(FORTUNE Magazine) – This story hit our hearts. Thankfully, no one at FORTUNE or among our immediate families died in the worst single day of violence on American soil since the Civil War. But because thousands of business people, mainly New Yorkers, tragically found themselves on the frontlines of this weird new war we're in, our staff lost scores of friends, relations, and sources. So as we scrambled to gather information, assess the damage, and quickly come to some early conclusions about what the future holds, we were riding an emotional as well as an intellectual roller coaster.

Asia editor Bill Powell was scheduled to fly home. When his flights were canceled, he came into the office to write our lead story, "Battered but Unbroken," while he worried about several relatives--who turned out to be safe. Deputy editor Rick Tetzeli lost a close friend among the hundreds who died at bond house Cantor Fitzgerald (see First for his moving eulogy). Writer Suzanne Koudsi (below right) and photo editor Scott Thode, who live near the scene of the assault, heard the sounds of explosions and rushed out to interview and snap photos. (Look for Scott's heart-stopping shots of the fall of the Twin Towers in our cover package.) That same morning economics writer Anna Bernasek walked out of City Hall, where she'd just gotten her marriage license, in time to catch the horrific sight of a plane slamming into one of the towers. She swallowed hard, rushed back to the office, and hit the phones.

In normal times, I would now go on to highlight the keen analysis and moving storytelling you'll find in the pages of this magazine. And we have done our best, in the four days before this issue closed, to give you an intelligent look ahead at the effect this escalating battle between terrorism and civilization will have on Wall Street and the world economy.

But this is not a time for business as usual. Like everyone, even as we were shocked and appalled by the senseless carnage we witnessed, we were inspired and heartened by the countless acts of generosity displayed by ordinary citizens, who lined up to give blood and volunteer, and most of all by the extraordinary acts of heroism of the professional disaster crews, epitomized by New York City's firefighters, who suffered record losses as they rushed to do their jobs. We salute--from our hearts--those acts and the memory of all who died in this terrible tragedy.

Meanwhile, back in what now seems like another era, the FORTUNE family suffered a painful loss. On Sept. 2, senior contributing editor Jim Rohwer died at the age of 52 in a sailing accident off the coast of France. A former deputy editor at The Economist, Jim, who was based in Hong Kong, was one of the world's leading experts on Asia. His fiercely intelligent, contrarian insights into the Asian and global economies appeared in our pages starting in 1997, as well as in two books, Asia Rising and Remade in America. He liked nothing better than to attack reams of financial statistics, poring over them for telling data with the same gusto and discernment he showed for a fine meal and a good drink. A relentless optimist, Jim would naturally have been a big part of this issue's package of cover stories. We will miss him.