274 20 70359 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 my car on the way to work, when I turned on the radio and heard about the first plane hitting. It was about 8:20 am. At first I just thought it was an accident. I didn't think that the plane was hijacked. That thought never crossed my mind. By the time I got to work, the second plane hit and that's when I realized it wasn't just an accident. America was under attack. I was astonished. I couldn't believe that anyone would take so many innocent lives. I thought about the people on the planes and in the Trade Center towers and I couldn't even begin to imagine how frightened they were. After all 4 planes went down, everyone at my work gathered around in the front of the building in a circle. We held hands and prayed for all those involved. Now, I try not to take things for granted. You never know how much time you have left with the people you love. I am truly thankful for all the blessings in my life. 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 story5813.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. 65.243.11.181 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: WTC 9-11-01 Friends: I was blessed in the midst of unspeakable tragedy last week, with an opportunity to participate in the rescue and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center. With the blessing, support, and encouragement of my employer, Lafarge, North America, I left very early Thursday morning, and drove to D.C. where I boarded Amtrak for the 3 hour ride to Penn Station in New York. I arrived before nightfall, and went immediately to Broadway and 14th street where the security net around the area was located. With my Blue Circle hardhat, and purposely dirty work clothes already on, I was able to get clearance to the site. At the exact same time, two crane operators from Bay Cranes, were driving in to relieve the crew that had just set up a 50 ton crane at the base of the explosion. The NYPD asked them to give me a ride. Sickeningly, and amazingly, we drove directly to the remains of Tower 2 on Church Street. Less than 12 hours after I had left my home in Norris, I stood in the midst of the most unspeakable sight I have ever witnessed. The airborne dust was so thick you could swipe your hand through the air, and grab it. The acrid smell, horrific. As one FBI agent later told me, "that is the smell of several thousand people on low bake, for two days". I am proud to say that, within 10 minutes of arrival , I helped Chad,(the 'oiler') of the Liehber crane, erect a large American flag from the cab of the huge crane. We took extra care (and a lot of duct tape) to make sure that she flew upright straight, and proud. After that important job was done, I grabbed a shovel, and jumped in to work with an enormous group of firefighter, NYPD, and EMT's, shoveling ash and debris off Vesey street, which was totally covered and impassable. 5 hours later, we were done, right down to the last pebble, and loaders and excavators could then make there way to the pile of rubble. In cleaning the road, we dumped every bit of debris into thousands of 5 gallon buckets, which were then sifted through by other volunteers, so as to not cast away anything of personal, medical, or evidentiary value. At that point, like a huge wave, we all moved onto the smoldering rubble, and began the task of moving untold tons of material, 5 gallons at a time. The work was gruesome, but fulfilling. As one of only a handful of 'infiltrators' in the area, I felt incredibly lucky to be amongst the most dedicated and courageous people I have ever known. I consider myself to be a hard worker, but I have never seen anything like this band of firefighters (FDNY on their backs) that had worked for 48 hours without stopping, one handful and one bucket at a time. At 3am, a sprinkle turned into a horrific downpour. No one (except me) ever looked up, even for a moment. Within 20 minutes large streams of water ran down the rubble pile, carrying with them the unspeakable. Still, no one stopped, slowed, or wavered. At 4:30am (now Friday morning) the Chief called us off the hill. Slippery conditions, exhaustion, and anger at the spite of the horrible weather, made injuries too numerous. I walked across the street to the Hilton Millennium hotel, now bombed out, with no windows, and at least 4 inches of ash covering everything in the lobby. Cops went up to the seventh floor, in total darkness, in a building that was still listed as unstable, and raided the linen room. They brought down sheets, blankets, and towels for us all. I spent the next two hours in a luxurious, clean, Hilton bathrobe, sitting in a swanky dust enveloped chair, in the lobby of what two nites before had been a $650 a nite hotel. During our 'time-out', someone (it was too dark to see who) sat at the grand piano, and played beautiful music until dawn. It was a jet-black morning, with the smoke and haze now made worse and soggier by the torrential rain. It was darker at 7am, than it had been at midnight. It wasn't eerie, it was scary. The ever-present ash, made up of pulverized concrete, paper, glass, and American citizens, was now a gooey muck. The muck clogged the drains, and we all waded thigh deep through a grey and black river of total destruction. At this point I moved to Tower 7 about 3 blocks away, where they were short equipment operators. This is the building that was the third to collapse, giving time to evacuate all inside. 5 gallon buckets weren't needed here, but the going was tremendously slow. I ran a large Cat loader, but the twisted metal was difficult to handle. Twenty-ton dumps were often leaving with 2 tons of debris because of the nature of the metal and support steel. At 11 am Friday, I left the sight to find a hotel, take a shower, and sleep. As I walked past all the media tents toward the exit, hundreds of New Yorkers stood by the barricades. When I crossed the threshold, they grabbed me, hugged me, gave me water, flowers, apples, beer, or anything else I could hold. It was amazing. I got my shower, laid down for two hours, then went back, feeling guilty for having left in the first place. I went back to Tower One and rejoined the bucket brigade. Four lines, at least one hundred deep, each handing off bucket after bucket. The continuous noise of back up alarms, hydraulic cutters, and heavy machinery soon was drowned out by the roar of a pack of F-16's. They flew low, and the whole pile vibrated. The President was soon to arrive. An hour later, about 30 minutes before Bush was to come to the site, the Chief called everyone down, and told any one who was not a New York firefighter to go one block up to 1 Liberty Plaza which is the HQ for Nasdaq and Merrill Lynch. It is a huge, beautiful building, directly across the street from the WTC. It now has a serious buckle at the 32 floor. As we moved up there, without a word, or any direction, each person grabbed a shovel, or with gloved hands only, and began cleaning up the Plaza from the 5 inches of muck, dust, and broken glass that were everywhere. Two hours later, by the time the President had left, it was spotless. Prior to the Presidents arrival, the FDNY had determined that the rescue portion of the effort was to be called off. Bush arrived at the perfect time to give these beaten-up and devastated heroes a lift. I knew it was coming, but many of us teared up when through the dust and destruction a block away, we heard the 'reflectos' (what cops and other emergency personnel call the firemen, because of all the reflective gear they wear) start chanting USA, USA, USA, USA. I will never forget that moment as long as I live. By 9pm, after milling around for an hour or so, I went back to the hotel, with the intention of heading home early Saturday morning. I slept hard, and awoke refreshed at 3am. I took my bag, checked out, and went back down. As I was walking in, legions of firefighters were walking out. I had left the site twice in 36 hours; they had been there 90 hours straight. The blank anguish, sorrow, and exhaustion on their faces, as they left without the mates they had searched so desperately to find, was heartbreaking. Commendably, not one member of the media horde approached any of them. The ultimate token of respect. I worked till around 8am as a 'sifter', watching with a morgue worker to try to insure that when the heavy equipment that was now being used dropped their load into the truck beds, it did not contain human debris. I can tell you only that there is one hell of a lot of difference in a rescue effort, and a recovery effort. As I left the site for the last time Saturday morning, I noticed from several blocks away that something was different at the entryway. I got closer, and on a beautiful Saturday morning with a brilliant blue sky, what had been a hundred well wishers, was now in the thousands. The police literally had to open a wall of people in order for me and a Chicago fireman I was walking out with, to leave. The cheers, tears, hugs, and outpouring of love and thanks was as indescribable as the scene 10 blocks back. I felt horrible about it, remembering what I had seen 5 hours earlier as the firefighters left under cover of smokey, sickening darkness, alone and underappreciated. As I got to Penn station and traveled down the escalator, and army of hardhats were riding up the escalator having just arrived. I still had on work gear, and was wearing my Tennessee Volunteers t-shirt, and the calls of "hey, Tennessee, where do we go", "hey Tennessee, how do we get there", were numerous. People had traveled hundreds of miles under difficult circumstances, but they had gotten there. As I waited in the station for my train to leave, it occurred to me that I had spent over 30 hours at the site, and with the exception of the first moments there, working with Chad, the crane oiler and my flag raising partner, I had never entered into a conversation with anyone. A sentence here, a simple request to someone I didn't know for a bucket, or a thank you to a Red Cross worker. That was it. In the most organized chaos anyone has ever know, I never shook a hand, exchanged a name, or engaged in a simple 'hello'. In thinking back on it, I now realize that it was not just me. No one spoke. You would see firemen sitting together, looking straight ahead. Cops working like dogs assembling wheel barrows in the rain, without any conversation with the person next to them. Food servers and support personnel, wandering the site, administering aid without asking what was wrong. One of the many life changing and valuable lessons I learned on this journey, was that in times of terrible trouble and crisis - Americans just KNOW what to do. Aboard the train, just outside of Newark, I glanced out the Amtrak window, and for the first time, saw the new, devil-etched skyline of our nation's greatest city. Horribly disfigured and still covered in the thick, evil smoke that we all breathed for 3 days. I took no solace in the site, no pride or pleasure in knowing I had helped, no gratitude that I was out of it. I thought only that America has now changed. That despite the pleas to 'get back to normal', there will not be a 'normal' for many years to come. And for me, there will never again be a 'normal', because over 5000 people, 400 heroic cops and firefighters, and those two magnificent buildings that always represented something very special to me, are gone forever. Don Nathan 9-16-01 865-660-2166 DNathan163@aol.com 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 story1254.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. 216.193.24.35 Annotation Annotations to this item. Environmental/Health Impact Firefighters Ground zero- at or about Police Officers Politics and politicians Rescue/clean-up workers/volunteers DOMESTIC 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: I'll never forget it. One of our customers called us, asking if we were OK. We asked why, and were told to turn on the news ASAP. The horror that awaited us on the TV was unspeakable. At first we thought it was simply an accident. Then, out of nowhere, came the second plane. A couple of us grabbed the office camera and headed out to the corner of 26th. St. & 5th. Ave., where we had a clear view of the WTC. I'd never seen so many people out on the streets before - it looked like everyone who worked in the area came down for a better look, as if what was being shown on TV wasn't real and that when they came outside the towers would be there as they always were. Even from a distance, we could see that it was bad. Very bad. We knew that words wouldn't begin to describe what we were seeing, so we took a couple of quick shots and went back to the office to contact our outside sales force, and make sure all wer OK before calling our corporate headquarters (located in another state). We had some very tense moments as one of our salesmen wasn't responding to our phone calls or messages. We have many clients whose offices were in the Towers, and we were concerned that he may have gone to meet with one of them that day. Fortunately, he called us not long afterwards to say that he was OK, that he had been on the LIRR into the city and that his train had been turned around. In what I can only describe as shock and fear, we watched the news as one by one the towers fell. I tried several times to call my husband at home in Brooklyn, without success. Then I tried calling my parents in CA - got through no problem. They said that they had been able to reach my husband, and that they would call him back for me. I guess what they teach us to do in an earthquake (call someone outside the area) works just as well in situations like this. Go figure! At around noon the decision was made to start letting people head for home. We spoke with the president of our company, who said that if we couldn't make it home that he would make whatever hotel arrangements he could for us. After speaking with my husband via my parents again, I made the decision to walk to the Brooklyn Bridge, where my husband would be able to meet me on the Brooklyn side. I left the office at around 2:00p and, like so many others did that day, made my way down to the bridges of Lower Manhattan to try and get home. As if the events of that morning weren't enough, I saw things on my walk that both scared me and made me proud to live in NYC. One of the first things I saw as I headed down Park Ave. was the sight of a refrigerated delivery truck being escorted by NYPD. I'm not going to say what the contents of that truck were, but it was one of many that I saw that day. As I got closer to my destination, I saw that people - business owners and residents alike - were offering whatever aid they could to those of us walking home. Water, phones, restrooms, a place to rest - it felt so incredibly good knowing that people were willing to help total strangers. I continued on, and eventually arrived at the lower end of Chinatown. There were many streets blocked off, and so I approached a policeman to ask which way I should go to get to the Brooklyn Bridge. As I walked up, there was a couple talking to him. The woman was asking him where they could go to get closer to Ground Zero. He looked at them like they had completely lost their minds, and told them this was as close as they were going to get. They walked off, and he turned to me saying "Why on earth would anyone want to get closer!?!?!?" He then told me which streets to take, and told me to be careful. I didn't think about what he really meant, until I got to the Brooklyn Bridge. The northern side appeared OK, but to get where I needed to go I had to cross under it and walk up the southern side (the side closest to Lower Manhattan) a couple of blocks to access the roadway. As soon as I crossed under the bridge, I was greeted with a sight that took my breath away. Ash, half charred papers, and other debris covered the area. Taking the first step into that wasteland was so hard, but I didn't have any choice if I was to get home. I walked past a man's shirt, which was lying in the ash next to a woman's shoe. There were countless pieces of paper, most partially burnt, some with peoples names still legible. A block away from me, shadowed by the billowing smoke, I passed a hospital. There was a line down the block of people waiting to get inside - some to donate blood or offer whatever help they could, others not injured enough to be treated right away. After what seemed an eternity, I made it onto the Brooklyn-bound roadway and was greeted with the most wonderful sight in the whole world - an MTA bus, waiting to take me (and about 4 dozen others) across the bridge to safety. I was never so happy to be home in my husbands arms as I was that night! We'd only been married a few months at that point, and the thought of being apart from him that day was almost unbearable. That's my story. 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 story1642.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. 2002-09-01 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 152.163.188.195 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 husband had left with my daughter to take her to school. I was in the livingroom with my son just turning on the television to catch the end of the morning news show as I usually do on school days. I had a room full of day care children and saw the replay of the first plane hitting. I instantly called my mother in Indiana. While on the phone with her, the second plane hit. I remember saying "Oh no" and my mother, who works in a school and did not have a television, asked what happened. I explained that a second plane hit. I was torn between picking up my daughter from school or allowing her to spend the day there with her classmates. I called the school and was told they would continue on with classes to keep a sense of normalacy in the children's lives. I waited until the end of school to pick her up. It was the longest day of my life. 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 story3712.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. 24.169.160.116 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 story begins on Saturday, September 8, 2001. I'm riding the B61 bus in Brooklyn, on my way to my mom's to deliver a birthday present that I purchased for her from a little shop located in the lobby of the World Trade Center. As the bus makes its turn off of Atlantic Avenue and on to Columbia, I have a perfect view of the towers. This is the point where I usually think to myself "I remember when I was in my late teens I used to look across and see the towers being built." This time a completely different thought goes through my mind. I remembered when the terrorist bombed the towers eight years earlier, and I thought "Can you imagine seeing the towers explode right before your eyes?" Three days later, that's exactly what I witnessed. I work in the downtown Manhattan area, only blocks away from the World Trade Center. When I got off the train Tuesday morning, and started walking up the stairs which lead outside, I could see mobs of people staring into the sky saying, "Oh my God!" I could not imagine what they could possibly have been looking at, and I was almost afraid to come out of the station to find out. I did eventually step out and took a look in that direction, and what I saw was unbelievable. There was this HUGH firey hole at the top of one of the towers. I stood there paralyzed watching. Finally I snapped out of it and started heading in the opposite direction towards work. Just as I turned away there was a horrendous explosion behind me, and the crowd of onlookers all started running and screaming. When I looked back, there was a big fireball coming from the second tower. I was haunted by my thought from three days ago, "Can you imagine seeing the towers explode right before your eyes?" Debris was flying in our direction. I ran as fast as I could. Soon after the debris settled, and we realized that it couldn't reach us, everyone stopped running and started staring back towards the WTC again. Now there was a hugh flaming hole in each of the towers. I thought that terrorists had somehow gotten into the buildings and planted bombs. Then I overheard people in the crowd saying, "Did you see that big plane crash into the building?" Others were saying, "I saw the plane that crashed into the first building." I felt that we were under attack, and I was terrified because I was surrounded by federal buildings which could be potentially the next target. Then someone shouted, "Look, there are people jumping out of the windows." I turned around and looked up and saw people, one by one, jumping to their deaths. They looked like little stick figures falling in slow motion, head first, feet towards the sky. One guy bounced off the side of the building. I couldn't look anymore. I quickly continued on to work, and when I got there, I broke down in tears. Our office building was evacuated, and I immediately headed home. When I arrived at my apartment and opened the door, I was greeted by my son who was hysterical and in tears. He grabbed me and hugged me so tight, then he told me, "Mommy, they're gone." I asked, "Whose gone?" He said, "The Twin Towers, they've both collapsed." I could not believe it then. I still can't believe it today, ten months later. The policemen, firemen and emergency service workers have been phenomenal in their resue efforts during this WTC crisis. They've shown selfless heroism, many making the ultimnate sacrafice, while attempting to save the lives of others. I've never been prouder. May God bless them and their families, as well as the victims, survivors, and their family and friends. 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 story892.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. 2002-07-16 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 64.152.170.152 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 working for white house realtors in white house, tn. i was the receptionist. and it was my job to open the office. we had a t.v. in our waiting area. and i was walking through doing my usual morning duties. starting coffee, unlocking the doors, turning on the t.v. the morning show was on. and i could hear bryant gumboul talking about a little plane that had hit a building in new york. i was thinking that is odd. certainly a plane can see this big o builing. so i go into the waiting room to see what he is talking about. and there is smoke coming from one of the twin towers. my desk there faced the t.v. so i go and call one of my co-workers. i tell her to turn on her t.v. and we are looking at this together and talking about it on the phone. we are saying how strange it is that a plane flew into this big building. we were thinking it was like a little passanger plane. and the news guys didn't know much at the time either. while we are talking we see this little dot in the back ground. and i ask my friend what is that? she says i don't know it looks like a plane. and i say it is a plane. it is gonna hit that tower. it is getting to close... then bam!!! it hits . we are both yelling oh my god .. did you see that? did you see that? what is causing these planes to hit these builings. we are thinking some strange force is pulling them into the builings. not for one second are we thinking someone is attacking us. then my boss comes in and says i heard on the radio what is going on. and little by little more employees are coming in. not going for coffee or to check their messages. just straight to the t.v. we are all standing around staring at the t.v. then someone mentions. i think we are under attack. we all just look at each other like what? then we here there is a possiblitiy that there are more planes that have been hi-jacked. i think oh no!!! my husband is working in washington dc. if we are under attack they will hit there next. my husband was working construction about 12 miles from dulles airport where one of the planes was hi-jacked. i run to the phone . to try and call his cell. but no one can get through at all. the cells are flooded with calls. finally i get through. i say are you ok. he is like yeah why??? he has no idea what has even happened or what is going on. i fill him in on what i know. they all run to a radio and listen. he was scheduled to fly home for a visit 2 days after the 11th. from dulles airport. i tell him get out of washington but don't get on a plane. he can't leave to come home for 2 more days. he rents a car to come home. you couldn't fly even if you wanted to. all airports were shut down for days. but who wanted to fly???? when he got home i had been in front of the t.v. for 48hrs straight. i couldn't take my eyes away. i had cried and been freightened for 2 days. when i saw him i just hugged him for like an hour. and thanked god i was not posting his picture up searching for him like i watched people do on t.v. for 2 days. now that we know the time line of all the flights i know where i was that whole day. i was dropping my 2 year old off a day care when the first plane hit. i was at work and watched the 2nd plane hit. i was calling my husband begging him to get out of washington when the other 2 crashed. i didn't know what was going to happen next or where? i felt so unsafe, like a sitting target to some of the most evil people in this world. i just prayed and prayed. i prayed for our safety, i prayed for our firemen. our police men, the missing, the found, the families and friends of victims, i prayed for our president, i prayed for the people and children on the planes. then i did what most people wouldn't i prayed for those who caused those planes to crash. i thought how lost you must be to let some crazy fool brain wash you into believing this was the right thing to do... and i prayed God give us strength to heal from this. and he has eveyday. i'll never forget that day. i saved all the magazines and newspapers from that day. and i will show them to my children. so they will know. America is strong and when struck we will gather together to help, defend,protect one another. that day was sad and scary but something i saw that day and the following days to come was no one saw color. they just saw American hurting and we all came together. Amen for that. God bless us all. 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 story11535.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. 2005-06-20 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 66.147.102.253 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: Like many others I watched the horror of that day unfold on the television. Still in shock, I walked out front and stood on the green front lawn and looked up at that gloriously beautiful sunny Fall day trying to comprehend the darkness that had invaded our country. My sons were 15, 14, 13, and 5 at that time. Now my oldest son is turning 20 and is a United States Marine in 2nd FAST (Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team). He is young, handsome and full of life, yet he has chosen to place himself between us and harm. He, like I, does not believe that it is an accident that our country has not experienced another attack since then. He also knows that it will take constant vigilance to keep it that way. So thank you Lcpl. Jonathan Schilling USMC 2nd FAST 2nd Plt. for watching out for us as we go about our lives since that day. Thank you ALL men and women of the armed forces who joined before and after 9-11-01. Heros are born here every day. We must keep dialog going and exchange ideas, that is our strenght, but we must NOT let ourselves be divided. UNITED WE WILL STAND. 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 story20751.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. 2006-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 66.188.55.254 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 flight to London boarded 25 minutes late due to a light bulb replacement.We had begun boarding tour plane when the first plane hit. By the time the second plane hit we had begun to back-out of the terminal. WE had no idea what was happening, but we could see the fear in the eyes of the stewardesses. Everyone began madly dialing cell phones to get more information. The pilot returned to the terminal and asked us to leave the plane so that security could check it. I can't tell you what it was like waiting in O'Hare not knowing what was happening as all of the airport televisions were snowed out due to censor. The only functional television was at the airport bar. There must have been 200 of us peering anxiously at the screen trying to find out what was happening. We then got the news that teh FAA was grounding all flights to the nearest airports. I stood at the window and watched planes practically fall from the sky as they had to land immediately. There were so many that there was no place for them and planes were lined up with buses picking up teh passengers. It was the most unreal site that I have ever seen... 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 story6363.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. 63.97.240.1 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 the World Stopped Turning ?Where were you when the world stopped turning, on that September day?? This is the first, and main verse in a popular Allan Jackson song. September 11th was the worst day in many people?s lives. I was 8 ? months pregnant when the planes hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I was 8 ? months pregnant, and actually sleeping. I knew something was wrong, because it was early, and my husband called me from work. All he said was ?turn on the television.? As I turned it on, I saw the first plane that had crashed into the World Trade Center. I couldn?t believe it and neither could my husband. He actually put it on speakerphone, so I could describe what I was seeing to his work. They are construction workers, and there was not a T.V. anywhere. As I started to describe what I was seeing, the second plane crashed. The reporters did not even know what happened. As I hung up the phone with my husband, I was in shock. When the third plane hit the pentagon, I couldn?t help but think, of course Chicago (my home town) would be next. I was struck with panic. I had always read and watched other countries at war, but never America. Thank God there was only four planes. America was not completely at war, but it sure seemed like it. I think the one thing that touched me the most was when Peter Jennings, the famous news reporter, started crying live on air. That?s when I knew we were all connected. I did not know anyone who was killed in the collapse of the towers. I stilled cried for every one of them. As the months followed, there were many tributes to people from New York and Washington. The most memorable one to me was the Super Bowl. Half time was dedicated to all those who were lost. Every single person?s name was displayed at that time. Being so pregnant, I started having my doubts on bringing an innocent child into this world. However, my son was born on October 2nd. It was the best day of my life, even though not even a month before, it was the worst day of many people?s lives. 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 story546.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. 2002-05-07 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 63.215.116.206 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 9/11/01, I was stationaed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma for my Advance Individual Training for the ARMY. The day started just like any other day in our training environment. Up at 0500, PT at 0530-0630, Breakfast from 0700-0730, and than off to classes for the day. We were in class when our instructors were called out of the room. A few minutes later, they came back with a TV and turned it on to the news for us. We all saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center. We were immediately transported back to the barracks, and the post was on lock down. We were tasked with patrolling our Battalion area along with soldiers from the other Batteries in our complex. Security details and Military Police were out in force. Our Senior Drill Sergeant, First Sergeant, and Battery Commander sat us down in the bleachers on the Drill Floor and talked to us all about the possibilities of accelerating classes to ready us for deployment. I just remember the goose-bumps and the feelings of anger, pride, and patriotism. The terrorists attacks on September 11th, 2001 served to remind of why I became a soldier. My condolences go to the families/friends who lost loved ones on 9/11/01, and to the families/friends who have and will inevitably lose loved ones as we fight in the global war on terrorism. CPL Marcus A. Benson "Improvise, Adapt, Overcome" 79th Military Police Company (CS) United States ARMY Reserves 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 story11099.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. 2004-09-26 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 170.202.250.20 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 home working on some paperwork and my daughter came in from Blockbuster, and the plane had crashed into one of the twin towers and I said, "Wow. That's a big oops!Somebody made a huge mistake." And then we turned on one of the TVs to see what was happening. I guess it took about 10 minutes for it to actually get on and finally another plane had hit the other tower and I realised that it was not a mistake. Someone was doing this on purpose. It was amazing. I could just not believe it. It was more than I could comprehend. Question 2: How has your life changed because of September 11, 2001? I just cried. I feel safe now. Question 3: What do you think should be remembered about September 11? I think a memorial should be made at each site. A place people where people can meditate and gather thoughts about what happened. For all of the people that were involved, who helped make sure the people that were still alive and OK, the heroes that died. Question 4: Did you fly an American flag after the events of September 11? Have your feelings about the American flag changed because of these events? Well, actually, I feel guilty in a way. We tried to fly an American flag and the one that we had was five feet long. There was no way to hang it on the front of the house so I found another flag that I ended up hanging up. I guess the American flag is a nice representation of America, I think, more than anything else. 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 story8758.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. 2002-12-16 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 216.54.14.84 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: People always talk about something in their life that completely changed. I never knew what it meant to have something so big and so eventful that it could make my whole life completely different. The morning of September 11th knew what those people meant. Fear. Pain. Shattered memories. Loss September 11th was just another day. I woke up at about 7:30 and went to class like usual. When class was over around 11:30 my professor seemed uneasy. Before we all left she spoke with an uncertain tone, ? Our country is under attack.? Foreign words to me. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This is America, how could we be under attack? Is it even possible? The Twin Towers had fallen? I left class and frantically called mom... ?Is Mr. Corea safe?? He is a long time family friend who works in New York and commutes from my hometown in New Jersey. ?He is fine,? she said, ?He is stuck in the City thought and wont be able to get out for a while.? I hung up the phone and started to cry. i felt as though someone had stolen a part of my childhood. It was almost a tradition , my dad would take my brother and me on the short train ride into the City to visit all the different cites. This happened almost every year right after Christmas. We would reach lower Manhattan and visit this man-made marvel. It was amazing, two towers soaring into the sky. I was always intrigued by the long elevator ride. When you reach the top and take those first few steps out onto the observation deck the view is awesome. In the crisp, winter atmosphere you could see forever. All of this beauty and wonder was destroyed in one short day. I couldn't stop thinking about how i would never feel the awesome power of these sights again. Only in my memories. Later that terrible day i called my parents to make sure that everything was ok at home and to see if Mr. Corea was safe at home. My mom said that he was fine but...(in that instant thousands of things raced through my mind). But what? ?Molly, this afternoon Dad called and asked if Mr. Swenson had taken that job at the Twin Towers in April?? They weren't sure. After calling Mrs. Swenson my mom fount out that he was on the 102th floor with Cantor Fitzgerald when the plane hit. As soon as she said this my heart fell through the floor, through the basement and into the depths of the earth. This couldn't be true. Mr. Swenson can?t be gone. I had grown up camping with this man. He was our neighbor, our friend, he couldnt be gone. He took me sleding in the winter and to the pool in the summer with his children. He was an EMT, on of the kindest people anyone could eve meet. It wasn?t possible for him to be gone. I kept saying to my mom, ?People in thowe floors got out, maybe he did.? And all she could reply back to me was, ? Molly, you know Mr. Swenson, he would help other people before he even thought about himself.? An answer that I knew in my heart but couldnt accept. I never cried so much in my life. For months I tried to be normal, but I couldnt seem to. It is hard when you dont even want to be you anymore because the hurt is to much. You try to find a reason in it all of it. Why? Why would anyone kill thousands of innocent people and destroy so many lives and memories. What keeps you going is knowing that you have an angel watching over you and all of the lives thathe touched. Life continues, but you always have your memories. 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 story537.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. 2002-05-07 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 128.172.59.126 Notes Notes about this item. submitted twice 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 wife and I were trying to have our second child. It was difficult (just like the first) so we needed to do invitro. We were all set in the room waiting for the doctor and we were becoming very impatient. When he finally came in he apologized but he said he couldn't belive a plane had just hit the WTC. We did the procedure and when he went out and came back in he looked like he lost all of his color. He said a second plane had hit. I went back to work and remember when I heard that the tower collapsed. I stopped and felt my stomach drop, having not seen it I thought I was just being overly dramatic. Then later when I saw the footage, I realized it was much worse than I thought. We were successful that day and our little girl is now 2 and a half. 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 story11156.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. 24.98.171.34 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: Iam a Sgt with the NY State Police. On the morning of September 11, 2001 I was in my town which is about 65 miles from NYC, although I originally grew up in NYC I had moved from there many years earlier. That morning I was in and out of my truck shopping for things from area hardware stores. Now normally I listen to music while Iam in the truck and a news bulletin came over saying that a plane had struck the World Trade Center, at that point I thought that it was a small plane because the radio didnt specify what type of plane it was. I continued on with my shopping, when I got back to my truck the radio announcer said that one of the Towers had collapsed, I was in disbelief, but I knew I had to get to a television, so I drove to my Doctor's office which was in Town and saw the carnage. I called work and was told to come in right away, I reported to my barracks and in an hour or two was told to pack for NYC and bring clothes for a 3 day stay we were to muster at Stewart Air base in Orange County NY. I went home got clothes and reported to Stewart Air Base, we then left for NYC in waves of 30 Troopers, Eventually totalling 600 I remember the sign on the thruway as we headed down "NYC Closed"...."NYC Closed" I never thought I would see a sign that said that. We went down the Palisades and came across the George Washington Bridge the biggest thing that struck me was the smoke it seemed like the entire Island of Manhatan was covered with smoke, we reported to the Javits Center and from there were deployed to various posts around the City, the first day we were on post for about 30 hours, slept on the floor of the Javits Center, but I was glad I was helping in anyway we could. On the second day my squad was on Vesey Street and on the actual pile of Ground Zero, the destruction was enormous, esp for me since I had grown up in NYC and had actually been in the World Trade Center and knew how large a complex it was, The actual Pile at the highest point only seemed about 10 stories above street level, if that, 10 stories left of a building 110 stories high and the dust was incredible. Other memories are good at how well the people of NYC treated us. 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 story7794.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. 2002-09-17 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 207.237.126.125 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 to teach that morning. My new class started at 10:15. But I only lived two miles away, so I never rushed out the door. Taking the time to feed my eight month old son and dress my twenty month old daughter, I was lamenting having to go to work at all. I just wanted to stay home with my children. That morning, I was reflecting on the previous September: my friend had passed away from breast cancer over that summer and after four long years of infertility, my husband and I had given up and decided to adopt. One year later, I was a mother of two and still mourning Linda's death as I emotionally prepared myself for the upcoming fifteenth anniversary of my father's death. Linda's passing had stirred the grief process for my father as did motherhood. I was consumed with the reality of the frailty of life and not focused on much else. The phone rang. Checking caller ID I saw that it was my sister from Florida. "That's odd, I thought to myself, "Something must be wrong because Christine never calls during the day." A breathless voice was on the other line when I picked up. "Jen, turn on the TV." "What chanel?" "It doesn't matter, any chanel... it'll be on every major chanel." I put down my son he began to cry for his unfinished bottle and turned on the TV. Seeing the WTC on fire, I thought I was watching some movie, so I changed to another chanel and it was the same thing. "What's going on?" I said into the phone. "We've been attacked." Attacked? The words were foreign. The HBO movie BAND OF BROTHERS had just started that Sunday and my husband and I had discussed how our generation had never seen a major war. So when she said attacked, it just didn't make sense. "What do you mean?" "Someone flew a plane into the WTC" "On purpose?" "I don't know. There's no TV here at work, I only heard it on the radio. Can you keep ME posted?" "Sure." I said as I absentmindedly hung up the phone, my eyes still on the TV. Tower two was being hit. Dazed, I picked up my son to give him the rest of his bottle. I watched Tower two go down in disbelief. My mom called. My other sisters called. I called Christine back. I wrote down all the events as they unfolded before my eyes. People were screaming, jumping out of windows and I sat in my chair, powerless to help. Just watching like a zombie. I still had to go to class. My students had no idea of what was going on so my headmaster met me at the door of my classroom and asked me to fill them in. Classes for the rest of the day would be cancelled. I looked at the faces of my new class. Fourteen and fifteen year old students, anxious to start a new school year. Taking a deep breath, I told them all I new. Tower one had not gone down yet. Tower two was a pile of rubble. The pentagon was hit. A plane went down in Pennsylvania. The president was enroute on Air Force One and Cheney was sent somewhere else. We discussed the meaning of life. Suddenly the subject of biology seemed insignificant. I didn't cry until two weeks later, on the anniversary of my father's death. Having grown up in Jersey, just outside Newark, my father would take us to the city often. And oh how he loved those towers. "An engineering marvel. I watched them be built" he'd say. I cried for the two men that I knew that lost their lives that day and their families. I cried for the memory of my father and of Linda. I cried because life just doesn't make sense. I cried because I finally had two small children and that they would one day say to me, "Mom, where were you when the towers went down?" And I knew what I'd say, "Holding you in my arms, cherishing your life and loving the precious moments that I have with you." 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 story10761.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. 2004-08-21 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 69.1.2.78 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 school and all of the sudden the phone rang my teacher Ms.Hammond didn't answer, it rang again she got up to get it as she was shocked, she hung up as she ran to the telivision to watch my classmates and I stopped reading we watched also, as I ran to my best freind Arika she and I both started to cry as our other friends gathered around us soon we were all crying it seemed like. The telivision was on for the rest of the day we were all so shocked, we all thought nothing like that would ever happen. 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 story9002.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. 2003-01-26 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 205.187.82.212 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 next to my husband to the sound of my children waking us up not knowing how beuatiful that sound was till later. We all went to the livingroom and turned on the television only to see the horror that awaited us. I sat in disbelief and watch as the first tower fell. I felt my stomach churn and fear ran threw my body for all the people left in the building. I called my mother to ask her if she knew what was happening and to tell her I loved her. I remeber holding my childeren tight and praying to God to keep us all safe. I was very sad for the loss of life that day and my heart went out to all the families left to pick up the pieces. 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 story4072.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. 24.28.149.238 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 September 11th, I remember I was in math class when the attacks had happened. I was also in fourth grade, so I didn't really know what was going on. I remember that at about 11:00 a lot of people started leaving the classroom being picked up by their parents. The people who remained gave out loud outbursts wondering why everybody was leaving. There was also no reccess that day, which was also a big wonder, because it was perfect sunny day good enough for playing tag. Finally after a while, they called a school meeting in the gym, which they used as a mkeshift auditorium. They told us that there had been an attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by terrorists. I didn't understand some of this because I wondered what terrorists were specifically and I didn't know what the "World Trade Center" was because I only knew it the plain and simple, "The Twin Towers." When I got home, my mom was there sitting in front of the television looking at the awful images of fireballs and planes crashing into the Pentagon and the twin towers. My dad finally told me what the World Trade Center was. I also remember he had a flight in the afternoon that day, so it was relief that he got to stay home. I didn't really pay attention to it because I looked at it differently back then than I do 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 story11452.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. 2005-06-10 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 206.158.3.10 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 was home from work because my 23 yr. old daughter was scheduled to have her tonsils out that day. I was watching "Good Morning America" when they interrupted with the news that a plane had crashed into the WTC. My first thought was "My God, what a horrible accident." Then the second plan crashed into the other tower. I knew it was no accident. Soon my daughter's surgery was canceled. I work for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in Philadelphia, PA and when the Pentagon was hit, I knew I would somehow be involved in the response/recovery. I left my house at 3:00 a.m. on 9/12/02 driving to be in Arlington, VA by 7:00 a.m. to start working with other federal agencies, the state and local authorities to provide whatever assistance my agency could provide. I was concerned for my family since I did not know what else might happen and I knew they would be worried about me too. There were so many agencies working together to help the vicitms and their families it was amazing. The Department of Defense immediately opened a Family Assistance Center where the victims and families could come and be assisted. I have worked many natural disasters in my career in FEMA but this was so different. The thought of all this destruction being caused by humans and not nature was and has been extremely unsettleing to me. It still is. Today, we had a counselor from our Employee Assistance Program in to give a talk about how we may be feeling. It was good to know that others are still feeling the uncertainty and anger and grief that has been bothering me over this past year. I am able to enjoy and take comfort in my family but the workplace is still a place of anxiety for me. The uncertainty of what may happen and when, bothers me very much. I have always taken pride in my job and knowing that I could provide assistance to the people in Virginia after this horrible incident is a good feeling. I pray daily for those who perished and those left behind. I ask God to bless this wonderful country we live in and to protect those who protect us everyday here in America and overseas. 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 story3298.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. 209.116.240.11 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 at work in Marlow Heights, Maryland. We did not know that anything was going on in the office until my boss brought over to me a small hand held tv. We were watching the first tower hit in New York and I saw a second plane fly into the second tower. My boss said they were playing the footage over and I said "No, I think a second plane just hit the other tower." There was dead silence. We went from thinking, this was an accident to the reality that something bigger was happening. We pulled the big tv in from the other room. Then the Pentagon was hit. The local radio was reporting that car bombs were going off around DC. We all know someone that works in DC. We heard that the State building was hit and that a local helicopter was missing.(None of that was true) We started calling people. My mom works on base just inside the DC border. I called her and begged her to leave.It seemed that all was chaos. The news started broad casting about a plane over the Capitol that missed. My dad was working at Union Station in DC near the Capital. The news reports came in that some schools were closing. My son's school is far south of DC and is a bomb shelter, but my cousins were not so lucky. I left work, I later found out that all roads were closed around my work in that area at 11:30 A.M., I was the only one to get out for a while. I went and picked up my cousins and took them home and went and picked my son up. I went home and sat in front of the television and cried. I prayed for calm. My son, so innocent at four, was in the other room playing with his cars. I had to pull myself together. The rest of my family came home and all were accounted for. I could not help but think of the people and families that did not get that same assurance of safety. The tv showed in New York, relatives putting up pictures of people missing, looking for good news. Since that day, things have changed and we hold on to the everyday things that remain the same. We all carry emergency packs, even my son as required by his school, we stock pile food and water, (which came in handy after Isabelle), and we have an emergency meeting place in case of disaster. Every day we get up and go about our daily business, go to work, care for family, move to new houses, but somewhere in the back of my mind, lives those people who didn't make it home that day. The people on the planes, in the towers and at the pentagon. I struggle to make peace within myself sometimes about this world we live in. I look to God now more than ever and hold on to his promise of heaven, that families may be reunited forevever. 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 story11611.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. anonymously 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. 2005-07-12 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 141.156.229.166