3 20 7169 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: Following was an email I sent to my friends and family as an account of what I witnessed on that day: I live four blocks east of the World Trade Center and was awakened today by the sound of a massive explosion followed by what seemed like hundreds of people screaming. I rushed to my window to see if I could see what happened. Although I could see the reflection of people running down the street, I could not ascertain what had happened. At first I was thinking there had been a major car crash or something. When it finally occurred to me to turn on the TV, I was shocked to see the smoldering World Trade Center. Then, minutes later, as I heard the motor overhead, I witnessed the second plane crash into the tower not really believing what I was experiencing while simultaneously watching this horrible event unfold on TV. I tried to call my Aunt who works near Grand Central but the line was busy. I must have been in shock because all I could think to do was get dressed and run outside to take pictures. As I tried to dress, phone call after phone call from my family started coming through. These calls, thankfully, kept me from being outside when the first tower collapsed. What I heard is almost indescribable. The ground and building rumbled, the sound indistinguishable as an explosion or crash and the easily identifiable sound of screams. This time I ran to the window and threw it open to look down the street. What I saw was what I can only describe as an avalanche of ash and smoke barreling down the street and people running to stay ahead of it. When I saw this ball of ash rolling toward me I slammed down the window and ran to the opposite side of my apartment and hid below the kitchen counter. For the first time in my life I was actually terrified ? I thought sure that the force of the debris was going to blow out the windows. Within a minute, my building and street were engulfed in a thick cloud of white smoke. Fortunately I remained safe. After a few seconds I realized that some of my windows were open and I rushed to close them when I became aware that smoke was streaming in the apartment. Needless to say, I chose not to venture outside. Still concerned about my safety and wanting to know whether it was best to stay in my apartment or attempt to evacuate, I went to my lobby in search of information. I assumed it would be safer to take the stairs but found the stairwell filled with debris that was still falling. I took the elevator to the lobby and found it filled with dust and ash and the street in front of my building covered in rubble. I saw people walking by that were completely dusted in ash from head to toe. I returned to my apartment after determining that it was the safest place to stay only to have the entire incident repeated by the collapse of the second tower. The only difference this time was that the cloud of smoke was pitch black. And again I saw rubble fall from the sky when 7 WTC finally fell this evening. I could even make out what looked to be a take out menu floating down to the street. I have been without power since 7 WTC fell, which I think was about 5:30 pm, it's 11 pm now. I attempted to leave to stay with my Aunt on the Upper West Side, but by the time I got through to transit to find out what forms of transportation were available and gather some things it had gotten dark. There were no trains running for blocks and night had fallen. When I got outside, the air was still so thick with dust I could barely breath. No one was outside save a few police officers and a few others trying to leave. With the power out it was darker than any other night in recent memory. The cops available were more angry than helpful as I inquired about the best route out of the neighborhood. I abandoned the attempt to leave after walking just two blocks. I am currently safe at home typing this note on my trusty battery powered Powerbook with modem while listening to streaming coverage from ABC. I have about an hour of battery life left. I am illuminated by candlelight...a gift from a friend. As I have commented to you all many times since I have lived in downtown Manhattan, it had been a most incredible experience to live in the shadow of the World Trade Center. I often looked up to it for encouragement as I made my way up the street to get to work, and I used to relish the private moments I was able to enjoy there on a quite Sunday morning. I'll never be able to do this again... I was able to evacuate the area the next morning where I along with other "urban refugees" dragged a suitcase and my cat out of lower Manhattan, out of the "war zone" ... Coincidentally, the lease on my apartment was up 9/30, but it took another full month before I was able to arrange for the move out of the neighborhood. I currently reside in Harlem. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story2215.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 4.43.254.227 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: The night of 9/10/01, my son and I were on our way back to Phoenix after spending a long weekend with family in NJ. Our flight from Newark was delayed by about two hours because of the downpours we had all day. We also heard that there was a fire in the Newark Airport compound that afternoon. As we got on the plane and sat in our seats, we had to wait our turn to take off. The rain was pelting so hard onto the plane, I was leary of a take off, and by the look on my 11 year old son's face, I could tell that he too had reservations. This was the second time we felt unusual about sitting in our seats, wondering if we should be here on this particular flight. When we left Phoenix a few days before, we were stuck sitting in our seats for two hours before we took off. There were strange noises coming from the plane as we were backing up and maintance wanted to check it out, but we could not leave our seats. My son had said to me more than twice, "Mom, maybe we shouldn't be on this plane." That thought crossed my mind, a few times but we got over it after the critical take off time. Now, we sat on the tarmack in Newark, waiting our turn to take off. We must have been there at least over an hour. I couldn't help but look across the aisle to set my eyes upon the NYC skyline. "Look," I said to my son as I pointed to the window, "there's the New York skyline, and there's the Twin Towers." What does one look at when they gaze towards New York City? One can't help it but to fix their eyes on them, the "Towers." Even as a young teen, college student, adult and a mother, those Towers never ceased to amaze me. I used to watch them in a park on top of a hill when they were being built. I would play hookey in high school and a group of us would go to the WTC and up to the observation deck, as we left, I would always look back up at them. I can't begin to count the times that when we left the "City", those Towers would always be the last thing we would look at when we turned around to look out the window to bid New York City good bye. They were ever drawing, a feeling that even my children experienced numerous times when we went back "east" to visit my family. As a tourist visiting lower Manhattan, the Towers were always my guide as to which direction I was heading. The Towers and the multitude of people who worked at the WTC always fascinated me. Because of the multiple delays we did not get back to Phoenix till very late. I think I got to sleep around 3am Phoenix time, 6 am New York time. I was up about 5 minutes before 6 am and the phone rang. "Damn," I thought to myself, "I forgot to call Mom." I answered the phone,"I guess you got home ok," I thought to myself, why would she say that, of course I got home ok. Then she said a few more words and I began to dedect a sense of anxiety, coverup. She told me as her voice began to break, "Oh my God, why are they doing this to us, why are they doing this to us? A plane hit the World Trade Center and there is black smoke everywhere, God Kathy, it is terrible, it reminds me of when WWII began and Pearl Harbor was attacked. Oh God those poor people!' "Calm down Mom," I said," if this bothers you so much turn off the TV if it is upsetting you so much," I said tivializing her statement. "Go put the TV on and watch," my Mom said. I figured, that it was probably one of those private planes that made a judgement error in an accident. I turned on the TV and thought to myself, "Oh shit, Mom was right." I didn't want to believe it. I shut the TV off. The next thing I did was drop to my knees with such a strong overwhelming feeling of gratitude and I cried out, "Dear God, thank you so much for sparing our lives, we could have been back there touring and had that difference of a short 12 hours that could have changed our family forever. PLEASE GOD, stop this craziness and help those poor souls!" I contined to turn the TV on and off, I felt very insecure and was very worried about my family in NJ since they are only about a 20 minutes ride form NYC. I resolved not to say a word to my 16 year old daughter, after all, it probably was nit as bad as I thought. Boy was I in denial. I ran upstairs to wake up my husband for work. He sat on the edge of the bed and I whispered in his ear, "what I am about to tell you, do not react loudly to it, I don't want to frighten the kids." AS I proceeded to describe this catastrophatic event he yelled out, "WHAT??!!!" I attempted to calm him down, he said he didn't believe it, then became very angry and began cursing those who did this. WE remained quiet and calm while my daughter got ready for school. I kissed my daughter and husband goodbye for the day, and I guess since we really were not given absolute information about the situation, we tried to continue our day as normal as possible. I ran back to the TV to watch the unfolding events, of course, like everyone else, not believing this was happening. I went to the garage and brought out our flag, and hung it near out front door. I tried to wake up my son for school but he was exhausted from the previous nights activites. I called the grade school to report that my son wasn't coming in for the morning, the receptionist knew we had traveled back there for the weekend and told me they thanked God we made it back home and that not to bother bringing in my son because the principal was letting children go home if their parents were coming for them. By this time, my neighbor called to find out if we were back home because she knew we had gone to NJ. I don't remember her exact words, only that she was worried and that she would not be able to do anything that day because she would be glued to the TV. The worst was yet to come. Within a short time, the first tower came down. Even as I write this now, I have a nervous gut, and like everyone else, I was completely spell bound. I was crying uncontrollably and inconsolably after the second tower fell. Those poor people! Oh God, the humanity!!! As each event unfolded I felt like I was watching a made for TV movie. My son appeared in the room, instead of thinking about how I should explained what happened to an 11 year old, I just said curtly, "Jack a terrible thing has happened to our country this morning!' The look on his face was one that a parent would never want to see on their child's face. I realized what and how I said this to him, then tried to downplay and rearrange my wording. He saw the constant replay of the Towers getting hit by the planes, and the falling of each of them. He walked up to the family room wall, looked at a picturre on the wall and pointed to one saying to me, "look Mom, now they are history, I'm so glad that you and Pops took me to see them." He was pointijng to a picture of himself with the Twin Towers in the background when we went to tour them when he was 6 years old. Out of the mouth of babes, he said the truth, and I had forgotton that this picture was even hanging on the wall. I tried to call my Mom back in NJ to ask if everyone was alright. I got through and reassured each other. I was worried about my girlfriend's husband because I knew he worked in Manhattan but I did not know where. My Dad said he would try to call her and inquire about him. My daughter called me on here cell phone from her school. She was crying and very upset. She said that she was calling in the girls restroom as she was not allowed to use her cell phone on campus. She said that there were all kinds of rumors being told of the entire NY Metro area being evacuated, she was worried about our family and was confused as to if she should come home. I reassured her that the worst was over and that I had just spoken to Nana and that everyone was alright. How I remained calm, I don't know. I vacilated on my thoughts for the rest of the morning. I wanted to talk to some one, to make them understand how I felt, after all, that area was my home, I grew up in the NY- NJ Metro area and I felt this so much stronger than anyone from this area. I finally went next door to visit. My neighbor was home, unusual because he is a pilot for America West Airlines. I told he and his wife about my weekend and experience of our flights rides and the history of my involvement with NYC-NJ metro area. They were from Nebraska and Ray was also in the Reserves. He was a pilot in Desert Storm. They agreed with what I was ventilating, but I felt that they could not feel the passion that I was feeling. I bet that they were very fearful because what they had on their minds was the fact that Ray would soon be serving since he was in the reserves. I was phyically ill and as the day progressed and I watched the ugly TV scenes and heard the confirmed news reports I ran to the bathroom wretching. In retrospect, I was nervous and nauseous all week long. That night, my husband John and my neighbor Greg and I were talking. I began to cry as I was worried, what would be next,especially for us here in the west. Would there be a dam or bridge explode? I think that the most eerie thing was sthe fact that as we stood outside, there was complete quiet, as the planes were still grounded and we were in the high path of jetliners. We did ocassionally in the next number of days hear a jet or jets go by, as we lived not too far from Luke Airforce Base and that was comforting to us. Later that night, my daughter's friend's Dad called me to ask me if I was ok. He knew I grew up in the NY area. He told me that his sister and her family lived across the Hudson River and that his brother-in-law was a fire fighter and he returned home but two of his friends who he worked with when he worked for FDNY did not come back from Ground Zero. I thought it so thoughtful of him to call because he nver talked to me on the phone. Earlier that day his teenage son called me to talk about the day since he never went to school. His Mom waas driving him to school then her to work. His dad called them after the morning events and told them to pick up the 5 year old at day care and turn around and go home since we are being attacked, God knows what was going to happen. Here was this 16 year old telling me, "Mrs. Brand, we were attacked today, we are at war." I did not want to hear that but I knew that it was the truth. I remember thinking and feeling later on that week about our children, and their generation and how it will never be the same in America again, that our civilians were attacked by cowards, I had no noun name for them for to me, they were sub-human. I was so proud of our leaders, especially how the mayor R.G. handled his New Yorkers and the words of comfort from Pres. G.W. Bush. On Friday, the church service in Washington D.C.was so necessary and very comforting. I prayed more, yet very confused as how could a human being do these terrible things to another human. Untill 3 weeks ago, I had not flown on a airplane since 9/10/01. As my daughter, my son and myself stood in line for security to pass us through, my 14 yr. old son got pulled over because of the metal detector going off, he was wearing pants with alot of metal clips and it caused the detector to keep buzzing. Then he was pulled over and throughly searched. That and the fact that we had to take off our shoes made me so mad, "those stupid bastards caused us to have to do this!" referring to OBL and his characters and their acts of deceit and destruction. We got back to NJ safely, I could not see out the window to look at the NYC skyling as we were landing. In our taxi ride home, it was 6:00 am and I knew that the NYC skyline was still lighted but I subconsciously did not want to look at it, I wasn't ready to get that final blow. I took my teens into New York City on Sat. 10/23/04. We went by train to Hoboken. As soon as we stepped off the track, the first thing I see is a poster about support systems available to those still affected by 9/11. I pointed it out to my teens. WE walked on to the pier to wait for the farey, the first one out was not till 10:00 a.m. I saw a sing on a board, it said that the company was discussing situations with the government about the farey getting assistance, that since the Path trains were back in order at the World Financial Center, less people were taking the farey. A man behind me was discussing this with a German couple touring the area, he said, "if they close this, that will be the begining of the end." I shuttered to hear those thoughts. I finally forced myself to look at the NYC skyline, yes, oh God, that hurt, and yes it looked so strange not to see the "Towers." I tried to familiarize myself with the current sight. I never took close detail. WE arrived at the sight, it seemed like we had to walk a longer ways to get to the grounds of the Financial Center. We went into the Winter Garden as it was cold and we wanted to get a hot drink. I was not sure if this was the same building cause I could not see the glass enclosed area. I asked a woman if she knew if the building we were in ws destroyed on 9/11. She thought so but was not sure. Then I asked a worker at Starbucks whre could I find a site to see Ground Zero. She told me around the corner. WE walked and found the lobby of the Winter Garden. It did not seem as beautiful as it was before. Why? The palm trees were there, but seemed puniier, and the lobby seemed smaller. People were on the next level looking out a vast window. I went to a security guard and asked him if this building was damaged on 9/11. He did not have eye contact and than looked at me and said yes,that everything to the water-front[Hudson River] was damaged. He pointed to the large window area and said, the Towers were right there, and his intonation was one that seemed to me that he was thinking, "you stupid woman." He also did not volunteer any thing further. I asked him how long after 9/11 did it take to repair the current building. He told me and looked away for my eyes. I asked him wherer do I go to see Ground Zero and he pointed to the 2nd level window, I said how about outside?, he said I had to go to Vesey ST. exit and go across the covered bridge. He and I said no more. I got the feeling that this guy was hurting. WE saw the site from the window, I was not satisfied. We found our way to the exit and up the stairs to the covered bridge. I tried to picture the buildings as they were but could not. All that looked familiar was the ramp that was built for recovery. There were no workers out there, it was Saturday. As difficult as it was for me to picture the area, it was even worse for my kids. We walked across the street to ST. Paul's Chapel. WE looked at the graveyard in front of the church, my son said, "look Mom here is a gravestone and it says that this woman died on 9/11 in the 1700's. That was very strange. I had no idea that St. Paul's had an exhibit on the 9/11 ministry. It really helped me grieve or at least FEEL something. We stayed about 1 hour. WE left to tour the area, we walked the old steets around wall street. I told my kids to stop and turn around and to imagine a 10 foot cloud of smoke and debris coming our way. It was hard to picture this. I again asked a local woman some questions about 9/11, she was vague. Were these neww people that relocated here after the clean up or did they just not want to talk about it. I have to say that the area was clean, one would not have known other then the work on ground zero and surrounding buildings. In didn not see the memorial in Battery Park because I did not know that it was there. About 2 weeks after I returned home to Phoenix, I rented DC 9/11 and pulled out some documentaries about 9/11 that I had taped a few years ago. I had to relive this since I had just been there and the election was over and people I knew were still bitching about the war and Pres. Bush. I showed my teens these films, and they saw my anger and my tears and my obsession to review 9/11 sites on the web. My 19 year old said to me, "Mom why are you doing this, what are you obsessed with this?" I asked her if visiting Ground Zero and St. Paul's did anything to her. She said no, that she had grieved at the time of 9/11 and that she was over it. I told her,I HAD to come to terms with this because I too could not feel it at Ground Zero. After I watched the films it helped me to find some closure. Now I wanted to write this for posterity for my kids and future generations. I still have the flag I put out on 9/11 the morning the first Tower hit. It is folded ina box. We never stopped flying our Flag, 24 hrs. ATC, unless we had to change it for a new one. WE are proud of our Troops fighting for FREEDOM and appreciate ALL Veterans for their sacrifice so that we can live in our country and live as we do. We appreciate our emts, firemen and police. My daughter's boyfriend went through fire academy school and graduated.n I showed him those 9/11 tapes and we all felt it even so much deeper. I pray for peace for all the families who lost their loved ones both on 9/11 and in the current war our men and women have died for. GOD bless America. Kathleen Legutko Brand Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story11155.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2004-11-14 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 67.150.67.117 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: It was a normal day so I thought as i put my coat and and shoes on to walk 2 blocks to school. It was then when all the tv's in school were turned on, every channel had breaking new, I was so very confused at the time till then our english teacher had explained that terrorist had crashed suicide planes into the twin towers and people were dying and hurt. My heart then dropped though it felt and my stomach began to clench up. I was so fill with confusion and anger that i felt tears rush down my cheeks, trying to hold them back so my classmates would not see. My friend ricky's sister lives in New York and her husban, Ricky's brother in law was late to work that day, he worked at the world trade center. And to this day we thank God for all those workers late for work that day. Only if we could have saved more. This thing called war is still going on today and i have friends there in Iraq with wifes and even kids they havent been able to see, touch, kiss, or hug. I pray for the soldiers out there fighting for what they believe in and showing our countries people that our Freedom is not free so to be thankful for those out there fighting and dying for us. God Bless America! Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story11780.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2005-08-29 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 24.197.203.45 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I just finished getting dressed and had the TV on in our bedroom. I walked into the living room and my husband had the TV on also. I looked at him and said "Do you think it's terrorists because I don't think planes are allowed to fly in the airspace above Manhatten. I no sooner said that and then the second plane hit the building. I was devastated but went to work. As soon as I got here I called my mom to find out if my sister and cousins who work in NY were okay. She said everyone except my cousin's husband was okay. He worked for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th Fl of the first tower hit. It was so painful for my family becasue my cousin Cathy Lyn was left with 4 children ages 11, 9 and 3 yr old twins. There are so many stories like mine. It was truly a sad day in America and I pray we never have to go through this again. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story2747.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 162.119.232.100 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I remember I was in college when the one of the twin towers was bombed. Like many college students, at that time and in that place it seemed that I lived in a bubble. College is funny that way; TV and, often, current events were replaced with social events and schoolbooks. I don?t remember feeling as thought that event was unbelievable and it did not have the power to overwhelm me. I resumed my common activities and never thought that the anger that created that bombing was not going to be a trend. Now that I think back on that day it should have been a wake up call to all citizens of the United States. Years later that bombing became like a bad memory that you wish you could relive just so you could have tried using another emotion, or tried saying some other words that would satisfy you. But instead, you play that scene over and over again until you can let it go. I can?t let it go like thousands others, especially those pushing memos to the top trying to let ?them? know this bombing is a sign of something evil that resonates passed our timid escapism. We were silly to think that we were invincible that we could not bare witness to horror that our grandparents saw at Pearl Harbor. Instead, we choose to live our lives blindly in hopes that those memos were read and action was being taken. Like the emotion of dismissal I used in college during the bombing, I did not want to believe IT could happen either. On September 11th, I was working at the newspaper ?The Record? in Hackensack, New Jersey installing the software that would soon hold the stories that report the worst event of our nations history. My boss, Mike, liked to show up on time every day at 9 AM and put in a full day. In fact, Mike likes to do much of his daily routines as he did the previous day. We took the rental car from the hotel just a few blocks from the newspaper. I had noticed that the air was crisp and not a cloud in the sky, just like the perfect fall days I like to have in my small New Hampshire town. Mike, another co-worker Marlene, and I often choose to use the side entrance into the building so as to avoid the bothering contact from the security officers. The side entrance to this four-story building has a glass front and had a clear view of New York City. Everyday, riding up that elevator, we would make small talk of the weather and often gaze out to the New York City skyline. New York was only ten miles away and on a clear day you make out the buildings that would make up that skyline. As a small town boy, I admired the skyline and thought to myself what wonderful things modern man can accomplish. I remember I looked at my watch when I entered the elevator. It was 9:13. When the elevator reach the top floor I looked out to see the city and my eyes could not believe what I saw. My voice softened like I was talking to myself. I could barely say the words, ?One of the towers is burning!? My fellow workers looked out and Marlene put her mouth to her hand and said? Oh my god?. A huge range of smoke was piffling out of the top of one of the towers in a southerly direction. The elevator doors wanted to close again and I knew we should get off and go see what was going on in the newsroom. My heart sped up as we briskly walked down the elevator hallway that led to the large newsroom of some three hundred desks of which no one was sitting at. It was still early in the morning, so I could only spot a few people. I noticed they were all clustered around one of three televisions that constantly is airing CNN. The people looked like eyewitnesses to a bad car crash. I saw one woman whose body was crouching under the duress of what see was watching and she was babbling a sound that sounded like ?No, no, no!?. Another person could not watch and turned away from the television towards a phone. At this point I still had no idea what had happened. My body seemed that it was in slow motion. Each step I took towards the television was happening in with each beat of my heart. I think I knew that my world was about to change. I made a b-line towards another curious on-looker to the TV. I had to fulfill my need to understand what I just saw out on the elevator and asked, ?What is going on??. He looked white in the face as he told me. ?A plane has just hit one of the twin towers?. Seconds later I found out that it was no ordinary small plane, it was the same plane I commonly use every Monday and Friday to get to The Record and back home. My body started to shake as it does even when I write this story. I began to watch, like many other Americans, the newscasters telling viewers that a ?737 has just crashed into tower two?.? I sorted it out in my mind that this was happening just miles from me and I was not going to escape the events of that day forever. After a few minutes, I went back to the office where my co-workers were busying themselves and by the time I got in to the room Mike had told a plane hit the building. I said, ?I know? and he restated ?No! Another plane had just hit the other tower!? I felt like a child awaking to a world that is not sheltered anymore. I ran back to the TV to resume my wide-eyed viewing. It all felt like a dream, like a movie. Reporters were coming into the newsroom at a steady stream by now and getting that sucker-punched announcement. I went to the window and could see fire ablaze those two mammoth-like structures that used to poke out higher than any other. Now, they were filled with hell. I thought of the many souls that must be lost in those buildings, the now parentless children, and the panic people still inside. I also remembered that New York was just a few miles away and that these people here at The Record must have relatives or friends in Manhattan! I turned to look with my realization that many people darted towards phones and out doors to find loved ones. The world was spinning out of control and I felt like a wondrous onlooker and not a participant. It?s hard to gather concrete thoughts during times like this. I though, my wife! She was in New Hampshire and I knew she was alive, but she was not with me and I knew that was killing her. I called her and with a shaky voice I asked, ?Are you watching this?? I knew by the tone in her voice that she was and she was in the same state as I. Not much could be said between us. None was needed, we knew how each other felt and could not talk because we were so engorged on the events that were transpiring. We gathered millions who were able to view this tragedy from their workplaces, homes, and lobbies. All still, all trying to work it all out in their minds. I was able to view it out the newspaper?s windows. It was too close. The window offered something I thought I could ever imagine. Suddenly, a plume of smoke blew out around all sides of tower one and then up suddenly. I could tell from my distance away that the building had fell. I turned to the TV and it was true. I went to the office to inform my other co-workers. Marlene jumped in her seat and made a low noise. Mike pretended not to hear. They both were taking this day of tragedy in their own way. Marlene turned shaken and said she was right there this time last year. I could tell she wanted to cry and had thoughts of her being down there now. Slowly events came in and I returned to the office with more and more tragic news. I knew that my visit to the office was only going to deepen the cut for Mike and Marlene, but I want them to know what was happening. They seemed to hide their anguish and I was not doing a good job showing mine. I imagined myself back in college and thinking that the bombing event had made me, now, turn and look and not turn away. I still can?t turn away. That day would last a lifetime. I could not return home for two weeks, since Newark Airport would not run flights. Me, Mike and Marlene had to go to Target just to get enough underwear to last us. This is not where I wanted to be during this time. I wanted to be in the arms of my wife. I remember I called my father the next day and all the pent-up emotions came out. He knew I toke it hard and I think I did because I soaked it all in being so close and seeing that sort of thing without the advantage of loved ones around to console you. Don?t get me wrong Mike is a nice guy, but getting a bear hug from him would not do the trick. Today is almost a year later and still the images of that day burn like a light in my mind. I still feels like a dream, but it?s the nightmare that wakes you up. I will never forget that day and I hope every Americans never does. And when it comes to seeing the events around us, we should never look away. Where were you when IT happened? Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1183.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-08-19 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 192.233.117.163 Annotation Annotations to this item. Television Coverage WTC, attack NY:3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: When I heard about what happened, I could not believe my ears. It was horrifying to hear our nation was under attack. I was so scared and sad. I was wondering why this happened so suddenly on a beautiful day in the autumn of 2001. I was afraid that it was a start of a war. Like, we need more wars.I dont think so. I hope that people will never ever forget what happened and I hope that it will never happen again. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story9053.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-02-13 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 205.213.111.50 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: Personal Emergency National Tragedy Four days ago marked the six-month anniversary of September 11th, a day burned into my mind like no other. An Infamous day that caused a whirlwind of emotion that included shock, fear, worry, remorse, and anger. It was so ironic for me to be in Washington DC that day. Even more ironic that I was there from September 10th thru most of the 12th. In all the years I lived just outside of Washington DC (a majority of my life) I had never stayed over night there. My mind spins every time I think of the unusual twist of fate that put me just over three and half miles from the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001. My father had Liver transplant surgery through the night September 10th and early morning on the 11th. We were at Georgetown University Hospital and my father was in recovery sleeping at six o?clock AM. The surgeon woke us with the telephone call I remember it scaring me straight up out of bed, because I did not remember falling asleep. The surgeon said dad would sleep for several hours, and that we should not see him until he is fully awake and off the respirator. I was happy his surgery went well and decided I was hungry. We all got up, although my two daughters Stephanie (fourteen) and Tiffany (twelve) were a little more reluctant than I was. Everybody filed into the bathroom in turns until our typical grooming things were done. Stephanie naturally took the longest I have never seen anyone so meticulous about her hair. Bonnie (my step-mother) phoned relatives while the rest of us went to pick up breakfast to bring back to the hotel room. The hotel was connected to the hospital along with many conveniences such as restaurants, Starbucks coffee, etc. We returned to the room with breakfast around eight thirty. We ate slowly and talked, even joked around while we waited for someone to call saying dad was awake. I think it was eight fifty or so when the phone rang, it was dad?s sister Judy and my Uncle Brian. They sounded hysterical on the phone to turn on the television. I ran over and turned on the television at the same time asking them what channel. They said it did not matter what channel. I remember as if in slow motion the picture slowly coming in to view. First it was fuzzy, a flame and some smoke coming from a tall building. The picture becoming clearer I recognized the familiar New York City skyline. Wow! The World Trade Center building was burning. Stephanie, Dawn, and I all jumped for the remote at the same time, because there was no volume. We all listened attentively as we heard the words. ?In New York City just moments ago, a hijacked passenger jet, American Airlines flight 11 out of Boston, Massachusetts flew into the World Trade Center?s south tower.? We were stunned; silence came over our room as we watched the television re-play the crash over and over and over again. The only sounds we heard were the people in the room saying ?oh my God.? After the initial shock wore off, I remember thinking that it could have been much worse if the plane had hit the tower lower, and I thought many of the people had a chance to get out. I had not even quite finished the thought when the second plane came. It was just past nine o?clock as I recall, and at first, I thought it was the same view the station had played repeatedly until I realized the fire was already burning. The newscaster had an uncharacteristic panic in his voice as he said it was another plane. I could not watch the live shot. I was so repulsed by it I turned my head away and closed my eyes. I could not bear to watch those people die. I saw it many times after that, but it was some how different than seeing it live. I am not a psychologist so I could not even begin to understand the psychology of it. We watched for at least 15 minutes without a word or even a sound other than the air conditioner coming on. I broke the silence shortly after the announcements came that the FAA had closed all New York City area airports, and the Port Authority of New York had ordered all tunnels and bridges closed. I told my daughters to pay close attention to what was happening because I believed this day would one day be in history books. They said they would, but they wanted to see Poppa (their name for my father). I realized they were right I looked at the clock it was about nine thirty. The president was on the television from Florida, but I decided to take a break from the national tragedy and check on dad. I told everyone I would return shortly, the girls wanted to come, but I told them no. I went down the elevator to the hotel lobby. I took a big deep breath and realized I must not have been breathing deep at all since the first plane crashed. When I walked out into the lobby I was floored. There were easily a hundred people gathered all around a small television watching the news coverage. I rounded the corner and looked back at the faces of the people in the crowd they all had very grim looks on their faces. It reminded of my Grandfathers funeral. Stop it, I told myself; I cannot afford any more negative emotions today. I kept telling myself to keep moving just concentrate on dad right now. I just could not do it the tragedy was on the faces of all the passers by. I remember seeing a Middle Eastern couple walk by me and I tensed up, I even clenched my fists, and I felt my jaw tighten. I wanted to jump on them and beat them for what had happened. I literally had to restrain myself saying ? calm down Mark they had nothing to do with it.? I even argued with myself saying ? how do you know?? I finally put it out of my mind as I arrived at intensive care. I looked at dad through the glass of his room. He was still out cold. He had lots of machines and hoses hooked up to him. The one that was most disturbing was the respirator. I felt tears welling up in my eyes my emotions going on overload. Tears streak down my face like the uncontrollable river. I walked out and into the bathroom to get myself back under control. I wiped my eyes and washed my face. I went back out to talk to his nurse. I could not look at him again at that moment. She said he would probably sleep for another hour and then he should wake, but he would not be able to talk until he is fully breathing on his own and the respirator is removed. She also said he would have his worst day that day or the next. It seemed like a year ago that I was at work having a typical day. I thought back to the day before when I was working away. The phone rang; it was my wife Dawn. ? Mark?, she said, ?you have to come home right away.? ?Your dad is on the way to the hospital -- he got a liver.? I told her I would be home in an hour. She said that she would pack and arrange childcare for our two sons. Evan had just turned six, and Bradley was three, too young to understand what was happening. I got home and we piled into the van. Dawn had already taken the boys to a neighbor?s house. She said our friend Laurie would be picking them up later for a sleepover. They thought it was a fun outing, which I felt good about. Dad had been living in a nursing home, because of a painful hernia as well as liver disease, mainly for pain management. We arrived at the hospital around four o?clock. There was a lot of paperwork to fill out as well as blood tests and the usual preparation one goes through before surgery. I could tell dad was nervous. I could here it in his voice as he spoke kind of quivery. I remember joking with him trying to keep his spirits up. We were at a teaching hospital, the young student doctors moving through the hospital ward carried book bags. I told dad his doctor had a ?pokemon? book bag. We all got a laugh out of that albeit a short-lived laugh. When they took him for surgery, I gave him a big hug and told him I loved him knowing it was possible he may not survive surgery. That is when we left for the hotel to wait for a word about his surgery. When I came out of my flashback trance, I focused on dad?s television. I decided to turn it on because I knew he would want to know what was happening. I turned without looking at him and said ?I?ll be back a little later dad to check on you.? It must have been around ten o?clock when I was walking back to the hotel. I noticed people walking a little faster than earlier. I just figured more people were at work than earlier. I kept catching little bits of conversation that had me wondering what had happened while I was away. I heard a couple of nurses talking as they brushed by saying we are a back up hospital for any overflow. I realized my pace became quicker and quicker to get back to a television. I did not even think to look in the lobby I just jumped on the elevator and up I went. I burst in to the room and everyone at once said a plane crashed into the Pentagon. Oh my God! We are pretty close to the Pentagon! I ran over to the hotel window. I could see black smoke filling the air a short distance away. I saw a helicopter flying around the smoke. I just stared at it in disbelief. What if there are other planes, I thought, Could we all be in danger? I thought I better get back to the television so I know what is going on. I no more turned my head to see the World Trade Center?s south tower collapse. Dawn say?s the sight of the tower collapsing and seeing all the people running away from the tidal wave of dust, dirt, and debris overtaking many will haunt her forever. The first thing we thought about were all of the people that may have been inside the building as well as the fireman, ambulance crews, and people in nearby buildings. Then the realization occurs to us that the other tower will most likely fall as well. We had been hearing a report of another plane that was missing, and found out it was United Airlines flight ninety-three. Dawn said when she called to check on the boys that Laurie had said the neighborhood buzz was that Fort Detrick was the target just a few miles away. I was already overstressed, and then I had to worry about my boys too. I felt horrible when I felt relief about the plane crashing in a field in Pennsylvania. I told everyone in the room there were true American heroes on that plane. I said they did exactly what I would have done if I new what was happening. I guessed they had heard what was going on from the radio on board, and attempted to overtake the hijackers. We listened as the reports came in schools were closed, buildings all over DC were being evacuated. International flights were diverted from the U.S. to Canada. The horror of hearing that just a few miles away part of the Pentagon building collapsed. The terror of the north tower collapsing in New York was like seeing twins burning together in a house fire. The telephone broke the tension in the room; Bonnie grabbed it before the first ring finished. She said the hospital staff was getting concerned that dad had not woken up yet. They said he should have been up an hour or two before. It was a little after twelve by now. Bonnie said she would go over and find out what was going on. She later called to let us know she was going to stay there a while to help try to wake him. She explained the danger of him being on a respirator longer, which increases the risk for pneumonia. Meanwhile Dawn, the girls, and I all watched the news coverage. I think it was around one thirty when they declared a state of emergency in Washington DC. It was just as well we had a hotel room because they all would fill up quickly I assumed. The girls were complaining they were hungry so we all decided to meet in the cafeteria for lunch. We ate pizza at a little round table and took a break from all the tragic events. I used the time to forget about everything and catch my breath. After lunch it was back to reality, we were all worried about dad. I did not want to go back to him, but I new I could help him wake up. I begrudgingly made my way back to him. I sat beside him, and held his hand. I decided to tell him how lucky he was that he was able to sleep all day, because of the horrible events. I told him everything that had happened, and I do not know to this day if he heard me at all. I told him that I was sorry they could not repair his hernia at the same time as his transplant. I told him that his transplant was a success, and that before long he would be feeling better. Imagine my surprise when he squeezed my hand. I was happy when his eyes were squinting at me. I told him I would be right back and ran out to tell the nurse he was starting to wake. I asked that they call Bonnie in the room to let her know. By the time I went back in dad looked like he was back to sleep. I said loudly ?hi!? ?I am back,? his eyes opened a little. I could tell he was still out of it. I kept talking to him until he started pointing to his back. It was hard because he could not talk so we had to play a form of charades. Do you itch? He shook his head pointing to his back. Is something poking you? Yeah maybe that was it. He had an IV. hose lying under him. I moved it and I think he was better. He tried to sit up a little so I tried to adjust his bed a little. He then started pointing to his mouth. I said they could not take the respirator out yet until they are sure you are fully awake. He again shook his head and point to his mouth. Are you hungry? No, he shook. He again pointed to his mouth. Are you thirsty? Yeah that was it. I ran back out to the nurse and asked if he could have a drink. She said no. He could only have a little cotton swab of water on his tongue. She gave him one swab and left. He kept pointing to his mouth. I looked around and slipped him a couple of swabs of water. It was so hard there with him. He was constantly pointing to his mouth, and then his back. It was painful for me, because I could not help him. The nurse said they could not give him anything for pain until the next day, and that he was going to have a rough time for a while. I watched as he writhed in pain. He begged me for help, and I was helpless to do anything for him. Frustrated to tears I had to have Bonnie relieve me, because I could not take anymore. The events of the day had totally exhausted me in the middle of the afternoon. I decided to head back to the room. I returned to the room, and watched the television until I drifted off to sleep. I slept until ten or eleven. When I woke, I did not know where I was at first until I remembered I was watching a trailer of hell all day. Mark Windsor Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story277.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-03-19 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 67.201.35.226 Annotation Annotations to this item. Arabs in U.S. Rumors Somerset, PA Television Coverage DC:2 Feature Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: On the morning of 9/11, i was on a bus heading for Washington Elementary School, in Riverside, California. I was listening to the radio (99.1, KGGI, Los Angeles, Ca) When i first heard of the attacks. they put their sister station in New York City on. They were saying " Planes have just slammed into the world trade center. we are less than a block away and are seeing the whole thing happen-we have to go, they are coming---) and the connection was dropped. What they meant to say was that the tower was coming down and they had to evacuate. I had a close family member that worked for Connor-Fitzgerald, and he was never found- dead OR alive. the first song i heard after that broadcast was "When The Doves Cry" I still mourn; over 1 year after, i feel the pain for the many people whose lives came to a crashing and tragic end. if i could replase them, i would. i strongly feel bad for all of the wifes whose husbands never came home; the children whose mothers, fathers, uncles and aunts never got to say 'Goodbye' If i could say one thing to every one who has been affected by this tragic loss, i would say " Don't worry- it is all in god's hands from now on, let's roll" G O D - B L E S S - A M E R I C A - F O R E V E R Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story8680.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-11-25 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 32.103.231.139 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was in the breakroom, having just arrived at work getting my coffee. The televisions are always on in the facility. I am standing there and I watch as a plane hits the World Trade Center. My mouth just drops open as the 2nd plane hits. I can't believe it what is going on? Then to my horror I see people just flying out of the windows dropping to their death. Tears fill my eyes and I can't get the image out of my head. My thoughts then went to my dear friend and 1st husband who live in NY and I wondered if he was alive. I started sending him emails to make sure he and his family were OK, later I found out they were, days later so I worried for days. I remembered my first time in NY and visiting the World Trade Center it was massive. And to think now it is gone. That day was a supposed to be a happy day, my older son's birthday. Greg was 14 years old on the tragic day. He was devastated that something like that could happen in America, but more so that there were people that would do something so horrible. So today is Gregory's birthday again and we Thanked God that he is here to celebrate another, and asked GOD for peace for all those who lost someone on 9/11. I will never forget!!!!! Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story2636.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 166.124.151.38 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: My Journalism teacher was looking on the internet and he saw a news flash about a plane hitting one of the twin towers in NYC. We were all shocked but did not realize the implications of what he was telling us. When he said plane we thought of a little tiny plane kind of hit them and kind of bounced off. Then he told us that another plane had hit the second tower. We were amazed what was going on? Were all of the planes radar systems going out all of a sudden we had no idea. Then a little while latter, our Principal, came over the loud speaker and told the school that there had been some terrorist attacks, and that the World Trade Twin Towers had been hit. That was no news to people in my class but to the rest of the school that was a shock. Then to everyone amazement he announced that the Pentagon had also been hit by a plane. Our city is located about thirtey minutes south of D.C. and a lot of our school mates had parents friends and relatives that worked there. There was a massive panic. Everyone was trying to call family, and parents were trying to call the school. All of the lines were busy, and for the rest of the day pepole were in and out of classes, recieving and sending messages to family. Luckily, no one in my school new anyone that was injoured, amazingly enough. But one of my close friends, dad was in NYC for a business meeting and his mom had to literally come and pick him up from school in order to tell him that his dad witnessed the attacks but that he was all right. It was a very tense day for everyone. All day we were waiting for the announcement that school would be released early. But it never came. Instead we were told that all after school activities were canceled and that everyone would be leaving school at the end of the day. In our school our paring lot is very crowded and it is very hard to get out, even with a lot of people staying for after school activities. Our scool lets our at 2:00, I was not ablt to leave the parking lot until just after 2:30. From the time that the attacks were announced at school, we went into a miniature lock down, we were allowed our of class but no radios or tv's were alowed on so that people wouldn't get more worried as events unfolded. So on the way home we were finally allowed to hear that the towers had collapsed. That was a schock. When I got home I ran inside to find my mom glued to the tv. we sat there and watched coverage for the rest of the day. My grandparents who live in Wyoming called to check on us. They had no idea what was happenning in the surrounding areas. I was lucky enough not to know any one that was injoured in either of the attacks. But it was a day that will live in my mind forever. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story2193.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 208.31.154.100 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I will never forget that moment. As I sat with my 7 year old son on our couch, watching the first tower burn, crying and wondering what, who, how this happened, the second plane hit. The fear from the reality that we were being attacked was overwhelming. I was overcome with emotions as I sat holding my son. How do you explain to a 7 year old what is happening? "Why are you crying Mommy?" he'd ask, not grasping that what we were watching was real and not some T.V. show. As I explained to him that while we were sitting there on the couch, thousands of people were dying, he began to cry. In the days after the attack, patriotism flooded America. For the first time I could honestly say I was proud to be an American. We cannot let that feeling die. It is our duty as Americans to become bigger and better that ever before. We owe it to all the Americans that have given there lives for this country. Not only for those who have fought for our country but also for those who unwilling died. GOD BLESS AMERICA AND GOD BLESS MY FELLOW AMERICANS!!! Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story2928.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 66.47.248.237 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I'm a Benedictine Sister in Elizabeth, NJ, about 10-12 miles from Manhattan. I always loved the fact that my room was the only one in the monastery to have a view of the Twin Towers. I loved to look east on clear winter nights, when the trees were bare, and see the towers glimmering in the distance. I've always loved New York and the Towers were always a precious part of my life. From this area, there were so many places where one could catch sight of them, and I loved that! On September 11, 2001, as I was working in my office, I heard a sort of sudden slamming sound that caught my attention. I noticed it, but didn't think anything of it. A few minutes later one of the Sisters called me on the intercom and asked if I'd heard that the World Trade Center had been hit by an airplane. I went up to the roof of the tallest building in the monastery complex, but couldn't see anything. The smoke was blowing east, so it wasn't visible here. When I heard that there had been a second impact, I knew that this was no accident. Because I had to run an errand across town with another Sister that morning, we kept the radio on in the car and heard a horrified WINS reporter, with an obvious catch in her throat, suddenly begin to sob that one of the towers was falling. At that point I began to cry myself. And for a long time after, I found myself in tears at some point every day, mourning the loss of life (even though I didn't personally lose anyone in the attacks) and the loss of my beloved Twin Towers. Driving back to the monastery, we saw people in different parts of town obviously just wanting to be with others: in one section, a group of elderly men were going into a neighborhood Italian club, no doubt to watch the news together rather than alone. Taking a longer route home, near the Goethals Bridge we saw enormous billows of white smoke to the east. The Bridge itself, normally loaded with traffic, was empty, almost ghostly. It was only later on that I remembered hearing that slamming sound, and I suppose I'll always wonder if it was some sort of back-echo of the first impact. A year later, living so close to the scene of such horror, I still find myself looking east out my window, hoping once again to see the Towers. My heart always soared with them, and I pray that someday a beautiful memorial will include some sort of structure that once again takes the spirit aloft! Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story4877.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 64.12.96.8 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I had found out that 1 of the planes landed near my mom and her sister in PA, and the other landed near my brother in Washington D.C., VA. That was too close to home for me and I didn't know if they were ok until I called my Aunt and she told me that all is well. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story6586.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-12 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 64.12.96.8 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I remember waking up that morning, and it was just like any other. I fed the kids their breakfast, then began to clean house. Sometime after 10AM, my husband called and asked if I had the TV on. I told him no, and he said to hurry and watch, because the World Trade Center towers were no longer standing. As I watched the towers crumble to the ground over and over again that day, I could only feel shock. It was like a dream, as if I would wake up at some point and this would have never happened. I am a member of the Houston Symphony Chorus, and I had a rehearsal to attend that night for the opening concert of the season that upcoming weekend. In honor of the day's events, "The Star-Spangled Banner" and Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus" were added to the program. I must say that since September 11, 2001, I have never been able to sing our national anthem without tears coming to my eyes. When I returned home that night, I watched more coverage and my shock turned to horror as I saw images of people jumping from the towers and heard their screams. I began to realize that it wasn't just the towers that fell, or our nation's capital that was attacked. Thousands of people lost their lives that day, and so many more were left without husbands and wives, parents, and even children. I did not personally know anyone lost or affected by the attacks, but I have shed many tears and the memories of that day will always haunt me. As a mother, it saddens me to know that my two very young children will grow up in a world different from the world of my childhood. They will not have the same guarantee of safety and freedom I have always taken for granted. But in spite of everything, I believe this nation can stand tall and fight back against those who would take away what so many have given their lives for. This is still the greatest country on earth, and always will be. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story7584.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-16 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 205.188.209.38 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I had spent the night at my then boyfriend's house out in Queens. I, myself, live in Grammercy Park (about 10 blocks north of where they set up the intial perimter to keep people out of downtown and just a couple of blocks from locations that became the intial unused triage center, the morgue and the family center). I had an 8am dentist appointment, but slept through the alarm clock, waking up sometime around 9am. Normally, he always slept with the television on, but we hadn't had it on that night for some reason, and I went out to get us coffee without knowing what was going on. When I walked out of his house, it felt like the most beautiful day in the history of the world. I was stunned by the weather, and intended to write about it in my online journal as soon as I got to the office. Reaching his corner, I looked to my right, where there was a perfect view of lower Manhattan. All I could see was a huge black cloud over the island. It didn't occur to me that anything was wrong, as I've seen storm clouds like that on crystal blue days before, and when I was taking my flying lessons (single engine Cesna, generally a 172) I had a nasty run in with just such a weather system. I remember thinking, "wow, I'm really glad I'm not flying today." I may have even said it out loud. Halfway up the next block, the pager on my cellphone goes crazy, telling me I have messages, but when I try to check them, I can't get through, and I merely presume Sprint as sent a broadcast message to the system that's tying everything up. I go into a local bakery, get coffees, and wander back out, when the text pager on my cellphone goes off. Message from mish: turn on your TV RIGHT NOW Message from tsarina: are you okay? Those were the first two of about 8, which by the end of the day reached over 30. I still didn't know what was up, but being the age I am, my first thought was "I wonder if we're having a nuclear war." I walked quickly back to the house. If we were all about to die, I was not going to spend my last four minutes on earth looking like a complete moron. I went into the bedroom, fumble around his room for the remote control and turn on the TV, while repeating over and over "something's wrong" which slowly managed to wake up the boyfriend. At the point I turn on the TV, one of the towers has already fallen, but whatever news channel I had on, hadn't figured this out yet, and neither had we. They showed the hole in one of the towers, the outline of the jet visible. The boyfriend asks if that's a Cesna, the same question those on TV are asking, but there's no way, no way at all and I suddenly feel frustrated and panicky being able to see this obvious thing, and feeling connected to something I'm not connected to, just because I know a little bit about planes, just because I had worked in those buildings at various points in my career. I remember then that the night before he and I had been having a "where were you when" conversation, and I told him how during the WTC bombing in 1993 I was in college in Washington DC, online in a chat room, and someone said "the WTC has just been blown up." I had thought they were joking and asked "did it fall over" and when I was told "no" declared I hadn't been interested, until my mother called to say that there really had been a bombing, and I saw the ambulances on TV, in the snow. The boyfriend said we should go up on to his roof to watch, and we crawl out the kitcen window and start going up the fire escape, but I'm afraid of heights and go back inside, just in time to see the second tower fall. I try to yell for the boyfriend to come see this, but I can't make a sound, like when you can't scream you're so scared, as if in a horror movie. I remember the newscasters saying, "Oh my god, The World Trade Center is gone" in this incredibly sorrowful solemn voice. After this I sprung into action, using his digital cable modem to email a friend of mine in Boston, who called the boyfriend's family to assure them we were okay, and tried and failed to get through to my own family, also located in NYC. The rest of the day was spent gathering information and redistributing it to those I could get in touch with, watching the news endlessly, eating terrible Mexican food and just standing on corners in Queens waiting for payphones. I didn't get home until the next day. My cats were screaming and I suspect it was the smell. It had become unbareably hot, but I went out to try to donate bottled water and volunteer at the rescue center, but I don't have medical skills. There, I met up with my friend Kat and by accident ran into two women we used to work with. It was too bright and hazy and smokey to even turn our heads towards downtown, and Kat and I went to a diner after we couldn't stand to watch people cheer the rescue trucks headed down to the site anymore, where the fact that I had ordered meat seemed tasteless. This was also the first day I checked in on my online journal, where I had messages waiting from virtual strangers wondering if I was alive. That night, I went below the 14th Street perimeter with a friend who lived there, and wandered around in the middle of Third Avenue, getting ice cream and eating at a vegetarian restaurant and feeling confused. Later, there was a terrible thunderstorm and people in Union Square dropped to the ground and covered their heads at the first sounds of thunder. During the next week, I sat in my 6th floor apartment and heard people wailing outside my window and they looked for the family center. When I went outside, everywhere I went there were random scenes of domestic violence, people randomly screaming at each other, a couple headbutting each other in front of the Empire State Building. It took days and days for them to change the newspapers in the vending machines, so everywhere we went, were the headlines of the morning of the 11th, before it happened. Women stopped wearing high heels. I visited my parents, who live far enough North that nothing smelled wrong, and I found I couldn't stand the vacation from the new world. Friends who were EMTs at the site finally checked in, told me stories that were not in the news. I began to receive random emails from people I had known five and ten years ago, especially those, who unlike me, still worked in journalism. And I didn't realize that everything was covered in dust from it, until the trucks came up 23rd street to start hosing the buildings off, and everything was suddenly brighter. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1227.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-08-19 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 66.228.0.24 Annotation Annotations to this item. Internet Missing Persons Newspaper and Magazine Coverage Rescue/clean-up workers/volunteers Union Square NY:3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: so there I was, at work, ready to face another day of excitement, when I received a call from my wife Linda, who was also at work, not far from my own office, and she says have you heard the news? I asked, what news? and she explains that an airplane just hit the World Trade Center tower and they think it was an accident. my immediate reaction was disbelief, but not long after her call I heard on the radio that a second plane had crashed into the towers. I immediately informed my co-workers and the office went into a state of turmoil. we turned on the tv and were glued to the pictures being shown. we were all horrified at what we were seeing. most of us were in shock. I, for one, could not believe that anyone would have the audacity to attack the greatest country in the world. born and raised in New York, I began to cry at the destruction of the towers and the many lives lost by this incredibly barbaric act! while feeling sad, I also was outraged! I wanted to get revenge for those who lost their lives! it took awhile for our office to regain its composure, but the remainder of the day, and days and months to follow, have not been the same, and will never be the same, as they were before September 11, 2001. I too, felt like grabbing the first mid-eastern looking person I saw and taking revenge, even though my heritage is of mid-eastern persuasion, but I stepped back and reminded myself that it wasn't the fault of all persons of mid-east background, but a few bad apples that were persuaded, or persuaded themselves, that killing Americans, with no value on their own lives, was the right thing to do. who knows, maybe they were high on drugs!? anyhow, I do believe that the tragedy of September 11, 2001 has brought us closer together as American brothers and sisters, as never before in the history of our country, and for that we should be grateful to the murderers of the countless numbers of those who lost their lives on 9/11/01. do I still get choked up when I think about what happened? your damn right I do! I served my country in the armed forces with pride and if anyone in this country is not proud of the United States and all that it stands for, they should leave RIGHT NOW! Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story2809.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 207.90.9.10 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I will never forget the morning that I woke up to see the news on the television. It was the second morning of my new job. I was fresh out of the Navy, and fresh in the Naval reserves. I sat glued to the Television as I tried to get ready, in disbelief. As I drove across the Dumbarton Bridge and then onto Palo Alto, I could not turn down the radio. I remember thinking, "Okay, it's time to go back active duty and fight for this wonderful country I live in. I remember at times it was difficult to see due to the tears streaming down my face. Although, no one I knew passed away, I grieved for those people who had lost their lives as well as the families of those people. I still grieve for those people, but feel that through all of this tradgedy and despair, we are becoming a stronger nation. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story4746.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 209.213.222.178 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: It Was Going To Be A Beautiful Day As I went to bed that evening, I looked forward to the next day. It was going to be a beautiful day, a special day. A beautiful day weatherwise; a special day because we were going to celebrate our 53 rd. wedding anniversary. That next morning, I slept-in as was my habit. ?Sleeping-in? for me the night owl meant I would get up about 8:00 A.M. Although my husband had risen earlier, as was his usual habit,he always rose quietly and left the bedroom, closing the door so as not to disturb me. While I slept,he enjoyed the relative peace and read the newspaper while sitting in his armchair.Such is his routine. I was therefore surprised to find him leaning over the bed and gently kissing me awake. Upon opening my eyes I could see that despite the fact that the blinds were still closed, the sunlight leaked through the louvers. Another blessed day which was a special day for us and that was why he was waking me. Was there a surprise in store? He was saying that our daughter had called and said something that I had difficulty focusing on.Planes had hit the World Trade Center towers. My mind and heart raced and before I raised my head from the pillow, I burst into tears. Actually, I bawled because of the memories that flooded in. Memories of our last visit to New York City during which we had spent five days studying the history of lower Manhattan. During that visit, the Marriott Millennium Hotel was our home. It nestled between the soaring 110 storied-towers almost like a sleeping puppy between its master?s feet.And, each morning,as we exited the lobby of the hotel, we walked in the open plaza between the Towers enroute to our rendezvous with our guide and fellow classmates. As we walked, the contraflow of people streaming towards and into the Towers , seemed to be like the march of many foot soldiers of a modern army poised for the day to be combatants for their daily bread. We too were foot soldiers as we went about our explorations of Lower Manhattan and visited sites of its early history. Wall Street,known world-wide as the center of finance got its name because there was a wall that defined and protected the original Dutch colony. A subway ride to Brooklyn enabled us to stand on the promenade at Brooklyn Heights and imagine General Washington?s troops battle the Redcoats to regain a foothold on Manhattan Island. The experience of walking back to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge was an experience to be savored. And always enroute, the experience of the architecture and street art excited me who had once been an urban planner. And thus each evening footsore and weary, we returned to the plaza between the Towers enroute to our hotel. Again, we met the contraflow of some of the thousands of people exiting from the buildings enroute to their places of rest and comfort. But, on September 11,2001 that was not to be. For those who were lost and not found, and for those whose mortal remains have not been found,nor never will be, I ask where is their rest and solace? And those that they loved and those that loved them, will there ever be a satisfactory closure of the wounds that pierced their hearts much like the piercing of the Towers by the planes flown into them? And again, a lament from the past is heard. A voice raised in anguish hoarsely screams,?Oh the humanity?. August 2002 911DA Story: Contributor Estelle Feinstein Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1505.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-08-27 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 129.174.27.149 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: March 16, 2002 Almost Spring Everyone is wearing green corsages and beads, buttons and hats. Tomorrow is St. Patrick?s Day, and today the parade is marching past at almost the moment we arrive in the city. There is also green just starting to dot the trees in Central Park. Buds are swelling and the forsythias are already in full bloom. The yellow makes a splash in the midst of the gray. It?s cloudy but warm as we walk briskly to the American Museum of Natural History. Maybe I?m just imagining, but it seems that when you head uptown you hear planes more. At home, I don?t immediately look up anymore at the first hint of an airplane sound. But here, I feel myself struggle not to. Just as we open the doors to the museum, a jet engine thunders nearby. I see heads swivel upwards, searching the clouds. Inside, I keep watching through the windows, secretly bracing for some sort of explosion. Nothing comes. I turn back to the dinosaurs. We go to the much-talked about planetarium show. Sinking back in my seat, I let the sounds of thunder and crashing waves and baseball games wash over me. Then the sky becomes awash with stars. We travel to the depths of the ocean and then to other galaxies. After that, the rest of the museum is anticlimactic. There is almost too much to see, so we wander rapidly through the rooms of precious gems and fossils and mammals, looking but not really seeing anything. In an hour or two, we?re finished, so we walk for awhile and then head underground. ? The Bridge Now we know it?s time. Dan and I have talked about this off and on for weeks. We?re going to walk the Brooklyn Bridge. The sun is out but the day has grown much colder. I shove my hands in my pockets and try to stop shivering as we search for the walkway over the bridge. I thought when I came here and did this I would remember so much of that day. Besides the obvious horrid images of planes crashing and buildings falling on September 11, the other visual that melded itself in my mind was from that afternoon, when hordes of people covered in dust crossed the bridge in a panic. Is this really New York? Is this actually real and not some B-movie? I remembered thinking. But now I am here and that place I saw on television seems like a dream. Today the air is clear and the bridge is not lost in a cloud of dust. People dawdle, pushing strollers, and tourists pause to snap pictures. I look up at the cables rising far above me on either side, squeezing me in. Cars rush below us and shake the wooden boardwalk on which we stand. To our left is the Manhattan Bridge; to our right the George Washington in the hazy distance, as the mouth of the river opens to the sea. Behind us is the skyline, but I don?t want to really look there yet. Our walk to Brooklyn takes maybe a half-hour. We stand at a map arguing, unable to find Old Fulton Street. We want to try this pizza place, Grimaldi?s. Finally this older couple points us in the right direction. Before stopping to eat we walk to the bottom of the street, which ends at the water. There is a pier and some sort of boat landing. It looks private. I see a white limousine parked but running, with one of the back doors opened. A bride, white dress and all, is stooping halfway out of the door. I can?t tell if she?s getting out or back in. I look up at the bridge. Now it?s almost directly over my head, just a little to the right. I see its underbelly, secretly thrilled to glimpse the side not visible in posters but only if you?re actually there. The bride slams the door and the limo roars away. Now we have this place to ourselves. For the first time I really take in the span of the city from this point. The sun has disappeared behind the buildings; the sky is golden. I turn around for just a moment and find myself staring through the window of a restaurant that looks out at the city. A waitress is standing, arms folded, gazing across the water. Her eyes look sad. But maybe she is just bored, waiting for customers. It?s difficult to tell. The street is so quiet that when we open the doors to Grimaldi?s, the noise is a sort of pleasant shock. Every table is full and the air is steamy and full of oregano. We rest our elbows on the red-checkered tablecloth and order a large pizza with pepperoni and garlic, onions and mushrooms. There is a stone oven right behind the counter, and the guys have this clockwork system for churning out pizzas. About every 30 seconds one opens the oven door and another shovels a steaming pizza out, then slides a new one in. The pies are whisked to tables immediately. Ours arrives within 10 minutes of ordering, and we quickly occupy ourselves with eating. It?s too loud to talk anyway. Everything has changed when we walk back outside. Day has become night. The sky is blue-black and the city is lit up now. Then we see the towers, the Tribute in Light ? two blue beams stretching endlessly to the sky. As we walk, I look and look at them, always in front of us, standing in that empty place that I can?t imagine full. Even though it?s dark now and windy I don?t feel cold anymore. I?d heard people say the lights, the tribute, is healing. Now I see why but don?t really understand why. Later this night we will walk past the floodlights of Ground Zero, illuminating boarded up windows and gouged walls, casting strange shadows, like lightening in the middle of the night. We will make our way through the crowds, our hands numb with cold, to Battery Park and stare soberly at the bronze sphere that once stood in the World Trade Center plaza. But now we are still walking on the bridge and watching the new city. Several small groups of men and women are walking toward us. As they draw near I see they are New York City police officers and firefighters. I think, but I?m not sure, that they have come to see the lights. I try not to look at them. They must always have strangers watching them now, wondering what they have seen and how they are coping. I wonder too, but there is no way to know, as they pass by, some laughing and talking, some utterly silent. I am a stranger here. I am only an observer. I wish there was a way to tell them I am trying to understand and trying not to forget. Looking out at Manhattan and at the thousands of lights that speak for millions of people, I ache to make a connection. To the north I see the Empire State Building, bathed in red, white and blue light. In the south I can just make out the Statue of Liberty, lighting the waters around her. But for a moment, it all seems so small. I feel as if I could stretch out my arms and touch the city from end to end, then draw it close to me, in an embrace. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story639.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-05-17 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 146.96.95.21 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: 9-11: A DAY TO REMEMBER A personal recollection of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center September 11, 2001 By Christopher P. Smith c.smith@christophers.org Version: 10-11-01 ? 2001 8:45 AM Boeing 767 (American Airlines Flight 11) hits North Tower (1 World Trade Center) 9:03 AM Boeing 767 (United Airlines Flight 175) hits South Tower (2 World Trade Center) I am the Administrator of The Christophers, located at 12 East 48th Street, close to the intersection of 48th Street & 5th Avenue in Manhattan. At about 9:10 a.m. I was alerted by our receptionist Shirley Oliver, who contacted me by intercom, saying excitedly, ?Did you hear, two planes hit the World Trade Center! If you go to the corner you can see it.? She said she understood that one ?large plane? and one ?small plane? had struck the buildings.? Perhaps a mid-air collision? I went to the street corner. Rings of flames were visible in sections of the upper third of both towers. Huge plumes of black smoke billowed to the southeast. The sight was so unbelievable, it reminded me of a Hollywood movie. (Since 1989, I have been a member of Bravo Volunteer Ambulance Service (BRAVO) in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. I had responded with BRAVO to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Our response was recognized by the New York City Council. See NOTE #3 at end.) While standing on the corner, I immediately tried to contact BRAVO with my cell phone. Repeatedly, I got ?network busy? indication because the system was overwhelmed with calls. I went back to the office and used the land-line to call BRAVO and ask if BRAVO was responding to the World Trade Center (WTC). The dispatcher said that one ambulance and the van were responding (BRAVO has three ambulances and a utility van). I told the dispatcher that I would join the BRAVO units at the scene. I was advised by the dispatcher that the emergency response staging area was the intersection of Vesey and West Streets. I said I would try to meet the BRAVO units there. Vesey street, which runs east-west, forms the northern border of the twin-towers complex. I met with Gerald Costello, The Christophers? president, and advised him that I would be leaving the office to meet up with my ambulance squad at the scene. He and Mary Ellen Robinson had the cable TV on. I didn?t stop to watch. Before I left, I called my wife, Ingrid, at home in Brooklyn to let her know what had happened and that I was going to respond to the scene. I left a message on the answering machine. (See NOTE #1 at end) I closed the computer document I was working on at 9:16 a.m. and left the office for the WTC. I had had only coffee and no breakfast, and went to the deli two doors down for a bagel with cream cheese to go. I was not hungry at all, but I knew I might have problems later if I didn?t force something down now. When I got to 5th Avenue to flag down a cab, traffic was light, and, amazingly, empty cabs were just lined up along the curb. The drivers were standing next to their open doors, staring at the burning towers in the distance. I entered a cab, and when the driver said ?Where, to?? I said ?Get me as close to those buildings as you possibly can.? The driver gave me this look ? which I countered by saying that I was part of the medical response, and off we went. Having responded to the 1993 WTC bombing, I had a mental map of what to expect. The primary response area would be West Street. In the hours ahead, several hundred, if not thousands of ?walking wounded? would be streaming out of the towers on to West Street. I would render whatever assistance I could, and hopefully meet up with my BRAVO crew there as well. There was less traffic than I thought there would be, and I got closer to the towers than I thought we would get before the police roadblock, about eight blocks north of the north tower. I gave the cabby double fare for being a good sport. The neighborhood is not one I am closely familiar with. I headed south, closer to the huge burning towers, trying to recall whether Vesey Street bordered WTC complex or whether it was a couple of blocks north. The thought that the towers might collapse never crossed my mind. In fact, I was thinking that when the fire gets put out, its going to be a one hell of a repair job. There were gaping holes in the sides of the buildings, but they were immense structures and looked solid. Then I saw a person falling through the air from the upper portion of the North tower. That shook me up. I moved on. I was walking south on Greenwich Street to where it intersects Barclay. West Street was the next block south. Ironically, the closer I got to the towers, the more obscured my view became because of a huge 47 story building: 7 World Trade Center (Later in the day, this building would collapse entirely as the result of damage caused by the collapse of the north tower). Standing next to 7 WTC, my view of the south tower was obscured entirely, but I could see the top of the burning north tower. There weren?t many people around, and I saw a pay phone with a person using it and no line of people waiting. Pay phones I passed previously had lines of people waiting. Cell phone service was still dead. At about 10:03 a.m. I used this phone to call BRAVO. Our dispatcher told me that BRAVO was transporting a patient from the scene (See NOTE #2 at end). I said I would proceed to the staging area (about a block away). At the moment I hung up the phone there was a loud whooshing metallic noise. Immediately, I looked up, believing this sound to possibly be a low altitude jet turbine. My reaction was, ?Oh shit! -- There?s a third plane coming in right at me.? I immediately looked above me expecting to see an airplane or something over my head. This moment of terror was interrupted by the sound of debris hitting the ground and the sight of huge thunder-clouds of dust shooting north up East Broadway on my left, and Greenwich Street on my right. The tower (2 WTC) was collapsing (10:05 a.m.), but 7 World Trade Center had acted like a giant shield for me. Still, the wave of dust was a smothering rolling cloud. Everybody ran north. I glanced back and saw chunks of concrete-colored masonry the size of softballs on the sidewalk where I had been standing. I tried to make sense of what I was seeing, as I never saw the stuff hit the ground. About a half dozen people and I ducked into a white building with revolving doors. I stayed there a couple of minutes and left when it appeared that there were no more falling debris and the dust was not getting worse. The lobby attendants urged everyone to remain inside ?because it was safer than outside.? (I think he ate those words about twenty minutes later). I jogged north a block or two to, I believe, Warren Street, between Greenwich and East Broadway. On the north side of the street there was a tiny parking lot with a vacant pay phone. I called BRAVO, the office, and left a message for Ingrid at home letting them know that the tower was down but I was OK. I walked a half-block east to West Broadway, which was saturated with dust. The depth of the whitish dust was approximately an inch. It looked as though there had been a snowfall. I picked up a handful of the dust. It was the color of concrete but seemed to be very fibrous. It was just me and a cop at the intersection. The police officer said, ?Are you a cop? If you don?t have to be here, I?d get out of here. You don?t know what?s in that stuff. Unfortunately, I have to be here.? I told him, ?I?m trying to meet up with my volunteer ambulance unit,? and I moved on. I proceeded north and then west to get to West Street. I won?t know my exact path until I go back there some day. I remember crossing a footbridge that gave me an unobstructed view of the remaining burning tower. At this point I was wondering if the north tower would go down as well, and if it went down would it go straight down, or would it flop over. And if it did flop over, would I be within range of the fall. I was on West Street, and decided to pull back, and I proceeded north. I gave the thumbs-up sign to several firemen. They were the only people heading toward the remaining tower. It had been about ten minutes since the first tower went down. The scene on West Street was total confusion. The street was a flood of fire, police, and EMS vehicles of every description. Everyone was in shock. I was worried about our BRAVO crew, but took comfort in the fact that they had begun transporting a patient before the collapse. What about the people in the BRAVO van? Were they OK? At 10:28 a.m., the final horror unfolded. I was on West Street, about four or five blocks away when the North Tower went down. The center went straight down. The mast at the top remained erect. The floors pan-caked down and exploded in dust and debris. There was an order to it, a violent grace in death. The sides of the building peeled in giant sheets and broke away like a fractured banana peel. One of the world?s tallest buildings had disintegrated before my eyes. How could anyone have survived? A tsunami wave of dust thirty stories high was shooting north on West Street. It took several several seconds for it to register that we had to get out of the way. Suddenly everyone was in retreat. People running and vehicles in reverse gear. Some drivers already had their vehicles headed north. Good for them! It was total confusion. We retreated a couple of blocks or so. The air was very dusty, but not pea soup. The wind was in our favor at our location. The prevailing wind that day was south-east, so during the whole incident the dust and smoke ultimately was blowing away from where I was. People east and south of the WTC complex were smothered. Day became night. After the retreat I found myself at the corner of West & Monroe Streets next to BMCC (Borough of Manhattan Community College). Crew members were just opening the doors of an ambulance from Flatlands (Brooklyn) Volunteer Ambulance Service. I told the Flatlands crew that I was with BRAVO and asked if I could hook up with them. They said OK. The ?walking wounded? were making their way up West Street. FDNY EMS set up a treatment area in BMCC for less serious cases. Serious cases got immediate transport. We set up a triage area around the ambulance on West Street next to the median. A fireman staggered up to us stating that he had been struck by a vehicle in the retreat and knocked out. He had pain along the entire left side of his body neck pain and dizziness. He got a rapid take down and immediate transport. We loaded him into a FDNY bus. What we were seeing mostly were the effects of the dust and smoke: irritated eyes, throats, lungs and a few cuts and bruises from people falling and crashing into things during the dust blast. After about forty minutes there was a rumor about a possible pending third explosion. Then, suddenly, it was evacuation time ? fast. It was load and go, out of there. Word was that there was potential for a gas line explosion. This time the retreat didn?t end until we hit Chelsea Piers, a huge waterfront recreational sports facility at about 16th Street, portions of which were being set up as an emergency treatment center. It was also a staging area for ambulances, which meant that our ambulance got on a huge line of other ambulances, in anticipation of being sent back to ground zero. Also joining the Flatlands Volunteer Ambulance crew with me was a fellow named Thane Thompson. Thane, an employee of Morgan Stanley from California, had been in New York for the first time for only a day or so. He was on the 61st floor of the south tower when the first plane hit. He successfully evacuated from the building. When the tower collapsed, he ducked into an underground garage and was briefly trapped with a group of firemen. They found an alternate route out of the garage, and had to share their respirators in order to breathe. After all of that, he volunteered to help on the ambulance. Although he wasn?t an EMT, he had medical experience from the Army. (See NOTE #4 for Thane Thompson?s Account in his own words) I asked the Flatlands crew chief to ask their dispatcher to call BRAVO and let them know I was OK, and that I working with them, and to call my wife and let her know the same, which they did. Cell phone and pay phone service was dead. We were with the Flatlands Ambulance crew on line with dozens of other ambulances at the Chelsea Piers staging area for several hours. During this time we restocked with supplies which were being delivered by truck. In anticipation of being sent back to ground zero, we organized the nine of us into three groups of three. Slowly the ambulance line moved along. I subsequently concluded that none of them were ever sent to ground zero, but rather were sent to other ambulance staging areas, and eventually sent home. FDNY said they didn?t want crews working more than twelve hours straight. Word on the street was bleak. It was said that in addition the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, White House, and Mall had been hit as well. (My brother, David, a US Navy Captain, had left the Pentagon just prior to the attack there). My parents, who also live in Washington, had gone to France on Labor Day and were expected back on the 17th. I wondered what they were thinking. Around 3:00 p.m., the Flatlands crew said that their own members would staff the ambulance, in the event that it was sent to ground zero, and that the rest of us help at Chelsea Piers. That made sense and Thane and I went to see what we could do. We moved on. There were many other volunteers, everything from doctors and nurses and people with basic medical experience, to people with no medical experience. Thane and I hooked up with the American Red Cross. We got a quick, and grim refresher in patient triage. Hundreds of patients were expected and we were to help with patient administration. At Chelsea Piers, in a series of four huge adjoining rooms, a field hospital, including an ?operating room? was being set up. The ?operating room? really brought home the immensity of what were potentially facing. The operating room consisted of about 150 portable beds, each with one high intensity light, a side table with surgical hardware and a side table with an EKG / defibrillator. This was the RED room for trauma patients. RED patients were not expected to live without immediate medical intervention. The fact that the field hospital was setup, stocked and staffed so quickly is testimony to the preparedness of the city. At MCIs (Multiple Casualty Incidents) patients are literally tagged. The tags indicate one of four colors: BLACK: Deceased or mortal injuries; RED: Death probable without immediate intervention; YELLOW: Patient stable but in need of medical intervention; GREEN: Patient stable and ambulatory, in need of relatively minor treatment. The field hospital was divided into treatment areas by color code. The RED room was the major trauma room, and every one of the 100+ ?beds? had a surgeon and at least one assistant next to it. The air was electric with anticipation of what was to come. Our job as ?Volly-PADs? was to meet the arriving ambulances, and escort the patient and crew to the appropriate treatment area (RED, GREEN, YELLOW?) We were to complete the patient information section of the PCR, and take vital signs if we had the experience to do so. In the case of unconscious trauma patients or the deceased, we would have to take the patient information from their wallets, etc. We were told we may be dealing with ?pieces? of human remains. Hot and cold trays of food were available for the emergency crews at a restaurant called ?Pier 60,? so we took a break to eat. There was also food and refreshments available at the field hospital. It is amazing how good food can appear at the scene of an urban disaster. The same thing happened at the ?93 bombing. Only in New York! At a certain point, if you don?t eat and stay hydrated you can end up being a victim yourself. On two occasions, word was that up to 500 patients were imminently expected but they never appeared. The only wave that ever came in was about 100 people, mostly Police Officers, complaining of irritated eyes, throats and lungs. Some cuts, bangs and bruises. I personally took vitals and wrote up about 15 police officers. After the preliminary write-up, the patients were escorted to a doctor for treatment. After that wave, all was quiet. I never saw a single patient treated in the RED (trauma) room. This was a bad sign but nobody talked about it. I got word that the ?lettered? subways were running again and made the decision to go home shortly after midnight. Nothing more was happening and I came to two sad conclusions: All the patients were dead. And there weren?t any bodies. There was no more job for me to do. Cell phone service was back but spotty, and my phone battery almost dead. I told Ingrid previously that I would probably stay at Chelsea piers over night, but called her now to let her know I was coming home. I walked to Union Square and got the ?R? train to Brooklyn. The train had to be re-routed because of tunnel damage from the collapse. Well, I was glad to get home and see Ingrid and Ashley and Bonnie. I smelled like smoke and death, and Ingrid made me get in the shower right away. I called my brother in Washington at about 3:00 a.m. to make sure he was OK. He was. I should say something about the odor from the disaster which permeated the city?s air. It wasn?t the kind of smell you would associate with a fire such as burnt wood, fabric or paper. The odor, which we still live with, has a distinct burnt plastic, burnt electrical smell to it, probably from all the synthetic materials used in the construction and furnishings. A whole lot of people experienced much worse than I did that day. This is just my story. Over 5,000 people perished including about 500 firemen, cops and other rescuers. I didn?t witness the worst of the terrible sights and sounds of this tragedy. Seeing the north tower go down right in front of me was an experience beyond words and imagination. And prior to that, when the south tower went down, I felt I dodged a bullet. For an instant I had the terror of thinking I might get killed, and at the same time felt incredible guilt for voluntarily putting myself in that position. I thought of my family. I thought of my job. And I thought I had just made the biggest mistake of my life. All this in just the wink of an eye! But there was no bullet for me that day. Just a click. I moved on. Three days after the September 11th attack, I called Willie Wright, my EMT instructor, to find out how I could re-certify and upgrade my EMT skills. Every three years New York State Emergency Medical Technicians have to have their skills challenged in a state test and take a refresher course. Willie had a refresher course just starting, and I signed up. My personal way of honoring the lives lost, is by being as prepared as possible for the future. 10-08-01 NOTE #1: As it turned out, Ingrid was home, but did not get to the phone in time. She did hear my message, and immediately after, her brother, Albert called her as well. The cell phone networks were down, so she could not return my call. Ingrid left home with her camera and drove to a recreational pier (69th St.) about 30 blocks away that has a commanding view of the Manhattan skyline. She witnessed and photographed the collapse of the south tower. So devastated at what she saw, she drove back home, only to hear on the car radio that the north tower went down as well. NOTE #2: BRAVO-1 with crew Pam Carlton, Ed Handler and Aaron Waks arrived at the scene at approximately 9:10 a.m., and reported to the EMS staging area in front of the towers. They soon treated their first patient. They left the scene with the patient literally seconds before the first collapse, which meant their lives had been spared. Ambulance Bravo-2 and the utility van, BRAVO-4, responded to the scene shortly after. NOTE #3: (1993 Terrorist Bombing) The Council - City of New York Proclamation Whereas: On February 23, 1993, in demonstration of their readiness to help those in need of emergency care, members of Bay Ridge Volunteer Ambulance Service of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, responded to the tragedy caused by the explosion at the World Trade center in Manhattan; and Whereas: At approximately 12:30 p.m., upon hearing of the incident, BRAVO President Christopher Smith telephoned BRAVO Base to establish whether the City Emergency Medical Services (EMS) had called for help, and arranged to meet a BRAVO unit at the scene of the explosion; and Whereas: Mr. Smith assisted EMS at the Mobile Emergency Room Vehicle Command Center on West Street in front of the Trade Center, while BRAVO Vice President of Operations Dave Wildner arranged for a crew to respond to the scene while maintaining coverage for Bay Ridge, and Whereas: BRAVO members Walter Jehle, Wil Ketelsen, Nick Nikolopoulos, Ed Slomka, Fred Agnello, Jim Muller and Rober Mustillo joined President Smith at the scene, remaining there to about midnight; and Whereas: Immediately upon their arrival at the Trade Center, BRAVO members began treating patients, most of whom suffered from smoke inhalation and fatigue, and Whereas: BRAVO transported twelve individuals to various medical facilities, including three men who had who had been trapped in a smoke filled elevator and repeatedly told BRAVO members that they didn?t think that they would make it out alive; and Whereas: BRAVO dispatchers Sadie Cecere, Toni Olsen and Victoria Monk maintained vital communication links between all BRAVO members; and Whereas: BRAVO members Nick Cagliuso, Patrick Mitchell, Jennifer Smith, Gene Anderson, Anthony Angotti, Jim Howe, Gayle Zarrin, Jerry Lande, Bernadette Cherry; Henry Cordero, Patricia Holtz, Patricia McElroy, and Michael Swannick worked to cover the Bay Ridge area while the disaster management continued, upholding the obligation BRAVO owes to the residents of Bay Ridge who graciously support BRAVO?s work; now, therefore, Be It Known: That the Council of the City of New York praises and thanks the officers and members of BRAVO Volunteer Ambulance Service, Inc., for their unselfish and heroic response to the World Trade Center explosion. Signed this 9th day of March, in the year Nineteen Hundred and Ninety Three. Sal F. Albanese Council Member, 43rd District Brooklyn NOTE #4: From: Thane J. Thompson [thanej@attglobal.net] Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2001 11:10 PM To: c.smith@christophers.org Subject: Re: WTC Account Chris, Great to read your story. I think is therapeutic to talk or write this stuff out. Not only have I been talking about this to friends and family, I've also been reading some Victor Frankel. I'm struck by his wisdom and its relevance to this WTC attack. Frankel's messages have a certain raw, hard reality that ring true. The WTC was such a senseless act of violence. The massive loss of life in such a small space is staggering: 5000-6000 Mommys and Daddys gone. This terror has unsettled the psyche of a nation. The suffering just rippled through our society hitting even the sleepy little town that I live in. Frankel's existential truths easily fit this situation. To live is to suffer. To survive is to find meaning in the suffering. If there is a purpose in life, then there must be a purpose in suffering and in the dying. But no person call tell another what this purpose is. Each person must find there own meaning and must accept the responsibility for what that meaning prescribes for life. If you succeeds you will continue to grow in spite of all indignities. My short story is this.... I was in NYC on the 61st floor of Tower 2 sipping coffee and looking out toward the Statue of Liberty. It was sunny, beautiful and I was thinking about how grand it was to be in Manhattan again. When the first plane hit it sounded like muffled, distant thunder that I didn't understand. I soon saw papers merrily falling from the sky like a ticker tape parade. I knew something was wrong when I saw balls of burning material falling to the street. We started evacuating down the stairs. I was in the stairwell on the 20th floor when the second plane hit tower 2. The awful explosion and the shuddering building told me we were in extreme danger. After helping a big lady down and out of the building, I went over to the west side of WTC and reported to a fire department control point. I thought I would put my army medical training to good use. That command post was right across West Street from the WTC and, in retrospect, it was way too close. The fire chief told me they'd hook me up with medical team in a few minutes. So, I waited wondering if the terrorists were using this as a warm up for additional planes, bio, chem or truck bomb surprise. You know, the old 'bloodly nose' trick. I saw those poor people either jump, get pushed or get sucked out of the building. Just I as I decided to put these ugly thoughts out of my mind, tower 2 started to come down. Because we were so close to the base of the tower, the visual on this was truly terrifying. It looked like it was coming down right on top of us. I ran as fast as my slippery wing tips would carried me. The firemen and I ran for our lives down into an underground garage while the rumble and dust plugged the mouth of garage. "Trapped...", I thought "...so this is it happens." I feel we could have easily have been buried alive and bought it there in the dark with that stifling dust. I made a makeshift mask out a rag I found in a Janitors closet. Luckily, some of fireman had respirators and they searched around in the dark, dust fill garage to find a clear emergency exit going up and out. Up top, you saw it on CNN I'm sure, it looked like the moon, or a volcano... inches of dust on the ground and in the air... gagging everybody without a mask. I could see no farther then four feet. Keeping the building to my left, I made my way around the base of a building to the corner and the dust thinned, then for a half block then I was out of the cloud. I linked up with a nurse who was helping people as they emerged from the dust cloud. I helped a couple people by washing the dust and crap out of their eyes. They looked like they been spray painted with dust an 1/8 thick, but generally in good condition. I think you either got away without much injury or you were dead. The nurse had wandered off and I saw three ambulances start to setup a triage point on the corner. I gathered up an aid kit, an O2 tank and a backboard and went over to join up with an ambulance crew. Just as I got there the second building started to fall toward us and that panicky, "run for your lives" behavior started up again as the Tower 1 collapsed. I jumped in the back of an ambulance and we raced ahead of the boiling dust cloud as it rolled through the building canyons like some scene out of a cheap action flick. The driver made a wrong turn into a cul-de-sac, stopped suddenly, shouted "everybody out" and we debussed into a crowd of kids evacuating from Pace Univ? Walking north a block later I linked up with different ambulance crew from the Flatlands Volunteer Ambulance Corps. There we helped a guy with some minor head trauma who had been pummelled by debris. Soon we were ordered to pull back for fear of gas explosions. I rode with the crew to Chelsea Pier where an emergency treatment point was being setup. It was like a hasty MASH unit with 50 emergency operating tables, 30 minor treatment stations all improvised out of folding banquet tables and heap of medical supplies. But sadly very, very few casualties every came to Chelsea Pier because most people died. I heard later that they only treated 100 or so public service folks with eye abrasions and dust inhalation. I stayed until about 11p and left when I realized that there were plenty of volunteers lined up to help and no casualties coming to Chelsea Pier. I took the train uptown to my hotel and slept awful. The emotional aspect of all this really hit me on Weds after watching CNN in the morning and heard more details about people and families. I spent the afternoon walking in Central Park trying to sort out my thoughts and memories. I called a blood center to give blood and they said they'd call back with an appointment in 4-5 days! The outpouring of volunteerism was inspiring. Rather then fly, my employer chartered a bus and that was just the right answer.. low stress and no airport hassle. So Chris, you and I were at ground zero and suffered that indignity first hand. When I tell people this they often ask kindly if I'm ok and look at me cautiously as if I might burst into tears. More and more, I tell them that I am doing fine and ask them back how they are doing. They often believe that I must be suffering more than most. I'm not so sure. While I was physically involved on Tuesday, you and I were able to act in response to this event and that a big step in coping: action. I did not fully appreciate the magnitude and depth of the event until I was subjected to CNN and the power of global media on Wednesday back in my hotel room. Sitting in front of the TV, I was emotionally beat up. The TV new emotionally traumatized me. Story after story took me into the victims homes, lives and I saw their children. My point is that even though people were miles and miles away in a sleepy little foothill town, I know people are suffering and some are changed forever. My question is whether or not this changed you? If if has changed you, have is your behavior different? You said you're getting back involved with EMS by re-certifying. That's additional action and put that down to coping in a meaningful way. What do you think? Regards, Thane *************************************** Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story3449.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 12.39.245.182