301 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: Shortly after I got to work in the Ford House Office Building that day, a colleague's wife called him from home in the suburbs to tell him to switch on a television, to see what was happening in New York City. As soon as he saw the video of the first plane colliding with the tower, he yelped and called out to the three of us then in the office. We watched, appalled, as the television showed it happening a second time. Scarcely able to gather our thoughts, we agreed that it could have been an accident the first time, but not the second. The woman with children at home was calling her sitter when, without video at first, the television told us that the Pentagon had now been hit. Our supervisor arrived for work and gave us all permission to leave if we wanted. Two were preparing to do this, but not me. However, when I called home and found the phone suddenly dead, I changed my mind. All the phones were dead, in and out. Cell phones were not working. Before someone switched off the television, the first tower fell. We were gathering up our things to leave for home when two young military types knocked at the office door and told us to evacuate. They stayed and watched to ensure we left. Later we learned they were police cadets in a training class in our building and two had been assigned to clear each floor. My route home is via the Metro subway. I felt some reluctance to descend to the station. Passengers suddenly arriving from all the federal buildings in the area were asking each other what was safest--to stay in the city or travel home to the outskirts. No-one knew what the next targets might be. Bridges and tunnels seemed obvious possibilities. The subway system itself may have been targeted. Regardless, we were being told to go home. The cars were jammed with shaken people. Strangers talked, over and over having to repeat what we call saw on television, to cope with it and absorb the reality. At the connecting station for the Blue Line, some military men who had been in the Pentagon got on. They had escaped from the undamaged section but spoke of terrible damage and hundreds of deaths. At that time, it was not clear that, again, the weapon was a plane, and they thought the helicopter pads at the Pentagon had been blown up. My cell phone would not work, although it normally does in the trains and stations, until I was outside the station at the end of the line. Finally I was able to call my husband and reassure him I was okay. Our son, the other family member who lives in the area, called later to say his private sector organization had been send home. He would like to come to us, his parents, instead of to his house. We spend the day gaping at the television together, glad to be alive and well,but horrified at what had happened and what it would portend. 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 story143.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. 2002-03-05 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 68.49.138.206 Annotation Annotations to this item. Gov't workers (non-military and non-rescue) Military Struggle to get home Telephones and Cell Phones DC:2 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 my 28 yr old son's second day at work as a Corporate Atty. in NYC. He had recently graduaded from Syracuse Universaty Law School. I knew his firm was in the Met Life Bld. but did not know how far that was from WTC. He phoned me immediatly following the 1st plane crashing into the building to tell me. At that point he thought it was an accident. As we were talking the other plane hit and he gasped and said "this is not an accident, we are under attack". At the same time the loudspeaker came over telling everyone to evacuate immediately. He told me he loved me & would call me as soon as he could. I turned on the TV and watched the horror in shock & disbelief with panic. Everyone we knew called to inguire about him, but I could not even talk. For 4 horrible hours I did not know if he was ok. Thank God he was not close, although he did go & try to help others. My heart goes out to all the parents & everyone who lost loved ones that horrible day.I know how they feel. 1 year later I still cannot think of that day without crying. What a senseless, cowardise act delivered by sub-human people can cause. 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 story7384.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. 2002-09-14 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: When I woke up on September 11, 2001...I woke up with tears. I had just gotten married on September 1, 2001 and my parents were flying back to Anchorage Alaska. I was soo worried for them and thier saftey. We just celebrated our first wedding anniversary with sad hearts. It was hard for us to be happy when so many people were lost. We are trying to look for the good in people now more then ever. We as a nation need to comfort each other in this time of sorrow. If we do not, then we are no better then the terrorist. They will have won the battle. McKee Family Colorado 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 story4020.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. 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 got to school started my work and my teacher came in and told us that two planes had crashed into the world trade centers and some people started crying, and some people thought it was a joke but then we turned on the t.v and we saw the fire comeing out of the building and then it hit the second one and we new that something was going on and after I saw that I was crying and thought of all those kids that do not have mom's and dad's any more and I started to cry harder and then alot of peoples mom's started picking them up from school and my mom was at work so I stayed at school and for the rest of the day we watched the news and wrote poems about what just happend and when I got home I could not go outside because my mom would not let me but I was scared I would not even go on my porch I was so scared. I felt really bad for those inocent people and hoped that who ever did it should die. The nexted day we wrote notes to the police man and to the fire and perimetic people, hopeing they would like it. 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 story8638.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. 2002-11-10 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 65.80.127.133 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 gotten to my shop a little before nine that morning. I usually turn on the radio first thing to listen to the local talk radio topics of local interest. I was stunned by what I was hearing. I really couldn't believe it. So I picked up the phone and called my husband. I asked if he was watching TV? He said no, so I asked him to turn it on and see if they were talking about the plane that had just hit the World Trade Center. So he did, and they were. We talked on the phone several times during that day as he watched the TV and I listened to the radio. I guess I did some work that day, but I know it couldn't have been much. I just kept listening, and thinking. My husband and I and his parents were scheduled to leave on September 13th for a vacation to the east coast. We talked to each other, and then with his parents as to wether we should cancel our plans or continue with them. We had really decided to cancel going by that evening. Then the next morning (the 12th)we looked at each other and said "we are going". By not going the "Terrorist" win by causing us to chance our lives. So we went! Though we had to change some of the areas we had planned to visit. I had really been looking forward to going to Washington D.C.. I love lighthouses and had also planned to visit the one near Virginia Beach that is close to the navel base. It was barricaded off to the public. But the most memorable moment of the whole trip was looking out across the bay as the USS Roosevelt was leaving port. I know we were quite a distance from it, but it looked so big. I remember feeling so proud! But at the same time I said a prayer to GOD to watchover and protect all those brave people who were leaving on an uncertain journey. As the year since 911 has passed I am proud of the way most of our citizens have handled these trying times. I believe in and support our president, George W. Bush. I am proud to pledge the allegiance to my flag and country "under GOD"! 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 story7800.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. 216.106.69.252 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 on maternity leave and September 11, 2001 was the first morning that I did not turn on the television as soon as I woke up. I was playing with my daughter when my husband called at about 11:00 am. His voice was shaking and he asked me if I was watching television. I turned it on and there was the image. I remember feeling confused. The towers had fallen by the time I realized anything had happened. No one could answer the question on everyone's minds. Who would do such a thing? My question wasn't who or why, but what. What world did I bring my daughter into? That has been my question every day since the attacks on our nation. I know it has been on the minds of so many parents out there. I pray every day that people begin to understand what hurt hatred can bring. 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 story6157.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. 206.29.125.214 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: We were in math class after the announcements and we were doing the usual learning algebra.On the third floor you can see a view of lower manhattan so that meant we could see the World Trade Center.When the Vice Principal came in and said "The Twin Towers have been hit!"..We all turned around and saw the Twin Towers burning.We turned on the radio and heard that planes have crash to each one of the towers and collasped shortly. PS#34 student, Erroll Avila 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 story3049.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. 209.158.171.2 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 is from the Washington D.C. area. We were enroute to Baltimore , Maryland. We had left our homestate of Tennessee the night before and had not been on the road more then about 2 hrs when I decided to put the radio on. At first I thought that the station that we were listening to was doing a radio show . The first Twin tower had just been struck as were listening were in shock when the radio announcer said the another tower had been struck. We could not believe what we were hearing . In order for us to get where we were going we had to go through D.C. We could not believe that the Pentagon had been struck also. Both my husband and myself and our 13 yr old daughter took a moment to pray . We were so frightened.We began thinking that the United States was being attacked. Well it was.But not the way we thought.As we drove on it became apparent that travelers on the interstate were not going far. We saw a lot of people get off the interstate. The hwy was very quiet that day. When we arrived at our destination which is close to Baltimore airport we saw that the airport was very quiet. All along our trip we noted that the air was very quiet.Every gas station that we stopped in buzzed with news of the episodes that rocked our country and our very foundation . My husband and myself noted that people bonded together. Strangers to one another but has a fierce love of their country. I will never forget that day in history. As we entered Washington my husband and I could not believe how dead the streets were. Most everyone went home early that day.How we found that out is through my husbands family members. It was a very somber and sad day.We will never forget that day as long as we live. 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 story2822.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: Nothing was mentioned during the flight, even though the terrorists had already crashed into at least one of the Twin Towers before we landed in Chicago. There were 5 of us traveling together on business. We had left Dallas/Fort Worth that morning, around the same time as the other flights carrying the terrorists. We were headed for Chicago to a connecting flight for Evansville, IN. I began to sense that something was wrong immediately upon landing. As we made our way around to our connecting flight, I saw a large group of people standing around a television set, where normally no one stood. I made my way to the back of the crowd, but could not make out what exactly was going on. Since we had a plane to catch, we continued on, catching snippets of information. Something very tragic was happening or had happened, while we were in the air. Once there, we had the shock of our collective lives. Not only had our flight been cancelled, all flights were cancelled. They began giving instructions to passengers to leave the airport terminal over the loud speaker system. I saw a man at our gate openly weeping while speaking to someone on his cell phone. I made an exception to my normal habit of not listening to someone else's obviously personal conversation. He had been scheduled to fly out on one of the fated flights from Boston that morning. For some reason, he had missed his flight and was forced to take another. He was extremely distraught and visibly shaken. Before I had a chance to speak to the man or see if I could comfort him in any way, one of the more experienced travellers in our group suggested that we should make our way to the car rental area as quickly as possible. Good advice, but it was too late. We stood in line for almost 6 hours waiting for a car to rent. When we were 75 people away from getting a rental, they announced that they were out of cars. We were still trying to piece together what had happened. We were fortunate enough to have at least 2 cell phones in the group. We notified everyone that we could think of that we were ok. Pieces of the story were starting to come together. I knew without a doubt were most of us would be that evening, if only we could get transportation. Either in a rental car on the way home, or in front of a television set, watching the tragedy continue to unfold. We had yet to hear about the plane that went down in Pennsylvania. We did however know about the Pentagon. The day was becoming even more surreal as it drug on. I was surprised at the way most people were responding... civil. There was no sense of people trying to push their way to the head of the line, that was growing longer by the minute. Once people did get a rental car, they were sharing rides with anyone else in line going their way. Some to just the same state. No one was headed for Texas. Later that night, I heard a news report state that there were still at least 400 people in line at the Avis location where we had been waiting all day. Upon my insistence, we grabbed a cab as quickly as we could. I thought that if we could get far enough out of the city, we might find a car that had yet to be rented and begin the long drive home to Texas. At a minimum, we could at least find a room to stay in overnight, while we tried to find a way home. Normally, getting the 5 of us to agree on any action together was difficult at best, somehow this day we managed to find agreement readily. The cab ride for the 5 of us was over $200.00 for a trip from O'Hare to Waukegan, about 38 miles. I felt we were getting price gouged and so did everyone else. None of us felt like arguing the point. We paid the man. So far, this was the only person I saw trying to get rich off the tragedy. Everyone else had been reasonable. Once there, we found there were plenty of rooms available. We began making phone calls. George, the experienced traveler in the group, found a car rental place that had a Lincoln Towncar for rent. 5 people in a Towncar from Chicago to Dallas/Fort Worth didn't sound too bad at the time. We would soon change our minds about how many people should ever really ride together in a Lincoln Towncar. If you've ever ridden for very long in the middle back seat of a Towncar, you know what I mean. The "hump" as we now so lovingly referred to it, was pure torture on the posterior and back, but after what we had seen the previous day, no one was complaining much. We were just glad and anxious to get home. With one overnight stop in Joplin, MO., the following day we finally arrived. The whole trip still seems like a bad dream. Not because of my companions, but because of what happened that day on September 11. When I finally arrived home, I just sat for hours hugging each of my kids and my wife, for as long as they would let me. We went to bed very late. The horror of what had transpired that week continued to play out over the television and radio, both of which we would watch until we just could not watch any longer. We wept, but mostly we prayed. Today, I met with my travelling partners of 9/11 for lunch. We remembered, we reflected. We are all glad to be alive. Who else had been on that plane with us that day? Later on, we would find out that two more men from the same group that highjacked the planes out east had been in Dallas that day. The were arrested on board an Amtrak train, trying to make their way out of town. I've often wondered if either of them had intened to highjack that plane on the way to Chicago. Wouldn't Chicago also have made a similar target to the Twin Towers of New York? I'll probably never know. But I do know one thing, even if the plane I was on that morning had been highjacked, I could never have been more heroic than the people on that plane that went down in the field or the men and women who worked in New York and Washington D.C. in the aftermath. How would I have responded? Would I have sacrificed my life for theirs. Total strangers. Yet they are and were Americans. The 5 of us will always have a bond that was sealed that fateful day. We are no longer just co-workers, strangers. We are fellow Americans, all of 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 story9949.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. 2003-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 208.134.143.37 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 night of September 10th, I had guests staying from out of town. A phone call on the morning of September 11, 2001 has changed my life forever. My Mother said get here quick, something terrible has happened!!! Not knowing what was going and with my Parents getting on in years, I thought it was a terrible family matter. My Sister was starting Chemo-Therapy that day for ovarian cancer and a million things went through my mind as I raced towards her house. When I found my Mother in the Television room, she was clutching her chest and then she said "Look!!! You're flight has just hit the world trade center!!!" As I looked in horror, I thought it was something surreal that had just been a dream and I was soon to wake up, that is when I saw the other plane hit and knew we were under attack, on our on soil between our own shores! You see, I am a crew for American Airlines, my roommates always bid on flight 11 because it was an easy trip and had a nice layover in Los Angeles. I am a Boston based flight crew for American Airlines and knew I had roommates a friends on that plane, and the feeling of helplessness, and grief were too much to bare. I used to be a crew member out of Washington, D.C. so I lost friends and "Family" from both bases. I still have survivors guilt and have even suffered some serious illnesses because of the stress and grief. 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 story7703.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. 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 was the Admitting Medical Resident for Cabrini Medical Center (The medical center is about 1 mile from the WTC.) from 8am, September 10th to 8am, September 11th. It's a twentyfour hour shift in which I oversee all the admissions to the hospital. If you come into our emergency department and are deemed sick enough to be admitting to the hospital, I would come interview you and perform a physical exam. I would look over the lab and testing data, then assign your case to one of the second year residents. I would make sure the resident and the intern completed their work and didn't miss anything. It's a time consuming job, and the hospital gives you next twentyfour hours off to rest. Our morning reports are 8:30am-9:30am every weekday. I was in morning report with the rest of the house staff, just waiting for it to end so I could go home and go to sleep. At about 8:50am, the Chief Resident came in and interrupted the conference. "Guys," he said, "a plane just hit the World Trade Center. We're going to get a lot of wounded. This conference is canceled, and I need all of you to go to the floors and discharge as many patients as you can. Everyone is on call, no one turn off you beepers. Go." And with that we went to clear the floors. We had no idea what kind of plane it was, where it hit, or anything else. Since I'm one of the senior residents, I went up to the general medical floors to oversee the discharges. I stopped by the cardiac intensive care unit on the ninth floor, because it had an unobstructive view of the twin towers, which were about 30 blocks away. Black smoke was pluming out of one of the towers. I grabbed the phone on the wall and called my wife Janice, as I knew she was still at home and had not left for work yet (she works uptown, near Mt. Sinai Hospital, about 103rd Street. Our apartment is on 19th Street.). "Hello?" she answered. "Janice!", I said. "Turn on the TV!" "What channel?" "Any channel," I said. "Just turn it on." While she was turning on the TV, I looked back at the towers. At that moment, the 2nd airliner smashed into the other building. My heart, my whole being, just stopped. Realization hit like a lightning bolt that we, WE...New York City and The United States of America, were under lethal attack. No armies, no bombs. They were smashing planes directly into our faces. My adrenaline surged. "Oh my God", I said into the phone. "We're under attack". "What?" said Janice. "Janice...stay in the apartment. Don't go on the subways. Stay off the busses. DON'T DRIVE. They just smashed two planes into the Twin Towers. I'm not coming home for awhile." By now, she had the TV on, and was watching. I ran through the floors, telling the residents to redouble their efforts. Sirens were going off non-stop. I reported to the emergency room. We had every doctor there, even ones off duty. One guy came who was vacationing from California but had done his training at Cabrini. We got everything ready for the onslaught of maimed bodies and burned flesh that would inundate us. The ambulance parking lot was turned into a decontamination unit. The police academy, which Mayor Guiliani would later turn into his HQ, was blocking off our shared street for emergency traffic only. We waited. And waited. No one came. The sirens all went south...none came back north. The first tower fell. Our chief resident came to me and said, "Todd...go home. Get your sleep. We're going to need seniors later tonight. Turn off your beeper. We'll work today, and you'll work tonight." "Okay....sure, sure..I'll leave my beeper on, though. Call me if you need anything." I didn't want to leave. I wanted to help. But I understood they'd need a lot of manpower later that night. I went home. I turned on CNN. The second tower fell. I looked out my window, facing west on 3rd avenue...No cars anywhere. The street was FILLED with people. More people than you ever see on a New York City Street. The sidewalks and streets were filled with people walking. 95% of them were walking north, away from the tower. 25%-50% of them were covered in that white dust you saw everyone wearing on TV. The air, oh GOD the air was acrid and stinging. It smelt like burnt plastic, burning polyvinylchoride or what have you. The air was so thick and smoking I felt as if I was about to choke on it. Janice was not home. She had gone to work, mainly to get further north and away from the towers. But she was stuck there. Phones were out, and she could could not come back south, back home. We waited, and waited, and waited. We treated and released a couple of hundred people in the parking lot for smoke inhalation and rinsing off of the dust, but we didn't admit a single patient that day. Simply because, not enough survived. People that made it out made it out fine. There was no "halfway". That was a Tuesday. Our hospital did not get admissions until Thursday. On Thursday morning/Wednesday night, the wind shifted to blow north, smothering Manhattan with the full force of that burning, acrid smoke. People couldn't breath. Asthmatics were in terrible danger. We admitted a lot of sickly, elderly, and weakened people for the next few days. The air remained acrid for about a month...some days better, some days worse, but always there. That was my September 11th, 2001. I felt STRONG. New Yorks response gave me strength. We came together. We fought back with bravery, duty, and care. 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 story1211.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. 66.108.3.87 Annotation Annotations to this item. Environmental/Health Impact Police Officers Politics and politicians WTC, attack NY: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: I was at work thinking how lucky I was that I did not have to attend the second day of our conference in DC. It would give me a full day to do some catch up work. My daughter who works for the Red Cross in Rosslyn called and asked me if I had my computer on and saw the airplane go into the WTC. I said no but I would turn it on thinking it was the work of a very bad pilot or some serious mal functioning of an airplane. She called back and said a second plane just hit the world trade center and several planes had been hijacked. My youngest daughter called and told me that her office was closing down because another plane had hit the Pentagon. I tried for about an hour to call downtown to the conference and tell them they needed to leave the city but I never got through. Phones were a thing of the past and we would have had better luck with old fashion smoke signals or wires tied to a tin can. My daughter picked me up and we started home. Traffic was the worst I have ever encountered. Everyone had the same idea -get home and gather your familly together. As a child my mother use to tell me about the day she heard about Pearl Harbor and this was the same. Never in my life time did I think someone would attack my country. Did it make me mad Hell yes! The next few weeks brought about things I thought I would never see. Police all over DC with guns. Yellow tape around government building. Soldiers patroling the Nation's capitol. At night I would hear miltary airplanes flying overhead but during the day no airplanes. The first time, I heard a plane go over my house and work, it made me nervous. The airplane that flew into the Pentagon came from Dulles and airport is not more than 10 miles from where I work and probably flew over the building. Do I think that I am over my reaction? No. When I hear lots of sirens go off, when I see a plane flying too low I remember and pray to God it never happens again. But in the deepest part of my heart, I know they are just waiting. The three things I did like was the turning to God in our time of need, the demonstations of support for our country and the victims and the wonderful emails I got with patriotic pictures. I hope you are able to get some of these. 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 story1542.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. 2002-08-29 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 12.28.178.41 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: Grandmom had her semi-annual dental check up. While being examind by the dentist her assistant entered the room and excused herself and said there was a plane crash at the world trade center in New York city. At that time all went to the T.V. and watched with horror as to all the happenings of that day. Grandpop at that time was in the eye doctors office waiting for the doctor to arrive from the hospital where he had completed surgery for the day. While waiting people were coming in from different locations telling us about the plane crashes. There was no t.v. in the waiting room so we could not observe the happenings. To make a long story short the eye doctor never came so I went to bring grandma home from the dentist and we went home watched t.v. andprayed that everything would work out for the world and all of 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 story2102.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. 2002-09-10 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 was at school on September 11th.At the end of the day,everyone was talking about bombing.I didnt understand.When I got home, I was with my neighbors.They said that a plane had crashed into a buildin g in New York.That night, I finally understood what was happeningwhile I was watching the planes crash into the Twin Towers on television.While I was watching what was happening,i thought that nobody had died,but then i realized how many people died and i felt so bad.This is the worst thing that could have ever happend. My life has not changed much since September 11th, but I am afraid that this will happen again.i am afraid because i have friends and family in distant places.I am not only afraid for people I know, but nobody deserves to die. I think the display of bravery should be remembered. Everyone from everywhere was helping out. People that hated eachother were getting together to help. People were reuniting to remember. Everyone started to appreciate the fact that they were alive. 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 story8548.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. 2002-10-22 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 24.60.58.139 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: Well, we all went to bed on September 10th as we would have on any other night. But the way i was awoken on september 11th was like no other way i have ever experianced in my life. "Were at war. Were being attacked" is all i could here my mom screaming from out in the living room. Assuming my mom was just going crazy i went out to see what was the matter as most people would do. Our cable had accidentally been cut on the day before (sept 10th) by the neighbor digging a whole so all we had was a poor reception that our old antenna could give us and i witnessed the horrific site of the plane crashing into the world trade center. All i could think was "this can't be happening" theres no way this is real. I've grown up my whole life and nothing of this magnitude has ever come about. I sat their in awe watching as they showed the replay over and over again. I felt sorrow, fear, hate for who did this, and well nationalism as i had never felt before. I wanted revenge. I felt like i could do nothing but just watch this tv cause i couldn't believe what i was seeing. but i knew i had to go to college because my classes hadn't been cancelled. so i quickly got ready and the teacher after yelling at me for being late was totally in shock when i told her what happend. To be honest she didn't even believe me tell after class when everyone out in the hallways were talking about it. No one in class actually believed me. They thought i just made up some pathetic excuse on why i was late. I will never forget what happend on September 11th. It was almost as if my generations inocense had been stolen by some mysterious figure that we had no idea whom he was. People have compared this to the event of the JFK assassination on the previous generations, or the events of Pearl Harbor. How could this be. Pearl Harbor was an attack on our military base. September 11th was an attack on the innocence, honor, FREEDOM of America. Since september 11th i've come to the realization that America can be just as vulnerable as any other country and that our country is actually still the strongest in my mind. I couldn't believe the massive amount of support everyone has put into trying to save as much as they can from New York and the Pentagon. So god Bless America. Tom Lincoln Aurora, IL SCAT3710@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 story478.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. 2002-04-29 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 216.125.152.51 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: September 12th 2001 Narrative of Tuesday Morning, September 11, 2001 I came up from the subway onto Wall street and into a blizzard of paper ? millions of sheets falling from high in the sky. A few were singed, but most simply floated here and there on the currents and eddies among the building. For a moment I thought it was a tickertape parade, but they?re held on Broadway, two blocks to the west. High above the paper was a broad plume of smoke across a blue sky. Someone said it was coming from the World Trade Center, and that it had been hit by an airliner. It seemed unlikely ? perhaps a Cessna or a helicopter. My temporary office is to the east, at Wall and Water street, but instead I walked north and west to the WTC plaza. All along the way the strange weather continued; paper was swirling in the streets, now with many sheets partially burned. I crossed the little park at the south east corner of the WTC plaza, Liberty and Church streets. The park is a block-long series of red brick paved terraces planted with trees. There are broad stone and steel benches scattered around, and a low border of ship's chains. I crossed the park diagonally and emerged from behind the large office building (1 Liberty Plaza) on the northern edge that hid the towers from view. I can?t remember any more paper falling that day, although it must have continued to fall thick and fast. The upper floors of the northern tower were in flames, spectacular, improbable, cinematic flames. Six or eight floors blazed, apparently filled completely, or nearly completely, with an orange glow that billowed out in huge puffs ? not at all the flames of a normal building fire. An ordinary building fire is mostly smoke, with tongues of orange fire lacing through it; huge balls of flame poured out of the tower ? billows of flame that rolled out into the sky. The flames were perhaps 800 or 900 feet above the ground, and the foot of the tower perhaps 500 feet away, yet they were gigantic, utterly dwarfing the human scale. Terrified people in the floors above looked out and hung out from windows just above, barely noticeable in the vastness of the scale. Windows were shattered in floors above the flames ? the people seemed to be seeking breathable air, or trying to escape heat; it was impossible to tell. The flaming floors, and the relatively undamaged portion above, clearly still filled with people made up only perhaps a fifth of the building. Everything appeared to be intact. Few people on the ground seemed upset ? a couple of hundred of us stood across the street transfixed by the spectacle, but most of us were oddly calm, as if watching news report of some distant disaster. A pedestrian falling on sidewalk or a minor traffic accident produces as much apparent alarm. There was little talking, no screaming, no ?Oh the humanity.? Among some, a snow-day mood was evident. Perhaps we were unable to feel, unable to imagine what to feel, at seeing those clinging to the windows leap, or pass out, or simply fall, and tumble slowly to the ground. It takes a long time to fall so far - plenty of time to see who they are, wonder about what they might be thinking and wonder if they are frightened. At the scale of the WTC, a sense of unreality is a nearly seamless defense against horror. I don?t think any of us ? there weren?t very many at that spot, directly in front of the northern tower at the corner of John and Church ? heard or saw the second plane approach from behind the unharmed second tower. Certainly I didn?t. When the face of the second tower exploded it was flabbergasting ? there wasn?t the slightest hint until the glass and the metal facing ribs bloomed out riding the front of an immense fireball ? a mass of flame that seemed to form a roof across the whole plaza, closer the ground than the flames of the first tower, and immensely larger ? smaller than, but similar in scale to that of the buildings, which was almost geologic. We were at the corner of a side street two narrow blocks below the northern edge of the tower and no one had to be told to run, or which way ? there was nothing to hide behind. We sprinted, young and old. Several people fell, and those behind simply leapt over them, but the ugly panic one reads about wasn?t seen on that street. For everyone that leapt over or ran around, at least one other stopped. A tiny woman tried to pull a very fat black woman in a pink dress to her feet, hopelessly outmatched. I grabbed too and we hauled her up and drove her before us. Then an slender older woman sprawled face down a dozen feet ahead, not even struggling to get up. A man leapt over her and kept going. With the famous strength of panic, I simply grabbed her by the waist and literally set her on her feet screaming at her to ?run her ass off? and shoving her rudely. I could feel the mass of glass and steel coming after us ? the fireball seemed to stretch forever, but the debris never reached us. Every one made it safely to the corner. The second building was now in worse shape than the first. The destruction was slightly closer to the ground, about 2/3 of the way up, and the billowing flames enormous. The first building seemed only to smolder in comparison. Large quantities of material had been ejected from the building across the plaza. Firemen still streamed toward it ? brave men, for the second tower was raining glass, steel, people, and the contents of half a dozen devastated floors down on the plaza. Few people seemed to be coming out ? certainly not crowds. I was looking for the flood of people one sees when a baseball stadium empties; this was a trickle, no greater than the numbers of firemen converging on the doors. I went south again to the park at 1 Liberty Plaza behind the row of building that face the towers and screened them from view. Back at the southern edge of plaza it was instantly evident that it was not a bomb but another plane that had struck the tower: on the southern face of tower two was a clean, almost round hole six to ten stories high and wide that gaped on level with the blown out north and west faces. On opposing sides of the hole, tilted sharply from horizontal, were long slices where the wings had struck. There was nothing to be done to help ? hoards of firemen and police were arriving. There were few obvious injured ? bodies littered the plaza, but the officials outnumbered the fleeing. I moved back past Broadway, still directly opposite the towers, but behind a couple of blocks of buildings, watching the disaster from a distance. I chatted with a distinguished looking and confident man who pooh-poohed the idea that the tops might collapse. I told him I remembered the old west side piers that burned ? the steel looked like a mass of cooked spaghetti, but he was quite sure the WTC was built to withstand a fire. He said that much jet fuel might burn for hours. That much was believable. If there was to be a collapse, I pictured the tops falling off, like ice cream off a cone. Many people were horrified, but few were alarmed for themselves. Some still seemed almost gay, as if this, at last, was something really different. I decided to leave, and walked further back, across the island to Water street, still directly opposite the plaza, but half a dozen blocks away. The pedestrian walkway on the Brooklyn Bridge, a few blocks to the north, is the surest way to get across the East River. From Water Street, one could see the top third of the towers ? enough to see the northern tower burning. The burning portion of the Southern tower was obscured by buildings. Incredibly, cars and delivery trucks still drove in the direction of the towers, going about their ordinary business as if nothing out of the ordinary were occurring. A UPS driver honked, looking irritated, and turned West directly toward the WTC. For many more minutes I stood watching from there. A woman approached and we talked about the disaster and watched. She told me she worked at Goldman Sachs further downtown at 1 New York Plaza - directly across from my own home office, as it happens. Mostly we watched quietly. Then as we gazed at the most awful thing we?d ever seen, the southern tower simply sank from view; it didn?t fall over, it just sank. An immense plume of dust and smoked erupted in its place, but it immediately followed the tower below the buildings, sucked down as fast as it had bloomed to fill the vacuum left by the sinking building. The sky was clear where the tower had been. In seconds, far up John Street the mass of dust reappear as a solid wall rushing forward, filling the street, overtaking and instantly obscuring the pedestrians fleeing toward us. The air ahead of the cloud was crystalline, then people simply winked out as the cloud overtook them. The dust was so dense that it was as opaque as wallboard. The cloud came down the street like a piston, swallowing the terrified people fleeing it, coming faster than a car would travel. Attempting to outrun it was absurd, but that was most everyone?s instinct. Drivers stopped at the traffic light tried to cross the intersection, despite the blocked traffic ahead. Several of us beat on their hoods and yelled to stop them from blocking the intersection. Successfully, surprisingly: they drivers fled, not even closing their doors. When the cloud swept over the intersection, it was opaque, but only for a few minutes. And just around the corner the air was almost transparent again. I pulled my shirttail over my mouth and nose and shouted for people to come, and many did. We ducked into a garage where the air was breathable. In minutes it cleared sufficiently to see ten or twenty feet. I ran back out, and people were stumbling out of the obscurity choking and gagging. The radius of vision was only a few feet. I ran into the cloud, my face covered with my shirt. A pretty Asian girl wearing only her underwear ran into my view. She shrieked on meeting me in the gloom. She couldn?t be led, or even told ? she just shrieked and shrieked, recoiling from my approach and even my words. But in her fright she ran in the right direction, so I just let her go. Everyone was filthy, but her panic was exceptional. A few were stunned, but most were remarkably cool and understood instantly when told where to go. One woman, dusty white from head to foot, seemed genuinely puzzled and a little annoyed to be taken for someone who might be in need of directions. Very New York. It cleared rapidly ? mostly it was dust, not smoke, and it simply fell to the ground or blew away. A young man, maybe thirty years old, was also running around dragging people into lobbies and shops. We introduced ourselves ? he was Angelo ? and ran together up John Street into the cloud, toward whatever was left of the WTC. We stopped for a few seconds and he tore off the sleeve of his Tee shirt and gave it to me for a mask. The Tee shirt was hard to tear straight, so he opened his Swiss Army knife and cut it with scissors. We stopped again to loot an abandoned hotdog stand of a crate of cold Poland Spring bottled water, and carried it Jack and Jill style toward the towers. We opened the cooler and filled a milk crate with bottles. For an awkward moment I fumbled with some money to leave and Angelo laughed out loud. Along the way we passed out bottles right and left to crying choking people, or squirted their eyes clear and hustled them into doorways. Many were unable to see, their eyes caked with powder. People seemed not to think of the most obvious thing ? that it wouldn?t be so dusty inside and that the air would clear quickly. We made it back to the park at the Southwest corner. The water supply was gone twice over. Hotdog stands across the island suffered at our hands. At the park there were a dozen firemen and many pieces of equipment, windows smashed, doors hanging open. The firemen were just milling around dazed and leaderless. Some of their crew were missing; most were missing, gone into the tower, but some of those left behind with the equipment were said to be missing too. The park was piled with debris, dust and trash as high as the benches in some places, as high as the hoods of cars in others. The fire trucks and police cars were badly battered and windowless. The long stainless steel ribs that sheath the towers were scattered everywhere. They?re big, about sixteen inches square, and a dozen feet long: stainless steel sheet bent into a sleek cover for the vertical ribs of the building. It takes two hands to pick one up. The wind born debris had pushed most of the trees over to about 45 degrees. The stainless steel sheathing was piled in heaps along with tons of paper, steel and concrete. The dust was ankle deep in some places, feet deep in others, and everywhere, huge amounts of paper. Tons upon tons of forms, manuals, letters. Everything was under mounds of gray dust. A few firemen made a desultory attempt to look for their crews. They knew most had gone into the towers, but some were believed to be closer, perhaps buried, perhaps hiding or just separated. No one articulated these thoughts; the guys were just ?somewhere?. Angelo and I shouted and picked among the wreckage, calling for anyone who could hear us to make a noise, yell or bang, sing out. But there wasn?t a sound from the debris around us. On the south side of the park was an eight foot plywood construction fence in front of an old fashioned office building. Against it debris, paper and metal from the building were banked deeply, packing the areas between pushcarts and abandoned emergency vehicles, some with their motors still running. There used to be a narrow lane there, but you couldn?t tell beneath the debris. Everywhere it was deep enough to hide an injured or unconscious person. We couldn?t see the remaining tower at all, or even the edge of the plaza catty corner across the street. Just across the street the true rubble pile seemed to begin, but it was impossible to tell in the dust ? one seemed to see part of a building in the cloud, but only as a dark mass looming. The visible world was tiny ? only fifty or a hundred feet in radius. The first tower still hadn?t fallen, nor could we be certain that it would, but we were very aware of its presence in the gloom. We deployed ourselves under the assumption that it would fall. The first crash had demolished the park ? later it would be clear that it had damaged 1 Liberty as well, but the building had withstood the first, nearer tower?s collapse and it seemed an acceptably safe place to be should the second tower fall too. The remaining tower had burned near to the top ? it seemed unlikely to fall far enough from its base to land on us as a mass. Light from the fires filtered through, but only as a glow ? nothing was visible. The destruction around us made the danger of a second collapse clear enough. A young man, oddly clean and casual, walked down the lane by the park. Not looking for injured, or on some mission - just looking around, as if inspecting a piece of property. I shouted to him that the other tower could still fall, and that he mustn?t go in front, but instead stay shielded by the building, and yelled to him where to hide when it did: there was a head-high wall and a long colonnade of I-beams supporting the overhanging second floor of One Liberty, each column large enough for a person to squeeze in between the flanges and be shielded from debris from the front, and shattered plate glass from the side. But he pointed to the wall next to him as if it offered plenty of protection. Apparently he didn?t grasp that it was just the glass wall of the lobby, adjoining the front wall, also glass. Then he just shrugged and continued around the front of the building onto Church Street facing the towers. I didn?t see him again. I lost sight of Angelo. Seconds or minutes later the sliding, roaring sound of the second collapse began ? there was a deep trilling sound under it, like the rolling of a Spanish ?r?. It was the scraping sound that a dump truck of gravel makes when it unloads, but infinitely bigger. I dashed for the colonnade. There was no one else in sight, and no time to look around. Instantly darkness swept over from the plaza. It was inky black ? shockingly black to a city person, as black as a moonless night in the country. The roar of the collapse died down in seconds, but the air was so thick it seemed to resist motion through it. It fell so thickly that the air had weight. My shirt pocket got heavy with it in seconds. I started to draw a breath through the mask/respirator, which had somehow lost its patched up T-shirt filter, and I got a thick mouthful of ash and sand. I felt for the glass wall, inexplicably not broken, and felt my way down it to the revolving door, which was fortunately not jammed. Inside the triangular opening, light was faintly visible within. A few people were in the lobby, all of us panicky, but we determined that to stay was pretty safe, and to leave almost impossible until the dust settled. The last dust had become passable in minutes, but this was far thicker. But within five or ten minutes it was clear enough that an improvised T shirt mask enabled me to go outside with a bull horn and begin calling to people to come to the sound. But after several minutes no one had come. I literally stumbled over the dropped respirator and patched up the filter with more T-shirt. There was nobody to look for, and the North was impassible, so I headed south. It was still dark as night, although it was still mid-morning on a day of clear blue skies. Below the WTC on West street, a block below the covered pedestrian bridge across the highway, firefighters, police and emergency crews were gathering. The road ahead was blocked with scores of burning trucks and cars. Everything was deep in ash ? several inches covered the tops of cars and walls. Sporadic explosions of gas tanks and car tires made everyone jump. A man was walking around poking at suspicious lumps under the ash and marking those that appeared to be parts of bodies with traffic cones and tape. An office telephone, handset and all, lay in the dust, its lines spun round and round the sleeve a man?s sport jacket. A little later the man came and marked it with a cone, for the jacket turned out not to be entirely empty. Nearby one of the airplane wheels lay, tire and all, along with some of the attached gear, torn off in mid-axle. The tire was burst, but whole. Up the road, less recognizable if you hadn?t seen the whole one, lay another, bare of rubber and smashed. They must have come from the plane that hit the North tower. Pieces of sheathing, an airplane door and thousands of unidentifiable bits and pieces lay every where, blanketed by dust. In the middle of the highway is an underpass to nowhere ? it emerges again a hundred yards or so down town. Three policemen were shuffling down the road into it, kicking through the dust in line looking for a service pistol one of them had dropped when fleeing the flow of dust. A woman yelled down to them from the upper roadway to knock it off and go do something useful. The looked sheepish and left, despite the evident lack of anything to do until the burning wrecks were extinguished. It did look a little foolish. I waited an hour or two for the flames and dust to die down enough to do something useful, but they sprang up again, and again, and the adjacent building seemed in danger of collapse, so everyone moved further back. I killed time dragging some of the bigger chunks of sheathing out of the streets so vehicles would be able to pass, but it was pointless work. Little fires burned unattended all around. Window were blown out of the surrounding buildings to a height of perhaps twenty stories. The numbers of official relief people had grown to the hundreds and no prospect of doing anything useful appeared likely for many hours. Too much fire and smoke, and too many chunks of adjacent buildings still falling into the cauldron of the plaza and surrounding blocks. I headed up the street away from scene of the disaster. A couple of blocks away an old man was picking his way though the trash and debris. I had a last bottle of water in my pocket and I offered it to him. He said no thanks, he was fine, but could I direct him to an address on Liberty street. I laughed and said I didn?t think he?d have to go to work today, that everyone had gone home. But he told me he was a security guard there, and that it was necessary to report, especially now. He?d been there many years, but in all the smoke and trash he couldn?t find it. Neither could I. We had to ask a cop. 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 story836.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. 2002-06-27 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 216.101.119.200 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 when my husband called and told me to get to a t.v.. I alerted my co-workers and together we watched it happen in total disbelief. Needless to say no work got done that day. We watched in horror as one tower fell and then the other. I thought the world was coming to an end. I cried for days. Though no one I knew personally was involved I mourned for a long time. It is something I will never be able to erase out of my memory. God Bless all those who died and I thank all who was involved in the rescue effort. 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 story7559.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. 2002-09-15 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 152.163.188.6 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 home that day watching tv when the news came on. At first i couldnt believe my eyes!! I was in utter shock. I didn't know anyone that died in the sept. 11th attacks but my heart pours out to all who did lose someone they loved. This is a day in history that noone will ever forget. As i sat that day and every day after watching the news stories as everyone else did i felt a sense of peace and that of guilt. Maybe it was because i had not lost anyone but yet thousands others had. There are still many stories i had heard that day and after that i still wonder about. Some that i never heard another thing about. Today marks the 1year anniversary of the attacks and i feel more saddened today than i did then and i cannot explain it. All i can say is i could not imagine losing my family and i feel for all those who have. I mourn for people i have never knew and for their families. May GOD bless us all in our time of need. 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 story4028.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. 208.23.9.145 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 HOME GETTING READY FOR SCHOOL AND IT CAME ON THE THE NEWS IT WAS A BIG SHOCK TO SEE THAT SOME ONE OR SOMES OES OULD BE SO EVIL MY HEART GOES OUT TO THE FAMILIES 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 story6767.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. 152.163.188.6 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 first thoughts of Spetember 11 is that it was horrible that anyone would even do that. The first time I heard it I was in Language arts, our pictures had just been taken. Then we got the news. The Twin Towers had been destroyed. At first I was confused and my first thought was that it was unreal. A rumor. A year later, the damage has been cleaned up, the Pentagon rebuilt, but we will not forget those who gave their lives up, the innocent victims, and their families. Our Spirits will not be broken anymore and we will never give into Bin Laden and his followers! 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 story3068.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. 156.63.41.73