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September 2001
I've been working
overseas for 10 years in the oil exploration industry as a surveyor. I've worked
in Saudi Arabia, Greenland, Romania, Oman, Egypt, and Pakistan, and I'm currently
working in Algeria. Before that I worked for 10 years at the same job
in every corner of California, with stints in Alaska and Wyoming. I work outside the country for six or seven weeks at a time, then have 3 or 4
weeks off when I can travel back to the US or elsewhere.
My wife Joyce is from Scotland, and we are currently
building a new log house on 16 acres in Northern California, in El Dorado county. My wife is
the director of the Crippled Children's Center in Claremont, now called Ability First.
Right now we live in, of all places, Pomona! I
never thought that
would happen! - Terry Yarborough
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Hello, PHS 72 folks, Terry Yarborough here. Remember me, the
nerdy photographer guy?
If you've seen my slot on the website you know I work overseas, and this year
I'm in Algeria. Right now I'm in a remote area of sand dunes. I work on a
seismic oil exploration crew with about 12 British, American, Australian,
Canadian, (etc.) expatriate workers, and a couple hundred Algerian senior staff
and laborers. I am in charge of the surveying department, marking the locations
for the rest of the crew. We live in a camp with about 15 trailers and some
tents. It was once a very isolated situation on these crews, with only short
wave radios for news, because we work far from cities and towns. In the last few
years we've had satellite TV. Recently we got satellite Internet access and
phones.
Last Tuesday I was far from New York and Washington, so my story
is nothing special. Just the same, I wrote down my experience on that day:
September 11, 2001 will be one of those dates when everyone remembers where they
were. I think I was the first on the crew to know about what was happening.
The surveying is very far ahead on this job, and I had about run out of things
to do in my office after lunch. I had already printed up the anticipated survey
production for Sept. 11, and even created the preplot files for the guys to take
out to the field the next day. I thought I might check the Internet for who was
pitching in the upcoming Dodger game, and barely happened to notice on Yahoo's
home page, in normal sized type "Plane hits Trade Center". At first I wondered
if I had heard about that before, thinking of the plane that hit the Empire
State Building in fog in the 1940's, causing minor damage. I clicked on the
article, which was just a couple of sentences long, not mentioning the size of
the plane, but saying there was fire and a hole in the building. Then I
realized the article was just a few minutes old, and that sent me racing to the
TV in the diner trailer.
The TV was on National Geographic, showing wildlife scenes to an empty room. I
scrolled the satellite receiver through the 99 mostly blank channels until I
found CNN. The picture came up showing yes, there was a fire, but I thought it
must have been an accident and maybe it could be controlled somehow. A minute
later the jet came from the right and hit the South tower, exploding in a ball
of flame. Almost before I comprehended what my eyes were showing me, my heart
felt like it would beat out of my chest. No accident, a coordinated attack, and
no, it wouldn't be controlled. I watched for a while, the same thing people all
over the world were seeing live, but realized I was still alone in the diner. I
ran across the sand to the manager's office to tell somebody, anybody, about it,
but there was nobody there. I went back to the TV, then outside again when I
saw two of the English data processors outside their office. They listened,
unbelieving, to my wild tale, and they followed me back into the diner trailer.
Now CNN had a split screen, showing the Pentagon on fire as well! What was
happening?
It was almost time for afternoon tea break, and one or two
Americans came into the diner and sank into chairs. I went back to the survey
office and found my crews were arriving from the field. I started the first of
their data collectors downloading into the computer, told them what was
happening, and went back to the diner at sat down.
Then the South tower collapsed. It hadn't been long enough for
people to get out, but long enough that there would surely have been lots of
police and firefighters at the base of the building. After a few minutes I came
back to the survey office to unplug the data collector and plug the next one
into the computer, but my hands were shaking. I told Abdul-Kadar what had
happened, and told him to finish processing the data and get ready for the next
day. He had seen me do it enough times. I was done working for the day.
Back in the diner I found myself drinking glass after glass of
water without thinking. More and more expatriates and Algerian senior staff
came in, their jaws dropping open when they realized what they were seeing on
the screen as the jetliner impact was replayed.
Then the observation deck on the North tower, where I had once stood, started
its fall, the building and all inside disappearing beneath it. Some of the guys
in the diner gasped or said "oh man". The city was hidden in dust and the World
Trade Center was no more. I leaned weakly against the wall in my chair.
The next morning Bouhali Laid, the shortest guy on the survey crew, told me in
halting English "Very sorry, for America". A couple of the other guys that
work for me said something similar, as did the laundry man, who I told that my
whole family was safe. "Praise be to Allah", he replied in Arabic.
So I have about four more weeks before I am due to go back to
the States. I hope the airlines are back on schedule by then.
Terry
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