Companies search for workers, struggle to continue operations
NEW YORK -- Of the 300 companies that had offices in the World Trade Center, two firms alone have been unable to account for almost 1,300 employees since the terrorist attacks.
The twin towers were home to top corporate names like Bank of America, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Credit Suisse First Boston and Sun Microsystems.
Normally 50,000 people work there, but officials estimate 10,000 to 20,000 people were inside when the first plane crashed just before 9 a.m.
Marsh & McLennan Cos., an insurer, said about 600 of its employees were unaccounted for Thursday, but the company called the process of locating its people frustratingly inexact.
''This is an environment in which it is quite difficult to be certain of things,'' MMC spokesman William Pitt said.
Trading firm Cantor Fitzgerald and its two subsidiaries are missing 670 of their 1,000 employees. They set up a crisis center at a hotel to offer religious and grief counseling to family and friends.
Morgan Stanley, believed to be the trade center's biggest employer with 3,700 employees, said up to 40 may have lost their lives.
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