'Oh God, something happen. This whole building shaking'
Guyanese missing in US terror attacks now at seventeen
Stabroek News
September 17, 2001

As information continues to trickle in, at least seventeen Guyanese are feared dead in last Tuesday's terrorist attack on the World Trade Center Twin Towers that have left thousands of persons unaccounted for.

Those missing are: Vanava Thompson and Gregory John; Hardai Prabhu, who had been on the phone at the time the plane collided with the tower she was in; Ameena Rasool - who worked with the Marsh and Maskan Insurance Company on the 98th floor of one of the twin towers; Ricknauth Jaggernauth - who had been employed at NXT Interiors on the 104th floor of one of the towers, (formerly of Free Yard, Port Mourant and a resident of 164 Pennsylvania Ave, Brooklyn, New York; Ronald and Kamini Singh - employees of Windows on the World located on the 107th floor of one of the towers; Shiv Sankar of Richmond Hill; Anett Dataram of South Ozone Park, New York; Nizam Hafiz - a former Guyana middle order batsman who also worked on the 107th floor; Patrick Adams - a former Guyana Defence Force officer (who it was learnt left a message on the answering machine for his wife telling her that he was trapped), and John Charles, both men worked as security guards at the WTC; Sabita Guman and Sita Shewnarine - both worked on the 97th floor in the southern tower, and according to Guyana's Foreign Minister Rudy Insanally, they were both seen on the ground floor but have not been heard from since; Joyce and Patricia Stanton; Kris Romeo Bishundat - a Navy Information Systems technician of Guyanese parentage, who was stationed at the Pentagon when one of the four hijacked planes smashed into it.

The India-born husband of Guyanese, Ramona Rattansingh, is also missing. Ac-cording to reports, Narendar Nath, who has been married to Rattansingh for the past four years worked on the 97th floor of the center and has not been seen since.

Relatives of Prabhu, said that up to early yesterday the search to locate her was still on.

The victim's eldest brother, Kenneth Persaud, Deputy Headteacher of the Cummings Lodge Secondary school told Stabroek News yesterday, "I received a telephone call early this morning from my brother in the United States and he told me that they have not found her yet."

According to Persaud, 42-year-old Prabhu, also called `Chandra' and formerly of 5, Area CC Ogle, East Coast Demerara had been chatting on the telephone at around 0848 am, with an older sister, Jenny Singh - who lives in Canada - when the northern tower collapsed.

The distraught man said that Jenny had related to him how during the said conversation, there had been a loud crash and that Prabhu - an Information Systems technician employed by Aon Financial Services Group, Inc. which operates from the 92nd, 100th and 105th floors of the southern tower - had screamed and then exclaimed, "Oh God, something happen. This whole building shaking," before promising to call back and hanging up. At the time, she had been on the 100th floor.

Persaud said that after news of the terrorist attacks began to circulate, relatives tried frantically to reach Prabhu via her cellular phone but no connection could be made, and when finally later that day, phone links were re-established, there was no response.

An emotional Persaud told this newspaper that ever since then, his brother Latchman, who resides a short distance from the victim's Middletown Road, Bronx, New York home together with several other family members have been searching for his sister.

"We are leaving no stones upturnned," he declared, adding that his sister was a "very caring person." He recalled, that she had been very supportive when he had become blind in his right eye after suffering a head injury in an accident by sending the money needed to replace the damaged eye with a prothesis as well as to cover pre and post surgery expenses.

Prabhu, who is single and has no children, left Guyana for Trinidad 15 years ago to get married but migrated to the US five years later when the marriage failed.