America's bloodiest day
Being back at work a relief for some
By Susan Hooper
Advertiser Staff Writer
At workplaces throughout Hawai'i yesterday, employees tried their best to put aside thoughts of Tuesday's terrorist attacks and concentrate on the job at hand. And some found relief in being at work.
"Maybe the best thing we can do is what everyone has said: Get on with the business of our country, whatever that might be," said Thomas Cestare, officer in charge of the National Labor Relations Board's Honolulu office, which has eight employees.
The board's offices are in the Prince Kuhio Federal Building, which was closed Tuesday. Cestare said he believed that was the right thing to do then, but getting back to work is the right thing to do now.
"We got such a dose of the news yesterday that it's almost as if we're exhausted," he said. "We're talking about it, but everybody is getting on with what they have to do."
The Honolulu office of brokerage firm Merrill Lynch opened for business yesterday after being closed Tuesday, said Judith Perry, managing director of the company's Pacific Islands Complex.
Perry said employees were very busy talking to clients and absorbing updates on the financial world from a variety of sources, including e-mail, a Merrill Lynch television network, and a "squawk box" broadcasting news from company offices in Princeton, N.J., and New York.
But the overwhelming events of Tuesday were never far from employees' thoughts, she said. Merrill Lynch's headquarters were in the World Financial Center, twin towers across the street from the World Trade Center. Those buildings are now closed, Perry said, and nearby One Liberty Plaza — where she trained 25 years ago — collapsed yesterday.
"It's just stunning, because there are a lot of emotional ties to headquarters," she said.
To assist employees who want to help, Merrill Lynch is arranging an office blood drive. In addition, six support staff members who were awarded a weekend trip to Carmel, Calif., in November have decided to donate the cost of the trip to a disaster relief fund.
"It's their way of feeling like they're helping from this far away," Perry said.
The Hilo Hattie store at Ala Moana Center was closed Tuesday, as the mall management shut down the shopping complex.
Store manager Shelly Easton said working with customers when the store re-opened yesterday helped employees put aside thoughts of the attacks. Many of the shoppers were tourists forced to spend extra time in Honolulu because the airport was closed.
"Everybody's plugging along, trying to have really good spirits," Easton said of the eight to 10 workers in the store yesterday afternoon. "There are a lot of poor customers who are stranded here, so they're trying to make them feel better about it."
Even as many Honolulu workplaces tried to return to normal, some employees were unable to work because of circumstances connected to the attacks. Karl Herman, office manager of Akamai Painting in Mapunapuna, said employees on the North Shore couldn't get to the office because of traffic resulting from heightened security at military bases.
"It took them a couple of hours just to get to Wahiawa from the North Shore," he said.
At Aloha Airlines, the mood among employees was frustra-tion, as planes were grounded for a second day because of federal directives to keep airports closed.
"There is some work, but again it's very frustrating, because we called everybody in," said spokesman Stu Glauberman. "We're ready to fly. We wanted to fly. We made all the preparations to meet the new security restrictions. And still we're not able to fly."
