Final calls from a loved wife
He heard a simple, heartbreaking message from his wife, who was trapped on the 101st floor of the North Tower.
"Sean, it's me. I just wanted to let you know I love you and I'm stuck in this building in New York. A plane hit the building, or a bomb went off. We don't know, but there's a lot of smoke and we just wanted you to know that I love you always."
And that was it. Hughes has not heard from her since, and he has been desperately looking for a way to get to New York from his San Francisco Bay Area home. Because commercial air traffic has been stopped since the attack, he has had no way to get to the disaster scene.
"The toughest thing for me right now is that I can't be there," he said today.
This morning, Jet Blue Airlines offered to fly him and his brother Shannon to New York's John F Kennedy International Airport on its next available flight and they hope to arrive tonight.
In the meantime, however, friends and family have been calling hospitals and passing out fliers with Melissa Hughes' picture on it. They have not heard anything about her whereabouts or condition.
In lower Manhattan, there is a line of human grief - person after person, clutching photos and fliers, waiting to report their loved ones missing.
With little information and diminishing hope, they are assembling at a National Guard Armory, anxious for any news about survivors of Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center towers.
As they wait, fliers on walls and lamp posts around them plead for information about one young missing man. "Sean Lugano, 2 WTC. KBW 88th Fl.," it reads, referring to the missing man's employer and office location.
The family of Christopher Clarke has been e-mailing media outlets, asking for any information. Clarke was near the top of World Trade Center when the attacks occurred.
Brian Murphy was on the 105th floor. His wife received an e-mail from him just 20 minutes before the first plane hit, she has heard nothing since:
"He has two beautiful little children, 4 and 5, waiting to hear something about Daddy," his sister Cynthia said. "They are so scared."
Elizabeth Rothstein, Murphy's sister-in-law, said: "We hope that we find him and we love him and we miss him - and my sister wants her husband back."
Thomas Dunbar was waiting for news of his 31-year-old daughter, Lorisa Taylor. She worked on 94th floor.
"I just hope somebody finds her," he said simply. "She has three daughters at home and they miss her."
Sean Bitner clutched a flier with a picture of his wife, Angela Susan Perez. She worked on the 103rd floor.
Even bad news would be better than not knowing, the father-of-three said. "It's better than making the kids wonder and everyone else not knowing - not knowing is driving us insane."
As he waited and cried, Bitner urged those around the nation watching the disaster not to take their loved ones for granted. "Appreciate them - what else can you say? Appreciate them. Appreciate what you have."
Paul Biatini had wanted to take one of his two daughters to her first day of preschool, but he had to go to a meeting on the 102nd floor.
"He would help anybody," his brother Mark said, with tears from his eyes as he waited in line. "I hope he thought about getting out, but he wouldn't leave anybody there if he could help somebody."
