[ S C A R Y T R E K ]

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Sep 13, 2001 by Michael Hooper Capital-Journal

Broker escapes tower's collapse

Robert Matos

Kerry Hendrix

S C A R Y T R E K

By Michael Hooper

The Capital-Journal

A broker who has done business with Federal Home Loan Bank of Topeka for 12 years is mourning the loss of his New York colleagues after he escaped from the south tower of the World Trade Center 10 minutes before it collapsed.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I think that either building would come down," said Robert Matos, assistant vice president of Eurobrokers, which took up the entire 84th floor of the south tower.

He said about 60 of his colleagues were still missing Wednesday afternoon.

After establishing contact with family, he called his friends, including Kerry Hendrix, assistant portfolio manager at Federal Home Loan Bank of Topeka, on Tuesday afternoon to let them know he was OK. Matos, who has visited Topeka several times, helps FHLB with institutional investments.

It took Matos an hour to escape the World Trade Center. He left it despite hearing some people in the south tower say they would be safer staying inside.

Matos, 37, his wife, Debbie, and their 5-year-old son, Robbie, live in Scotch Plains, N.J. He drives to Newark, N.J., every day, parks his car and takes the PATH train to the basement of the World Trade Center. On Tuesday morning, he arrived at the World Trade Center at 7:50 a.m. New York time. He took an express elevator to the 78th floor of the south tower. From there he took another elevator to the 84th floor. He arrived at his desk at 8 a.m.

At 8:49 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 hit the north tower. He didn't see the plane. All he felt was a "shudder."

He immediately stood up and saw that most people didn't notice anything.

"At that point I felt there might be something wrong," he said. He went to the south window and saw debris, mostly paper, flying everywhere. Back on the trading floor, he yelled that something was wrong.

He went to the stairwell. Somebody said, "you might be safer up here." As he was going down the stairs, there was an announcement over the intercom saying that the south tower was secure and you can if you want go back to work, he said.

He continued walking down the stairs to the 55th floor, where a security guard re-iterated that the south tower was secure. He left the stairwell and went to a window facing north.

"I looked up and I could see the carnage. I saw massive fire, seemingly overtaking many floors," he said. "I saw people jump to their death. I saw one person on fire jump to his death." He said he probably saw five to 10 people jump out windows.

Matos tried to make a phone call with his cell phone. "I was shaking so much I couldn't make an outgoing call," he said.

At this time, about 9:06 a.m., he heard a second explosion. It was the second plane hitting the south tower near the 80th floor, near where his office was located, but he thought the explosion was a bomb.

"We knew judging by the force it had to be something in our building," he said. He immediately went to another stairwell.

"We scrambled to the stairwell like roaches when you turn on the lights," he said. "There were many people who were going down. It was very orderly to the point of surrealism. Nobody had any idea what was going on above us." The stairwell traffic was slow.

When he got to the bottom, to the concourse level, he saw people and debris falling down. "I believe they were falling from the north tower," he said.

Emergency personnel directed him to an underground level on the east side of the south tower, where he stayed by the Borders bookstore. Emergency personnel "told us to get as far away as possible and not to use our cell phones."

"I saw both buildings on fire," he said. "I was carrying nothing, my cell phone, my wallet and my keys."

"I thanked God I was out," he said. "I knew judging from what I saw the death toll was going to be high."

He walked north.

"A mass of humanity was moving north out of the financial center like something you would see in a movie," he said.

As he walked toward Chinatown, he turned around, looked back and saw that the south tower was gone. About 30 minutes later, the north tower fell.

"By the time I turned around to see it, it was gone," he said.

He walked to a friend's apartment, had lunch with him and at 8:35 p.m. was able to take a train to Newark where he got in his car and drove home. The first thing he did when he arrived at 9:45 p.m. was hug his wife and child, and then watch the news on television.

It was a day, he said, he will never forget.