You may be reading this in early October, but I'm writing it on the evening of September 11, the fifth anniversary of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. It's deja vu because I'm sitting in a hotel room on the outskirts of Palm Springs, exactly the same place where I became stranded in 2001 — and attending the same conference (International Association of Special Investigation Units).
When I received my wake-up call at 6:00 a.m. that morning five years ago, it was 9:00 a.m. in New York. I flipped on the television and saw the burning towers. At first, I assumed Katie Couric and Matt Lauer were reviewing some disaster movie, but as the cobwebs from sleep left my brain, the realization hit.
A few minutes later, they announced the Pentagon had been hit and all aircraft were landing at the nearest airport. Was this the beginning of the end of the world? As it turned out, it was — at least the end of the world as my generation knew it. Were more cities being targeted? I tried calling my wife who was visiting the kids in Chicago, but couldn't get through. Could the Sears Tower be the next target?
Once telephone service was restored, I finally got through to the airlines and tried to get the next flight out. Whatever was happening or going to happen, I wanted to be home with family. How naive! It would be days before any planes would take off.
Virtually stranded, I headed off to the IASIU conference, except the sessions had all been cancelled. At noon I headed to the restaurant, seeking some human interaction rather than food. The hotel lobby was eerily quiet as terror-stricken hotel guests, many in tears, stood mesmerized by the horror unfolding on a number of televisions screens. Finally, I went into the bar, which was the only public space with a few remaining seats.
When was the last time you were served a Bloody Mary by an unabashedly sobbing bartender?
Finally, that Friday, I was able to head home on one of the first flights out. There were lots of prayers being recited as that plane lifted off.
Now, five years later, the World Trade Center site is still a huge hole in the ground. The psychological scars are still ugly and sore across the nation, airport security is a nightmare, and the families, friends, and co-workers of the almost 3,000 people who perished in New York and Washington, DC, still function in a hazy fog of anguish.
The attacks cost the insurance industry dearly, $35.6 billion in 2005 dollars. But the insurance industry has regrouped, analyzed its P&C options, and reevaluated its business-interruption coverage strategies. Now we're back to "normal," worrying about more manageable and predictable threats like hurricanes, fires, floods, and fraud. The terrorism challenges still remain, like the anticipated expiration in 2007 of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act and how the industry will fill that void.
For too many — thousands and thousands — there will never be a "normal" again because they are unable to forget the recent past horrors. Like the insurance industry, we can all learn from the past and make adjustments to meet the future head-on, but that's as far as it goes. Anniversary specials were abundant today and one was on when I stopped in that same bar I sat in five years ago — but it seemed like just yesterday.
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