Page 19 - MidWeek - Sep 1 2021

“I saw dust snaking its way through the buildings ... we ran away from the dust and started walking up 7th Avenue,” recalls Sanchez, who was luckily still able to catch a commuter train back to where he lived on Long Island. He stopped in briefly at his apartment, and then rushed to his family’s house, a 10-minute drive away, to be with his kin.
who worked at the World Trade Center and were still missing.
2006 when his division of the company closed down. He then found work at Wil- lis Group insurance in an office at World Financial Center, which is locat- ed next door to where the twin towers once stood. He remained there for seven years, while simultaneous- ly watching rubble from the World Trade Center build- ings still being taken away prior to their replacements being erected.
circumstance, Sanchez was suddenly free to seriously rethink his future, including whether New York City was the right place for him.
“I was very lucky. I didn’t get any debris on me ... (When) I got home, I cried with my family for the rest of the night,” says Sanchez, the son of a Chilean father and Lebanese mother.
“It turns out she perished. That was really an emotional part, to have her husband call me looking for any informa- tion on his wife. She was pregnant.”
“I think that affected me in a way that’s hard to really explain. But being near it ... living in denial, too, about how much it may have af- fected you,” Sanchez ac- knowledges.
In the days afterward, Sanchez also started receiv- ing calls from people franti- cally looking for loved ones
ollowing 9/11, San- chez continued to work for Aon Corp.
“The fact I had just gotten married, just had a child and was commuting to Manhat- tan, it was a bunch of things that I believe were causing stress in my head, so I had to change my life a little bit,” he explains.
gave serious thought to per- manently relocating to Ha- wai‘i. Eventually, in 2014, they moved to Pāhoa on the Big Island.
“There’s this one call I re- ally remember,” notes San- chez. “This gentleman was looking for his wife because he couldn’t find her. I don’t know how he got my num- ber, but he called me and he was asking me questions if I knew where she was, and I didn’t know. I had no idea.
Because he had previously visited the Aloha State on a trip, Sanchez and his wife
F
at a temporary office, but eventually was laid off in
Upon leaving Willis Group for another job that offered more money, San- chez experienced an epilep- tic seizure during his proba- tionary period, which caused him to miss work for a week and ultimately cost him his job. Despite the unfortunate
till, Sanchez wasn’t completely free from life-threatening di-
the street from fissure 8, it’s so close. But I just rolled with it. I thought to myself, ‘I don’t have time to com- plain.’ My entire world now revolves around my son, and I just wanted to get us out of there,” he adds. “Lava has a particular sound, like air blowing, almost like a jet ... There was a lot of sulfur in the air.”
“We flew to Hawai‘i with suitcases, but no other stuff, nothing,” says Sanchez. “We came to the Big Island only because we were looking for the least stressful existence.”
(Inset) A young Paul “Pablo” Sanchez shares a moment with his father, Fernando. (Above) Sanchez and his 9-year-old son, Zy, take time out for a recent picture. PHOTOS COURTESY PAUL SANCHEZ
Although he went by the name Paul during his days in NYC, Sanchez opted to use his nickname Pablo once he moved to the 50th state.
In his mind, it was another way of making a break from his past.
At the beginning of the eruption, he remembers hearing sirens, and then friends phoned him telling him to get out of the area be- cause lava was coming.
Although he and his wife are no longer together, they both still live on the Big Island and have one son, 9-year-old Zy.
S
sasters. In May 2018, he was forced to evacuate his Leilani Estates home af- ter cracks opened up under his house, right before an earthquake hit and lava be- gan spewing all around the neighborhood.
SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 MIDWEEK 19
Survivor Sanchez Recalls 9/11 Two Decades Later
FROM PAGE 14
(Above) Paul “Pablo” Sanchez stands in New York City with his newborn son, Zy, with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background. (Right) Sanchez poses for a photo in New York with his friend Cary Kaplan, a Brooklyn-based attorney.
“I am an avid chess play- er,” he shares.
“I grabbed my son, and grabbed the cat and put the cat in the carrier. We just left. The house is still there. It never was taken (by lava), but it was scary. I remember being prepared for several days before and having bags packed. I was happy to get out of there,” Sanchez says.
Meanwhile, Sanchez currently is employed as a sales producer at Hawaiian Islands Insurance Inc.
“My house is right across
Another of Sanchez’s
Sanchez also has lei- sure-time activities that he enjoys very much.
SEE PAGE 20