Financial analyst Kristi Foggo-Howell is counting her blessings today after narrowly escaping death at the World Trade Center.

But the effects might be with her and her family for some time.

The former Berkeley head girl describes her existence as consumed with paranoia - she starts at sudden noises and even normal everyday ones.

She can sleep for no longer than 15 minutes at a time.

And she refuses to let her ten year-old son out of her sight.

"I just can't fathom what's going on right now," she told The Royal Gazette.

It was a fluke that saved her life - had she not arrived at the American Stock Exchange some 15 minutes earlier than normal for work, she would have been in the World Trade Center when the first plane came crashing into the building.

"Had I been on my regular schedule ... I would not be here today to talk about it. Fifteen minutes saved my life," she said.

As it happened her employer asked her and some other staff members to come in a little earlier Tuesday morning.

Ten minutes after arriving on the trading floor, tragedy struck.

"We were watching it on the monitors because all the work had come to a standstill when we realised something was wrong. At first I thought it was a Cessna or a small plane that somebody lost control of and as an accident went into the building but we were watching it and we could see the next plane coming around. Then the realisation hit that something serious was going on."

The American Stock Exchange building shook when the second tower was hit. "The windows were shattered and the lights went completely black and all you heard was screaming and pandemonium."

When the lights came back on, debris had blocked the exit doors from the building, trapping about 200 people on the trading floor. No-one obeyed instructions to move into the basement.

Mrs. Foggo-Howell said she preferred to take her chances on the ground floor than be buried underground. "I thought I'm not going to the basement because if this building collapses I'm going to be buried alive... We just stood there looking at each other for what seemed like hours."

Eventually the doors were opened. Outside a "horrific sight met my eyes", she said. Covered in black soot the group made their way towards the water, heading toward the Staten Island ferry.

"We hurried. I ran, I walked... The black smoke was getting thicker and thicker and closer. So I was thinking more planes were hitting these high-rises. And as I was racing down these things were collapsing."

She made it back to her Jersey City home by five p.m., having walked all the way. "My only thought was to stay near the water so if I needed to I could jump into the Hudson River... I thought if these high-rises are going to topple over they are going to topple into the streets."

Her ten-year-old son, Anthony, was her "whole will to survive", she said.

She had no idea where he and her husband, a police officer with the New York Police Department, were. Schools had been evacuated and he was already home being looked after by a neighbour.

"My son just broke out in tears," she said. "He was crying... My husband was so upset."

Asked how she was coping with the tragedy now, she said : "I haven't been able to function properly. Every sound is making me nervous. I'm looking at my ceiling in my house and thinking it's going to collapse. I can see these buildings collapsing and trying to get away from them. And I can't watch TV anymore - I have friends that were in the towers having breakfast. They were on the 110th floor having breakfast."

She sits next to the windows in her home ready to jump out in case the building collapses.

Her son Anthony is anxious at the sight of a radically altered skyline - two major landmarks normally seen from a window of their home are now gone. But he is handling things with tremendous courage.

"He's as much a victim in this but a hero for me - he is showing tremendous strength.

"He and I will go together (for trauma counselling) and we will talk about it when I feel the time is right for me to go that route... Right now I'm sure there's hundreds and thousands of other people that lost loved ones. And I was one of the lucky ones to actually live through it. But there's so many other people who are in dire need of counselling now because they lost family and friends".

She said she was also praying for other Bermudian families whose loved ones are missing.

Asked for her thoughts on a US response to the terror attacks, she said :"I'm a little wary of the `go get `em' attitude right now. I think the US needs to really sit back and evaluate the situation. They need to find out exactly who's responsible.

"At this point security is number one. I don't know about waging war because I am very afraid - every action has an equal and opposite reaction... You have other main points that can now be targeted if this is not thought out in a rational way. It scares me to death - the things that are vulnerable now."

Having said that, she said that she is looking forward to returning to the trading floor. "When the dust settles and the security is tightened I look forward to it."