ride somewhere in the afternoon. Obviously there are more water tour operators in St. Thomas but there are far more ships, also.
It is stupid and unsafe to suggest that water tour operators pick up passengers from the ship rather than the pier. The piers are designed to allow people to safely embark and disembark from both cruise ships and smaller vessels. The high-sided ship presents a potential danger to the rigging of any of the sailing tour boats; also, a small boat will react to the swell completely differently from the large ship. Can you imagine the hue and cry if a law was passed not allowing taxi vans to pick up passengers anywhere but at two or three designated spots?
The claim that taxi van drivers would be eased out of their livelihood if the tours expanded to include water taxis is a farce. Many people are going to want to see what St. Thomas and St. Croix look like inland, you can't do that with a boat. Some people are afraid of small boats, but will still get on a large ship, or have no interest in diving or sailing. These people are still going to need rides to some location. Then, there are the people who live here who still need rides on a daily basis.
As far as getting up at 2 a.m. to get in line down at the pier in the "hope of getting passengers" – give me a break. The ships rarely, if ever, discharge passengers before 8 a.m., if not 9 a.m. Certainly many passengers will take a short walk to the waiting boats, but let's do some simple math. Underwater Safaris says that on a busy day they take 125 passengers diving. The Kon Tiki barge holds maybe 150 passengers (frequently 149 is used as a cutoff point due to a change in Coast Guard classification at 150 passengers and above). I don't know how big the Leyland Sneed motor vessel is, nor the Island Girl or Wild Thing catamarans, but let's say 200 each to be safe. That totals 600 passengers for the three of them. The 30 sailboats are almost certainly six-pack boats (6 passengers maximum), so that is 180 people. Total: 125+150+600+180 = 1,055 in round numbers. That is still less than half of a typical large cruise ship's passenger capacity, and if there was only one of those in port in St. Thomas it would not be considered a busy day. Even the Monday after the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania plane there were two cruise ships in St. Thomas with a total of 3,640 passengers on board between them.
If there is any group that is directly competing with the taxi van drivers it is the buses operated by Ann Abramson's bus service. Just one of those buses carries more passengers than the lone sailboat operating out of Frederiksted, and the bus only employs one driver for maybe 60 passengers as opposed to one driver for 15 passengers in a typical taxi van. I do not know if there is a similar large tour bus service on St. Thomas but I would not be surprised if there was.
The final point I have is: Why are the senators even getting involved with this? Having obtained my business license last year I have learned quite a bit about licensing and zoning. As I understand it, the Department of Planning and Natural Resources decides if a business is appropriate for the zoning at a particular location. The Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs then issues a business license for that particular type of business, based upon DPNR's recommendation and other considerations. Where is the need for the Senate to gum up the works? Where is Senator Alicia Hansen who just months ago was blowing her own horn about revitalizing the marine industry in the U.S. Virgin Islands? This is a direct attack on that very industry. Has it occurred to anyone that actions like this might be a big part of the reason that the charter yacht industry in the Virgin Islands is now almost exclusively located in the British Virgin Islands?
David Walworth
St. Croix

Editor's note: We welcome and encourage readers to keep the dialogue going by responding to Source commentary. Letters should be e-mailed with name and place of residence to source@viaccess.net.

Editor's note: The following narrative was written by former Virgin Islands resident Kincey Potter on Sept. 18 from her home in Annapolis, Md. She was working alone at an office in the World Trade Center when the Sept. 11 attacks occurred. Her husband, Bruce Potter, in Grenada at the time, asked her to e-mail him a summary of what she had been through. She wrote it at a single sitting. Supplemental information in italics was supplied later by Bruce Potter.
I had arrived about 8:30 a.m. on the 64th floor of World Trade Center Tower No. 2, where Kincey had been consulting four days a week to Morgan Stanley Dean Witter since March and was calling Diana Josephson and talking with her secretary when I heard an explosion (but not a big deal, more like a pop) and saw flaming papers blowing around to our side of the tower. It didn't really look that serious, but clearly something had happened..
I got off the phone and grabbed my purse, Palm Pilot and phone. When I came out into the corridor, there was an alarm (not the one I had heard before in drills) sounding, and I proceeded to the staircase. I got inside and realized that I had not brought my computer. I stood there for about five minutes waiting for someone to come into the stairwell as the door had automatically locked behind her so I could get back out and get my computer. There was a steady stream of people moving down the stairs, many of whom urged me to move down. So, I said to myself, "This is crazy; leave the computer" and started down the stairs.
When we reached the 59th floor, someone in communication with the authorities got the word that everything was okay, and we came out of the stairwell on 59 and got into the elevator and went to 44. Since 44 is the place where the big elevators drop you off to get to the local elevators, that was the only place we could really go.
There were lots of people on 44, and when we got off the elevator, a guy is speaking to people over a bullhorn telling everyone to go back to their offices. "Tower 2 is secure; the best place for you is in your office. If you want to evacuate, you will have to use the stairs; you cannot use the elevators." (Another example of where listening to authorities can be a very bad thing.)
The woman standing next to me (who might have survived the 1993 bombing) says, "I smell electrical smoke, and there's no way I am going back to my office."
I, however, am strongly considering it, because I left my computer. Just at that moment (and I am glad it wasn't a minute later), the second plane hit. Glass didn't break, but there was a huge pressure wave that came across the floor — strong enough to make the floorboards in front of the big elevators flap up. Everyone panicked, started screaming and running to the other side of the floor. The guy with the bullhorn calmed people down and told everyone to move to the stairwells.
(When I got to a TV and saw the video, it was hard to believe it wasn't worse. The pictures of the plane plowing through the building were incredible. In retrospect, I said, "How could a building as big as the WTC come down in 50 minutes?" After reading that the building was built to handle a 707, and it was the steel melting and the top 30 stories collapsing that caused the collapse, I was impressed that it lasted for as long as it did.)
In Grenada, in the Eastern Caribbean, I was staying with Alister and Margaret Hughes, just outside the capital of St. George's, and Margaret got a call from a friend to "Watch the TV — there's a plane just hit the World Trade Center." We started to watch the live cable TV on four or five different channels, including CNN and the BBC, just about the time that the second plane hit Tower 2. I didn't know for sure which tower Kincey was in (or which tower was actually hit when), but I did know she was on the 64th floor, and I sure thought the second plane cut into that building close to there. To this day, I do not know exactly which floor(s) each plane hit.
The descent was very orderly. People didn't panic. There was a black woman singing Jesus hymns next to me and I noticed that she was passing me. She dropped a bunch of papers, and people stopped and helped her pick them up.
There were women's shoes on every other landing. They discarded the high heels and the uncomfortable open back shoes. (Why they didn't just carry them, I don't know, and they probably didn't either when they got to the street. In fact, later, when the tower fell and we all turned and ran, I overheard one woman say, "I should have grabbed my shoes before I started to run. That's the second pair of shoes I have lost today, and I am really pissed.")
By this time people are saying that the first explosion was a plane, but there were different stories about whether it was a small plane or an airliner. It was such a beautiful day, but it never occurred to me to think that it couldn't have been an accident. Instead I am thinking, "Where were the air controllers?"
Our stairwell ended on the mezzanine level, which is at the plaza level above the ground floor. They led us down two tiny escalators that the tourists use to get up to the the mezzanine level. I am thinking, "What a bottleneck. They don't have this evacuation drill very well planned." There was debris on the plaza and also on the first floor, but in retrospect it doesn't seem as great as I would have thought.
Then they led us through the shopping center under the plaza to the exit away from the towers. It was all very calm, but there didn't seem to be that many people. I kind of expected there to be people pouring out of multiple stairwells, but it was only the stream of people coming from our stairs. (I don't know how that worked, because there had to be a lot more people when you consider that 35,000 to 40,000 people got out.) [Editor's note: The number, it turned out, was much less than that.] I didn't look at my watch. I thought it took me about 30 minutes to get down, but since it was a total of 50 minutes before the building collapsed, I think it must have been more like 35 minutes.
I also doubted that they could have evacuated the towers so quickly, or that they would have started evacuating Tower 2 as early as they apparently did. I kept thinking of Kincey's first experience at the World Trade Center, when we moved to New York City in 1980. She came back from a job interview there and, imbued with all of the skepticism nurtured by five years of living in the U.S. Virgin Islands (rotating power outages for most of the preceding six months), she said, "This place just can't work. They told me when the wind blows over 35 mph, they even have to stop the elevators to the top of the World Trade Tower!"
When we got out of the building, I looked back and saw both towers burning. I still didn't know that a second plane had hit and thought maybe the first tower had blown fire over to Tower 2. It was a sickening site, though. I didn't see any way the firemen could put out that fire. It reminded me of the Angelina Lauro an Italian cruise ship that burned at the dock on St. Thomas in 1978. Our apartment in Charlotte Amalie had a great view of the whole thing, which took about three days to burn out. In a small irony, it was the sister ship of the Angelina Lauro –the Achille Lauro — that was hijacked by Arab terrorists in the Mediterranean, and on which a Jewish-American tourist was killed. … It seemed like a very bad movie.
There was a lot of glass on the street from windows in other buildings that had blown out. I decided to try to get back to my apartment in Battery Park City, about four blocks on a straight line from Tower 2, but probably 10 blocks on the route Kincey had to take around both buildings and emergency vehicles. making a big circle around the emergency workers. I really wanted to be abl e to listen to the news and thought I would be safe in the apartment.
I was walking pretty fast but got turned around at one point. There were lots of people on the streets. Clearly, other buildings were being evacuated. From someone I heard that the second tower had been hit by a plane.
I was about a block from my apartment when I heard a huge roar — like a train. I looked up and saw clouds of ash/smoke barreling down on me. I and everyone else turned and ran as fast as we could. It was like a volcano. I ducked behind a building, thinking I would be protected from the debris.
The cloud reached me, and I put my jacket over my head and over my nose to breathe through it. I knew where I was and started walking down to the river, away from the towers. People were trying to get into buildings, but I thought, "No, this is too close, and the air-conditioning is going to go off." Very cool thinking. Maybe all those power outages on St. Thomas taught us something! So I kept walking.
At Battery Park, a policemen was giving away the contents of one of the vendors' carts. There was no water, but I took an iced tea. Then I saw a bottle of water on the ground — maybe someone dropped it in panic. I picked it up and then saw two people sitting in the brick window of the fort with a screaming child. So I took the water over to them, saying I hoped it would help.
When I got as far as I could go — right across from Roosevelt Island I'm pretty sure this should be either Governor's Island or Ellis Island in New York Harbor — Roosevelt Island is up the East River, north of the United Nations, I hung out. Eventually the cloud dispersed; thankfully, there was a strong breeze.
There were a fair number of people, but most people must have started walking north. Several people had dogs, so they were clearly residents of the area. The ash was bad — it stuck in your throat and felt gritty on your skin. Fortunately, the vendors who sell to the Statute of Liberty trade started handing out the water they had to anyone who wanted it. So you could use that to wash out your eyes and throat. People were in shock. Someone said that the Pentagon was on fire. All I could think was, "George W is in charge; he is not going to be able to handle this."
I pulled out my phone and kept trying to dial Diana to have her send an e-mail to you, since I thought that was the best way to reach you. A while after I hung up after talking to her, I began to wonder if I had given her the right address, because I never type it. But I couldn't get through again until I was walking from Jersey City to Hoboken. Which messages did you receive? I felt so badly that you had to go through the whole day without knowing.
Kincey had never gotten the Hugheses' phone number in Grenada. I tried her cell phone several times but was never able to get through. In the early afternoon, I asked our neighbor Steve Fuller in Annapolis to check the answering machine at home to see if there was any word. Finally, about 6 p.m., I borrowed the Hugheses' computer in St. George's and, checking my e-mail, I learned from messages from Diana Josephson, Joan Geer and Peter Potter that Kincey was okay. Pete provided some details.
The second tower fell, and there was another wave of ash. Everyone just hunkered down and put cloth over their faces. I thought Kincey was dead. I didn't believe that the towers could have been evacuated as well as they were, and that people would have been far enough away to be safe when they collapsed. I told the Hugheses that I thought the death toll would be in the tens of thousands.
I am still thinking that I can eventually get back to my apartment, and I was talking to firemen and local residents to see what they thought. When the boats started coming in, the firemen are saying, "You should leave. Spend a couple of hours wherever they take you, and then they will bring you back." That didn't seem right to me. I knew once I got off, I wouldn't be able to get back.
So this big Army Corps of Engineers workboat pulls up, and we are told everyone should get aboard. The New Yorker next to me says, "Where is this boat going to take me?" The crewman says, "I don't know — away from Manhattan." The New Yorker said, "That's not good enough. I'm not going to get on just any boat. I want to know where I am going. Let me speak to the guy who is driving this boat." Love those New Yorkers.
Someone said the green boat was going to Jersey City. I said okay, that's for me, because I can get to Hoboken from there. Other refugees on the boat kept asking me if I was okay. I said, "Yes, I'm fine. I like boats." Sounds like a line from "The Unsinkable Molly Brown." Is this a tough lady or what?
We landed right next to Exchange Place, which is where the Sapient offices a subcontractor on the project Kincey was working on at Morgan Stanley are. I thought, this is great. I'll just go up to Sapient, and I can use the bathroom (all that water and tea) and use the phone. But all of the offices on the water and for several blocks back had been evacuated. It was like a ghost city. We were dumped off the boat with no place to go. I kept asking the policeman where I could find a bathroom, and no one had any ideas.
I walked back away from the water and the only building that didn't seem to be abandoned was housing for the elderly. I asked if I could use the bathroom, and the woman manager told me where to find it. I was washing my face when she came in and said she needed to make a copy of my I.D. for the record. So the nation is under terrorist attack and she needs to get a copy of my I.D. This lady follows the rules.
I was directed to the spot where buses to Hoboken were supposed to pick up passengers. Then the policeman said they were coming but he didn't know when and suggested that we walk — it was only a mile. So I started walking, but it was a lot more than a mile. About three-quarters of the way, buses started passing me. When I got to Hoboken, I tried to flag down a taxi, but he wouldn't stop — he was the only one I saw the entire time. There were a lot of people walking, trying to get to a train station to catch a train home.
It's a good thing that I could stay with Charlene Haykel, a friend of 30 years' standing who has lived in Hoboken for the past 15 years or so. Charlene also works in Lower Manhattan but had been late getting to work that morning and was still in Hoboken when the first plane hit. because there was absolutely no way to get back into Manhattan. Diana, David and MB Josephson offered me a place to stay, but I couldn't get there. And I don't think they made any provisions for the refugees. I don't know what people did who didn't live in New Jersey. As I walked through Hoboken (which seemed much more normal than Jersey City), I noticed people sitting at outdoor tables with the "badge" of WTC ash.
I was worried about Charlene since I thought she was downtown, also. Turns out she was late and was in the PATH commuter train station when she got the word about the first plane hitting. She was so concerned about me that she, Marianna, Howard and a couple visiting them had gone to church. She was in tears when I got upstairs.
A number of people reached me when I was walking … It was so frustrating to see the number of mail messages constantly going up on my cell phone and not be able to get back to people or even know who was calling. Both the land lines and the cell lines were totally jammed. We went out in the afternoon to find a charger because my phone was running down, but the only one I could find (and that was the last one at Radio Shack) was a plug-in for the car. It worked the first time, but not later.
We finally went out the next day and got a wall plug charger. I woke up at 3:30 the next morning and, when I couldn't go back to sleep, realized that it was a great time to get my voice mail over the land lines. I had 16 messages and from some people who still didn't know I was okay. The level of concern is probably the thing that has had the most impact on me. For some people, it was about having someone you knew in the WTC, but most of it was genuine concern for me, which is quite touching.
Kincey and I were able to talk first about 8 a.m. on Wednesday after the disaster, when I called from Grenada. She spent Wednesday and Thursday with Charlene and then on Friday (I think) she made her way into Midtown Manhattan to buy a replacement computer and then got a train back to Maryland.
So, that's it. It is wondrous to me that so many people got out. I think the earlier bomb experience helped a lot. Most people didn't hesitate; they immediately moved to get out. But it is also horrifying that over 350 firemen died, as well as many policemen. And they were probably doomed from the beginning.
The logistics of the rescue/recovery operation have been impressive. The first night they took out over 100 dump trucks as the workers moved the large debris to try and get to people. In the end they pulled only five people from the wreckage alive. The two towers contained enough concrete to build a 5-foot-wide sidewalk from New York City to the District of Columbia, 14 acres of glass, and enough steel to build 14 Eiffel Towers. Not to mention all the furniture, file cabinets and computers.
And Giuliani is some kind of leader. He was on the scene from the beginning — very emotional but saying all the right things a leader should. Unlike GW, who looked like a scared little boy. GW is getting better, but when he talks about "leading the world to victory and eliminating evil," I shudder.
… and thanks to all of you and to the church in Mississippi for your concern and prayers. I think they worked . God Bless us all.

Editor's note:Bruce Potter is the president of Island Resources Inc., an environmental research consulting firm based on St. Thomas for many years and now headquartered in Washington, D.C. To contact him and his wife, Kincey, e-mail to source@viaccess.net.

Editor's note: The following narrative was written by former Virgin Islands resident Kincey Potter on Sept. 18 from her home in Annapolis, Md. She was working alone at an office in the World Trade Center when the Sept. 11 attacks occurred. Her husband, Bruce Potter, in Grenada at the time, asked her to e-mail him a summary of what she had been through. She wrote it at a single sitting. Supplemental information in italics was supplied later by Bruce Potter.
I had arrived about 8:30 a.m. on the 64th floor of World Trade Center Tower No. 2, where Kincey had been consulting four days a week to Morgan Stanley Dean Witter since March and was calling Diana Josephson and talking with her secretary when I heard an explosion (but not a big deal, more like a pop) and saw flaming papers blowing around to our side of the tower. It didn't really look that serious, but clearly something had happened..
I got off the phone and grabbed my purse, Palm Pilot and phone. When I came out into the corridor, there was an alarm (not the one I had heard before in drills) sounding, and I proceeded to the staircase. I got inside and realized that I had not brought my computer. I stood there for about five minutes waiting for someone to come into the stairwell as the door had automatically locked behind her so I could get back out and get my computer. There was a steady stream of people moving down the stairs, many of whom urged me to move down. So, I said to myself, "This is crazy; leave the computer" and started down the stairs.
When we reached the 59th floor, someone in communication with the authorities got the word that everything was okay, and we came out of the stairwell on 59 and got into the elevator and went to 44. Since 44 is the place where the big elevators drop you off to get to the local elevators, that was the only place we could really go.
There were lots of people on 44, and when we got off the elevator, a guy is speaking to people over a bullhorn telling everyone to go back to their offices. "Tower 2 is secure; the best place for you is in your office. If you want to evacuate, you will have to use the stairs; you cannot use the elevators." (Another example of where listening to authorities can be a very bad thing.)
The woman standing next to me (who might have survived the 1993 bombing) says, "I smell electrical smoke, and there's no way I am going back to my office."
I, however, am strongly considering it, because I left my computer. Just at that moment (and I am glad it wasn't a minute later), the second plane hit. Glass didn't break, but there was a huge pressure wave that came across the floor — strong enough to make the floorboards in front of the big elevators flap up. Everyone panicked, started screaming and running to the other side of the floor. The guy with the bullhorn calmed people down and told everyone to move to the stairwells.
(When I got to a TV and saw the video, it was hard to believe it wasn't worse. The pictures of the plane plowing through the building were incredible. In retrospect, I said, "How could a building as big as the WTC come down in 50 minutes?" After reading that the building was built to handle a 707, and it was the steel melting and the top 30 stories collapsing that caused the collapse, I was impressed that it lasted for as long as it did.)
In Grenada, in the Eastern Caribbean, I was staying with Alister and Margaret Hughes, just outside the capital of St. George's, and Margaret got a call from a friend to "Watch the TV — there's a plane just hit the World Trade Center." We started to watch the live cable TV on four or five different channels, including CNN and the BBC, just about the time that the second plane hit Tower 2. I didn't know for sure which tower Kincey was in (or which tower was actually hit when), but I did know she was on the 64th floor, and I sure thought the second plane cut into that building close to there. To this day, I do not know exactly which floor(s) each plane hit.
The descent was very orderly. People didn't panic. There was a black woman singing Jesus hymns next to me and I noticed that she was passing me. She dropped a bunch of papers, and people stopped and helped her pick them up.
There were women's shoes on every other landing. They discarded the high heels and the uncomfortable open back shoes. (Why they didn't just carry them, I don't know, and they probably didn't either when they got to the street. In fact, later, when the tower fell and we all turned and ran, I overheard one woman say, "I should have grabbed my shoes before I started to run. That's the second pair of shoes I have lost today, and I am really pissed.")
By this time people are saying that the first explosion was a plane, but there were different stories about whether it was a small plane or an airliner. It was such a beautiful day, but it never occurred to me to think that it couldn't have been an accident. Instead I am thinking, "Where were the air controllers?"
Our stairwell ended on the mezzanine level, which is at the plaza level above the ground floor. They led us down two tiny escalators that the tourists use to get up to the the mezzanine level. I am thinking, "What a bottleneck. They don't have this evacuation drill very well planned." There was debris on the plaza and also on the first floor, but in retrospect it doesn't seem as great as I would have thought.
Then they led us through the shopping center under the plaza to the exit away from the towers. It was all very calm, but there didn't seem to be that many people. I kind of expected there to be people pouring out of multiple stairwells, but it was only the stream of people coming from our stairs. (I don't know how that worked, because there had to be a lot more people when you consider that 35,000 to 40,000 people got out.) [Editor's note: The number, it turned out, was much less than that.] I didn't look at my watch. I thought it took me about 30 minutes to get down, but since it was a total of 50 minutes before the building collapsed, I think it must have been more like 35 minutes.
I also doubted that they could have evacuated the towers so quickly, or that they would have started evacuating Tower 2 as early as they apparently did. I kept thinking of Kincey's first experience at the World Trade Center, when we moved to New York City in 1980. She came back from a job interview there and, imbued with all of the skepticism nurtured by five years of living in the U.S. Virgin Islands (rotating power outages for most of the preceding six months), she said, "This place just can't work. They told me when the wind blows over 35 mph, they even have to stop the elevators to the top of the World Trade Tower!"
When we got out of the building, I looked back and saw both towers burning. I still didn't know that a second plane had hit and thought maybe the first tower had blown fire over to Tower 2. It was a sickening site, though. I didn't see any way the firemen could put out that fire. It reminded me of the Angelina Lauro an Italian cruise ship that burned at the dock on St. Thomas in 1978. Our apartment in Charlotte Amalie had a great view of the whole thing, which took about three days to burn out. In a small irony, it was the sister ship of the Angelina Lauro –the Achille Lauro — that was hijacked by Arab terrorists in the Mediterranean, and on which a Jewish-American tourist was killed. … It seemed like a very bad movie.
There was a lot of glass on the street from windows in other buildings that had blown out. I decided to try to get back to my apartment in Battery Park City, about four blocks on a straight line from Tower 2, but probably 10 blocks on the route Kincey had to take around both buildings and emergency vehicles. making a big circle around the emergency workers. I really wanted to be abl e to listen to the news and thought I would be safe in the apartment.
I was walking pretty fast but got turned around at one point. There were lots of people on the streets. Clearly, other buildings were being evacuated. From someone I heard that the second tower had been hit by a plane.
I was about a block from my apartment when I heard a huge roar — like a train. I looked up and saw clouds of ash/smoke barreling down on me. I and everyone else turned and ran as fast as we could. It was like a volcano. I ducked behind a building, thinking I would be protected from the debris.
The cloud reached me, and I put my jacket over my head and over my nose to breathe through it. I knew where I was and started walking down to the river, away from the towers. People were trying to get into buildings, but I thought, "No, this is too close, and the air-conditioning is going to go off." Very cool thinking. Maybe all those power outages on St. Thomas taught us something! So I kept walking.
At Battery Park, a policemen was giving away the contents of one of the vendors' carts. There was no water, but I took an iced tea. Then I saw a bottle of water on the ground — maybe someone dropped it in panic. I picked it up and then saw two people sitting in the brick window of the fort with a screaming child. So I took the water over to them, saying I hoped it would help.
When I got as far as I could go — right across from Roosevelt Island I'm pretty sure this should be either Governor's Island or Ellis Island in New York Harbor — Roosevelt Island is up the East River, north of the United Nations, I hung out. Eventually the cloud dispersed; thankfully, there was a strong breeze.
There were a fair number of people, but most people must have started walking north. Several people had dogs, so they were clearly residents of the area. The ash was bad — it stuck in your throat and felt gritty on your skin. Fortunately, the vendors who sell to the Statute of Liberty trade started handing out the water they had to anyone who wanted it. So you could use that to wash out your eyes and throat. People were in shock. Someone said that the Pentagon was on fire. All I could think was, "George W is in charge; he is not going to be able to handle this."
I pulled out my phone and kept trying to dial Diana to have her send an e-mail to you, since I thought that was the best way to reach you. A while after I hung up after talking to her, I began to wonder if I had given her the right address, because I never type it. But I couldn't get through again until I was walking from Jersey City to Hoboken. Which messages did you receive? I felt so badly that you had to go through the whole day without knowing.
Kincey had never gotten the Hugheses' phone number in Grenada. I tried her cell phone several times but was never able to get through. In the early afternoon, I asked our neighbor Steve Fuller in Annapolis to check the answering machine at home to see if there was any word. Finally, about 6 p.m., I borrowed the Hugheses' computer in St. George's and, checking my e-mail, I learned from messages from Diana Josephson, Joan Geer and Peter Potter that Kincey was okay. Pete provided some details.
The second tower fell, and there was another wave of ash. Everyone just hunkered down and put cloth over their faces. I thought Kincey was dead. I didn't believe that the towers could have been evacuated as well as they were, and that people would have been far enough away to be safe when they collapsed. I told the Hugheses that I thought the death toll would be in the tens of thousands.
I am still thinking that I can eventually get back to my apartment, and I was talking to firemen and local residents to see what they thought. When the boats started coming in, the firemen are saying, "You should leave. Spend a couple of hours wherever they take you, and then they will bring you back." That didn't seem right to me. I knew once I got off, I wouldn't be able to get back.
So this big Army Corps of Engineers workboat pulls up, and we are told everyone should get aboard. The New Yorker next to me says, "Where is this boat going to take me?" The crewman says, "I don't know — away from Manhattan." The New Yorker said, "That's not good enough. I'm not going to get on just any boat. I want to know where I am going. Let me speak to the guy who is driving this boat." Love those New Yorkers.
Someone said the green boat was going to Jersey City. I said okay, that's for me, because I can get to Hoboken from there. Other refugees on the boat kept asking me if I was okay. I said, "Yes, I'm fine. I like boats." Sounds like a line from "The Unsinkable Molly Brown." Is this a tough lady or what?
We landed right next to Exchange Place, which is where the Sapient offices a subcontractor on the project Kincey was working on at Morgan Stanley are. I thought, this is great. I'll just go up to Sapient, and I can use the bathroom (all that water and tea) and use the phone. But all of the offices on the water and for several blocks back had been evacuated. It was like a ghost city. We were dumped off the boat with no place to go. I kept asking the policeman where I could find a bathroom, and no one had any ideas.
I walked back away from the water and the only building that didn't seem to be abandoned was housing for the elderly. I asked if I could use the bathroom, and the woman manager told me where to find it. I was washing my face when she came in and said she needed to make a copy of my I.D. for the record. So the nation is under terrorist attack and she needs to get a copy of my I.D. This lady follows the rules.
I was directed to the spot where buses to Hoboken were supposed to pick up passengers. Then the policeman said they were coming but he didn't know when and suggested that we walk — it was only a mile. So I started walking, but it was a lot more than a mile. About three-quarters of the way, buses started passing me. When I got to Hoboken, I tried to flag down a taxi, but he wouldn't stop — he was the only one I saw the entire time. There were a lot of people walking, trying to get to a train station to catch a train home.
It's a good thing that I could stay with Charlene Haykel, a friend of 30 years' standing who has lived in Hoboken for the past 15 years or so. Charlene also works in Lower Manhattan but had been late getting to work that morning and was still in Hoboken when the first plane hit. because there was absolutely no way to get back into Manhattan. Diana, David and MB Josephson offered me a place to stay, but I couldn't get there. And I don't think they made any provisions for the refugees. I don't know what people did who didn't live in New Jersey. As I walked through Hoboken (which seemed much more normal than Jersey City), I noticed people sitting at outdoor tables with the "badge" of WTC ash.
I was worried about Charlene since I thought she was downtown, also. Turns out she was late and was in the PATH commuter train station when she got the word about the first plane hitting. She was so concerned about me that she, Marianna, Howard and a couple visiting them had gone to church. She was in tears when I got upstairs.
A number of people reached me when I was walking … It was so frustrating to see the number of mail messages constantly going up on my cell phone and not be able to get back to people or even know who was calling. Both the land lines and the cell lines were totally jammed. We went out in the afternoon to find a charger because my phone was running down, but the only one I could find (and that was the last one at Radio Shack) was a plug-in for the car. It worked the first time, but not later.
We finally went out the next day and got a wall plug charger. I woke up at 3:30 the next morning and, when I couldn't go back to sleep, realized that it was a great time to get my voice mail over the land lines. I had 16 messages and from some people who still didn't know I was okay. The level of concern is probably the thing that has had the most impact on me. For some people, it was about having someone you knew in the WTC, but most of it was genuine concern for me, which is quite touching.
Kincey and I were able to talk first about 8 a.m. on Wednesday after the disaster, when I called from Grenada. She spent Wednesday and Thursday with Charlene and then on Friday (I think) she made her way into Midtown Manhattan to buy a replacement computer and then got a train back to Maryland.
So, that's it. It is wondrous to me that so many people got out. I think the earlier bomb experience helped a lot. Most people didn't hesitate; they immediately moved to get out. But it is also horrifying that over 350 firemen died, as well as many policemen. And they were probably doomed from the beginning.
The logistics of the rescue/recovery operation have been impressive. The first night they took out over 100 dump trucks as the workers moved the large debris to try and get to people. In the end they pulled only five people from the wreckage alive. The two towers contained enough concrete to build a 5-foot-wide sidewalk from New York City to the District of Columbia, 14 acres of glass, and enough steel to build 14 Eiffel Towers. Not to mention all the furniture, file cabinets and computers.
And Giuliani is some kind of leader. He was on the scene from the beginning — very emotional but saying all the right things a leader should. Unlike GW, who looked like a scared little boy. GW is getting better, but when he talks about "leading the world to victory and eliminating evil," I shudder.
… and thanks to all of you and to the church in Mississippi for your concern and prayers. I think they worked . God Bless us all.

Editor's note: Bruce Potter is the president of Island Resources Inc., an environmental research consulting firm based on St. Thomas for many years and now headquartered in Washington, D.C. To contact him and his wife, Kincey, e-mail to source@viaccess.net.