September 11, 2001

CLRS Final Sessions Canceled
On the morning of the attacks, the Casualty Loss Reserve Seminar was just starting its second day of sessions in New Orleans. The first CLRS concurrent session began promptly at 8:30 a.m. CDT, about 40 minutes after the first plane hit Tower One. CAS staffers interrupted the session periodically to relay information regarding the attacks, airport closings, and hotel accommodations. At around 9:30 a.m. CDT, CLRS Chairperson Guy Avagliano made the decision to cancel the rest of the meeting.

The Fairmont Hotel, site of the CLRS, went into emergency mode, usually implemented for hurricanes, and offered rooms at a reduced rate to stranded attendees. The hotel provided food services and installed a big screen TV in one of the meeting rooms for members to watch the news reports. By early afternoon, the number of people watching had dwindled to only a few, many having gone to their rooms to watch TV reports in private, contact family and colleagues, or simply decide what to do next.

Getting Home the Hard Way
With the grounding of all flights, several attendees, anxious to return home, chartered buses and hired cars to various destinations (see story, page 16), while others waited it out until air traffic began again. Peter Royek, who was a scheduled panelist for two Tuesday sessions, boarded a bus to Philadelphia with 52 other people, including seminar attendees, their spouses and other family members, and two drivers. Others, like Regina Berens, stayed behind in New Orleans and conducted consulting work from her hotel room. Berens got home Friday, September 14 on one of the first few flights to land in Newark after the airport reopened. (She's flown 10,000 miles since September 11.) Eduardo Esteva, a CAS Affiliate member and meeting panelist, was stranded in the U.S. until the weekend. He and his wife were anxious to return to their seven-month-old child, who was being cared for by family members at home in Mexico. They arrived home the following Monday.

Definitely Not Business as Usual
Hundreds of businesses of every type—both those in the WTC complex and the surrounding area—were affected by the attacks. A total of 36 CAS members worked in offices in One and Two World Trade Centers. These firms included Aon, Fireman's Fund McGee, Guy Carpenter & Company, Kemper Insurance Companies, MMC Enterprise Risk Consulting, and SCOR Reinsurance.

In the days following the attack, some of those affected were able to work from home or in temporary offices. Walter Wright, of MMC Enterprise Risk Consulting, was back to work on Thursday in offices on the Avenue of the Americas in New York. John Kulik, whose firm SCOR Re as yet had no temporary facilities, went to work in the Chicago office for a few days.

Because of its location only a few hundred feet from WTC Plaza, John Robertson's St. Paul Re office was cordoned off; staff had very limited accessibility for a few weeks. While the building did not sustain structural damage, its interior had to be cleaned of accumulated dust from the surrounding air. Phone and e-mail services were also disrupted for several days. A few St. Paul Re employees were allowed in the building for short periods. The office was opened to all employees on October 12, but few of them could stand the still-lingering smoke for more than an hour and a half. St. Paul Re's current plan is to move back October 23. Robertson and some of his coworkers have been working from home and others from various locations. Holborn Corporation lent St. Paul Re some space in lower Manhattan. Staff members have been working from a temporary location on Long Island, New York, and offices in Morristown, New Jersey and Philadelphia.

Finding Comfort
In the early moments of the attacks and in the days and weeks following, the CAS Web Site proved to be a source of information and comfort to CAS members. Members frequented the "Water Cooler" section of the Discussion Forum of the CAS Web Site, using it to learn news of the attacks and of colleagues employed in the WTC buildings. On September 14, CAS President Patrick J. Grannan posted a message on the CAS Web Site to all CAS members, candidates, and friends. In the message, Grannan announced that a new section on the Web site's Discussion Forum had been established to help share further information.

The CAS has received several messages of condolences from actuarial organizations from throughout the world. Groupe Consultatif, an organization representing 33 actuarial associations from 27 countries in the European Union, issued the following statement: "Our profession is a small closely knit one, with links in particular to the World Trade Center…many amongst us who have spent time there, and who have regular contact with professional associates and friends there—some of whom will doubtless have perished in this outrage…We feel a close bond in this time of adversity, and a profound sense of sorrow at the grievous blow to your country, your members, and our colleagues."