Insurance Companies Had Major Presence in World Trade Center

While a myriad of businesses called the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center home, insurance companies were particularly hard hit with Tuesday’s terrorist attack on the 110-story landmarks. The following is a list of some of the companies and which floors they were situated on:

North Tower – Kemper Insurance Companies (Floors 35-36); Hal Roth Agency Inc. (77); Daynard & Van Thunen Co. (79); RLI Insurance Company (80); Metropolitan Life Insurance Co, (89); Marsh USA Inc. (93-100).

South Tower – SCOR U.S. Corp. (23-24); Allstate Insurance Co. (24); Hartford Steam Boiler (30); Frenkel & Company Inc. (35, 36); Guy Carpenter (47-54); Fireman’s Funds Insurance Co. (47-48); Seabury & Smith (49); AON Corporation (92, 99, 100); Continental Insurance Co.

Fireman’s Fund Public Relations Director John Kozero told Insurance Journal that all 190 employees of the company who worked in the South Tower on the 47th and 48th floors made it out safely.

“When the North Tower was hit, they (employees) began evacuating out of the South Tower,” Kozero said. “They made it safely to the 30th floor when the second plane hit their building. We’ve spoken with everyone and they all made it out safely.”

Kozero indicated pyschological counseling has been set up for employees and that the company has already begun preliminary searches for new offices in New York City.

According to Laura Margolis, spokeswoman for Allstate, the company has two Allstate agent offices in the South Tower. “Two of our employees made it out safely, while the other two had not yet reported for work,” Margolis said.

MetLife, which had a sales office on the 89th floor of North Tower, had 35 employees working out of its sales office. As of Wednesday afternoon, two employees had been unaccounted for, with the other 33 were reported safe.

“We have set up counseling not only for those employees there, but also for our employees in Jersey City and those in Johnstown (Penn.), near where the United plane crashed,” said John Calagna, spokesman for the company. The United flight from Newark to San Francisco went down about 80 miles from the Pittsburgh area Tuesday morning, the last of the four planes to crash.

As of late Tuesday afternoon, Linda Kingman, spokeswoman for Kemper Insurance Companies, said, “The information we have at this time is that our employees were safely evacuated. We are in the process of trying to establish contact with each of our New York City-based employees.”