329 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 remember it being warm and perfectly clear out that morning. I had started out groaning about the rest of the week before me. I ended up smiling because i had my whole life ahead of me. I went to my first period Chemistry class, nothing different, and on to second period Today?s food class. We must have been secluded, because we had no idea what was happening outside of our little classroom at Northmont High School in Clayton, Ohio. No idea what was having the greatest impact, no only on mine and everyone?s life around me, but on every human life in the entire world. That?s a huge impact, but consider the impact that caused it. On to third period History to hear about the newest addition to the history of the rest of our life. Just towards the end of the class we had heard about the tremendous ?accident.? Soon we?d find out that it wasn?t an accident at all, but an intentional terror. Throughout class i was in?awe. I got to 4th period English just in time to see he second tower get hit. I?ve never seen the halls clear as fast as they had that day. Everything was awkward after that. Some people were crying around me, I had seen my teacher hug his wife. There were people just staring, they must have felt the way i did. We weren?t directly effected, but effected just the same as any one else that day. I didn?t know whether to cry for all of the people lost, the tragedy, to pray for the people still living with it, for hope, to smile because I'm still here, of gratitude. What was I supposed to do? Nothing like that had ever happened to any of us, we were still only kids! Well I didn?t have long to ponder what was in front of me, staring Americans hard in the face. I was called to the office to go home. i wondered a bit and went. I got outside to my mom and she told me that if we were going to die, then we were going to die together. By this time people in Dayton were packing up and going away because of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. It was rumored to be the 3rd most likely place to get strike, New York, D.C. then us! I don?t know if it was true even to this day, but if i had to believe that two planes had taken out the Twin Towers and another had hit the Pentagon, then I'd believe anything by now. So there I was at home with my mom, my little brothers and my step-dad. I looked at it as getting a day off, everything I was seeing on T.V. was like a movie to me. I had seen so many films with almost the same type of thing over and over. Watching the commotion, I fell asleep, not understanding the severity of the ordeal. I woke up from my nap and the only thing you could watch on T.V. were these two great towers crumbling to the ground and our nation?s capital burning to dust. The death toll climbing kept climbing past any ones estimations. I came to school the next day and everything seemed alive with chattering about the past day?s events and dead with grieving at the same time. So many people had stayed home to mourn the loss of their loved ones. The rest of us were still a bit shocked. I came back to first period Chemistry. It felt different. Like what if I weren?t sitting here, but i had been sitting in one of those offices. The girl next to me felt the same. We talked and she told me that her mom had been sent to New York on the first bus out since all of the airports were closed. I felt for her. I hadn?t lost anyone to the terrorist attacks, but she had to deal with it for over a month; she was just glad it wasn?t forever. I can?t blame her, think of how many people can?t say that. 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 story2038.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. 156.63.21.12 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 11th, 2001 was my first day ever as a substitute school teacher. I had signed up to teach for the Richardson Independent School District in Richardson, Texas and was assigned to the Christa McAuliffe Alternative School. This is the school where students who have become disciplinary problems are sent for a predetermined amount of time for corrective action. I wanted to be early and so I left my home in time to check into the office and introduce myself to the office staff. As a result, I had switched off NPR just moments before the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center and was not aware of anything until one of the other teachers came in and told me the second plane has just crashed into the New York landmark. I turned on the radio to hear of the explosion in Washington. At the time the location was unknown and the target was undetermined. The nation was in a state of panic. As televisions were turned on throughout the school, I witnessed the collapse of the two towers of World Trade Center. Stunned, I sat down at my desk with the radio still on and wrote out a long hand statement. Here is the transcription of those thoughts. Today, August 19, 2002, will be the first time I will have read them since I put pen to paper. These are the raw, unedited thoughts of that day on one common American. September 11, 2001 It is an incredible day today as I sit here watching & listening to the reports of the attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan & various building in Washington, D.C. I am substitute teaching at the RISD alternative school, the Christa McAuliffe Learning Center. This school is the last stop before jail for many of it?s students. It is very hard not to burst into tears right now. Both towers of TWC were hit by large aircraft that had been hijacked. Subsequently both towers collapsed entirely. There have been no estimates of the loss of life. But also a large aircraft was flown straight into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. All Federal buildings are being evacuated, all airports are being closed, all aircraft have been ordered to land at the nearest airport and the hijacked aircraft used in the attacks were all three commercial airliners with passengers & crew on board. The destruction is unbelievable. Both the World Trade Center towers were 110 stories tall and the loss of life will be in the thousands. A report of a third 50 story building in Manhattan in close proximity to TWC collapsing can only mean further injuries and fatalities. In addition, there are panic reports that other facilities in D.C. are being attacked but no confirmations. The student?s reactions here is odd at best. Some are overreacting as trouble teens might react; lots of boasts of ?Let?s go to war? and ?It?s the Palestinians? and other statements of bravery braggadocio. But they have no idea... no idea. The school is within a block of the local mosque & Richardson has a very large Muslim population. Concern that someone may be stupid and retaliate have been voiced but the school resource officer says the Police are on the highest alert for trouble. This is my generation?s version of Pearl Harbor. Hundreds if not thousands of lives are lost untold amounts of injuries will result. My God, what has happened today The President should be on the air after his return from Florida. No one knows what the reaction of the U.S. will be or against whom... no one knows. The footage of the collapse of both towers of TWC is nothing short of horrendous. Having been there (at TWC) , the size and magnitude of the disaster is overwhelming. The buildings are so close together and it is close to Wall Street and the ferries to the Statue of Liberty. It is just incredible, unbelievable and horrifying. I cannot imagine what the City of New York will like after this. The usually stoic New Yorkers can never be the same. TWTC was such a part of the NYC skyline that it is hard to think of city without them. Amazing, just amazing... Rumors are flying about closing the borders permanently (both Mexican & Canadian borders are closed today), going to war with the Middle East, stopping immigration. Unconfirmed reports say that several 4-star generals have been killed at the Pentagon and that other planes are still unaccounted for at airports. Several international flights have been diverted to Canada. What will happen? Is this related to the raids in Richardson? Will the 4th Amendment stay intact? What will our ?national policy? be? Just this morning, Don Imus was talking about our lack of policy and what should or could be done? No telling what will happen... and we are watching ?I Love Lucy? in class. The Galleria and all public/Federal buildings in downtown Dallas are closed. People are hunkering down wondering what is next... no one know... Later that day Reports now at about 2:30 p.m. say as many as 10,000 may have died in TWTC alone, not counting all the onlookers who were watching as the buildings collapsed. In addition, countless numbers of emergency workers & police officers were already on the scene of the 1st tower when the second plane impacted. It took less than an hour for the first tower to collapse and then 28 minutes later, the second tower groaned & came down top first. Seeing this on television gives a person almost a surreal sense that this cannot be real, Only in movies do we see entire building collapse with such catastrophic results. But unfortunately, this is real. But just hours later, it already feels distant. It happened this morning. Lives are going on, clean up starts but what happens next? Where does it go from here? How does a broken world get fixed? As one reporter said, ?Not since the Revolutionary War, have Americans been attacked on their own soil.? It is so hard to believe. It almost seems like a movie or a dream... These were my thoughts that day. Thanks for the forum and the archive. I hope someday that generations to come will have an opportunity to know what a turning point in United States history 9/11/01 was for America. My only question is... which way did we turn; for better or worse? Patrick E. Nance 757 James Drive Richardson, Tx 75080 972-644-9074 emswife@attbi.com DOB: 5/26/53 Age: 49 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 story1159.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. 12.237.122.194 Annotation Annotations to this item. Civil Liberties/Discrimination Economic effects Police Officers Rumors Students/Teachers U.S. retribution DOMESTIC Sep 11- Sep 21, 2001 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 to a phone call from my mother..."jared" she said "a plane has crashed into the world trade center"......i thought it was a sick joke...i turned on the news just in time to see the second plane hit....oh my god was all i thought.........we're being atacked!!! i began to worry about my friend chris who works in the city at a restaraunt...praying he was no where near the trade centers........my anger was ablaze at this point......how could anyone want to hurt innocent people for their own gain???? it's pointless......at work i found out that a few of my co-workers had lost family and friends during the terroris attacks....at around 10:00pm that night we all filed out of the building and gave a moment of silence for those brave men and women who risked and lost their lives for those who were trapped within......they are real american heroes....... it's now been a year since then and i haven't forgotten......my anger at those terrorists still very hot....my saddness for those who lost their lives still fresh........god bless the usa!!!! 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 story4512.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. 199.201.190.5 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 just arrived at my parents home after taking my 7-yr old son to school. My parents were sitting at the kitchen table in a trance. I asked what was wrong and all they could say was that we were under attack. I stood there for a minute as I heard the news of the first plane hitting the trade center tower, and bolted over to the school. I went to the front office and told them what was happening and that we should get the center open immediately to keep track of it (I am the school's PTO president for 3 yrs, so they know me well enough to know when I am serious about something.) We closed off part of the school library, when the cable/television is, and listened and watched in horror and we found out the Pentagon had been hit. By then several teachers had assembled as word spread and we made the decision to leave the kids in school, as a sense of normalcy for little children was best, and that we would keep it quiet so that they wouldn't hear us talk until we knew more. I remember watching with a group of teachers and the principal, and saying, "Oh, my God, get those people out of there. The buildings going to fall." I remember seeing the second plane fly into the building, watching in horror and disbelief. And I remember the buildings coming down, the screaming in the room and the instant panic and fear we all felt - a total helplessness that we wanted to do something and couldn't. Then we found out one of the teachers had a husband who was supposed to be on a flight to California from Boston, and she couldn't reach him. We all got together and prayed, and one of the other teachers filled in for her while she stayed with us and we all kept trying on our cell phones until we could reach him. Thankfully, he was safe. Unfortunately, one of the parents who works at the school for "Parents Making a Difference" lost four family members who worked at the towers. I personally knew two people on Flight 11 - one a sister of a friend from the country club I have gone dancing at for the last 15 years; one a girl who grew up helping her daddy in his law office while he would handle some real estate closings for me. I also have relatives and friends who are both firemen and policemen, so the toll was enormous. All I could do was hug my son (which the school was good enough to let me do at lunch). I bought flags for school teachers, and I personally made the red/white/blue ribbon pins for every student, teacher, staff, custodian and kitchen worker in the school (a total of 942 pins), then gave them out free to everyone. I spent the next week hanging out with him and my parents. I have always been a "toucher" by nature, but now I make it a point to always tell the people in my life - my family and friends - how much I love them and appreciate having them in my life. We don't know what tomorrow will bring, so let those we love know and never have to be left wondering. I think Alan Jackson's "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning" sums up my feelings best. I cry yet every time I hear it, as it sums up every emotion I feel. I only hope the people responsible find out when they go to visit their "God" that he doesn't want murderers there, and they burn forever for their acts. That would be the best justice. 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 story6238.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. 66.152.236.81 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 Sept. 11, 01 I was on my way to the Hudson County Courthouse in Jersey City, NJ to appear before Judge M. Gallipolli for a trial call. I remember sitting on Routes 1&9 in traffic being annoyed at the backup and prosepect of being late for court. As I sat, I looked up and noticed that one of the Word Trade Center Towers was on fire. I then became more annoyed as I believed the traffic was due to rubbernecking at the distant blaze. At approximately 8:50am I called the Court to advise them that I would be a little late for trial. After getting off the phone, I looked up and noticed a plane flying near the Tower that was smoking. I thought to myself, "Wow, that's odd that traffic control would allow a commercial plane to fly so near a burning building." As I watched in disbelief, I saw the plane approach the Tower, circle behind it, disappear, and moments later witnessed an incredible ball of fire. Then I thought, "Wow, an explosion! I hope the plane didn't get caught in the blast." It did not occur to me as I witnessed the plane deliberately fly into the Tower that the plane was the cause of the explosion. My mind simply could not process such an unthinkable horrific act. After arriving at the courthouse I stood with other attorneys looking out a window at the blazing Twin Towers as people jumped in desperation from the blaze, praying that my aunt who rode the PATH trains to the World Trade Center every day was not on a train when the Towers were struck. I then watched in horror and dismay as the first Tower collapsed and then was informed that the Pentagon was struck by a plane. At that time, nothing seemed more important to me than the safety of my family, friends and loved ones. Life and my place in it took on a new meaning - an easier stride. May all those who lost a loved one be comforted in the bossom of our Creator who is the ultimate Comforter and all Merciful. Peace & Blessings to All Sonji A. Moore, Esq. Lanham, Maryland 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 story3110.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. 68.48.133.32 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 may only be 15, and live in Canada, but Spetember 11th hit me very hard. I unfortunatly remeber it like it was yesterday. I woke up at 7:45am to get ready to go to school, it was a very sunny day and i guess i was kinda looking forward to going to school that day, after sitting in class being bored, one of the janitors walked in, and asked to speak with my teacher, after a few moments he returned and told the class he had to tell us something very important. Me being the kinda of person that I wam i figured that he was saying we had a PA day or something. Soon enough the time came to go for lunch, and just before we left, our teacher said, "Today around 9:30am, the World Trade Centers in New York, were hit by planes, also the Pentagon in Washington." I was kinda really shocked at how someone could do this, but i wasent really sure what they were. as soon as i got home for lunch, i turned on the tv and went to an american station i got, as soon as i turned on the tv i saw horror.. buildings collapsing people injured or dead, adn i told my brother to turn around cause it was to much for him to take and understand. when i ogt home from school that i day i followed the story all day and night until they stopped showing it, it hit me hard because i couldnt imagine how people could this, its absoulutly discusting how they could take the lives of other and not care. i cried almost everytime i saw it, and even al ther years following it i cried im so sorry for everyone who lost a relative, my deepest sympathies go to you and your familys God Bless 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 story10784.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. 2004-09-05 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 67.71.18.203 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 just begun my day as a City of Milwaukee Parking Enforcement Officer. I was in the process of issuing my first citation, when a man shouted, "How can you give us a ticket when they just attacked the World Trade Center again". I immediately turned on my radio and tuned in. Hearing the news, I couldn't believe my ears. I then called everyone I knew in Milwaukee, Chicago and New York. My New York friends who worked in the Trade Center were ok. Just arriving to work 115 floors below, in the mall basement, they immediately left the area and headed towards China Town. Everyone else was okay too. Throughout the day, I had to depend upon my own radio for information. My employer, the City of Milwaukee, Parking Enforcement unit, didn't give us any information, no cautions, advisories or warnings. It was to be business as usual in parking enforcement. Working in Downtown Milwaukee offered numerous targets and a bit of caution might have been helpful. Getting sent to the Firstar Bank Building, our tallest office building, at 42 stories was immediately surrounded. The tunnel under a part of the building was sealed. Guess who got to go ticket and tow all of the suspicious autos surrounding the tower? Yes, it was I. Not the police or fire dept, but just a regular guy, an unarmed, unprotected parking Officer. Well, all went well and uneventfully, I am still here, and proud to be an American serving in Government. The rest of my day was full of both grief, awe, and hate. My first stop during every visit to New York was a trip to the top of The World Trade Center. It was a view that could never be duplicated anywhere else. I will miss that view, the ride to the top of 2 WTC and more importantly, those who perished. It was and still is like loosing a dear, dear friend and family member. I hope in time that the buildings will be replaced exactly as they once proudly stood. Both as a sign of strength, defiance and as a living Memorial to all those who perished 11, September, 2001. That would be a true fitting memorial. Let those who perished and were never recovered, guide and protect the New World Trade Center and their employees. For through rebuilding and recovery, their names, lives and memories will live on. Everyone died a little bit on 11, September, 2001. Now we need to move on and rebuild and remember! Edward J. Fleury Milwaukee, Wi. The United States of 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 story4644.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. 209.240.198.62 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 sept 11 2001, I was woke up, by my husband to the terrible news of a plane crashing into the first tower! We watched the whole terrible terrible episode unfold. My husband was diagnosed on aug 10 of aml luekemia. We were right in the middle of trying to get him into remission and get him ready for a bone marrow transplant. On this particular day my husband was at the point in his treatment when we went to his oncologist to check his counts and on this day he needed platelets because of the chemo he had only a count of 6. For people who dont understand what I am saying, a normal platelet count is over 150. Platlets keep you from bleeding to death so very necessary! We showed up to the hospital to get his I.V. of platelets and we were told by the hospital that all the blood and platelets were all being shipped to new york because of the tragedy. It was the sadest day for new york and very scary for my husband and I. It ended up that the doctor made the hospital get him some platelets from the red cross. This sounds really funny but, on this day, I didnt feel so alone with our problem, because there was so many people suffering as we were! Danette Roan 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 story6973.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. 2002-09-13 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 4.63.184.247 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: hello everyone, my name is donnie holmes. i am a arff firefighter in birmingham alabama with a government contracted company located at the the birmingham international airport. on september 11th 2001, i as many other firefighters and just made it to the fire station to make it another go round on shift. little did i know that everything that i thought was normal would suddenly be shaken off course. i had just cheched my crash truck off for the day that i was assigned to and sat down at the kitchen table for a bite to eat. as i was changing stations on the kitchen tv i stopped at a local channel to marvel at the news bulletin showing what fdny was b shifters were having to battle as they came on shift. to my surprise i heard the news reporter state that an aircraft hit the towers. in a minute of shock i left the kitchen and got on our station p.a. system and yelled the news to my fellow crewmen of the crash. as everyone of my partners poured into the dayroom we all stood in amazement as the pictures kept getting replayed over and over. the hardest part of watching the events unfold for us as many other firefighter watching was the feeling of helplessness as the towers crumbled down. due to our fire department being part of a government employed aircraft refurbishing company, we were placed on a state of heightened alert and all of our taxi ramps where blocked off and all shifts were called in. my heart goes out to everyone that lost a loved one in this horrendous attack on our country. may god bless everyone in our country and those abroad that are fighting to continue our priveledged freedom. donnie r. holmes firefighter/emt pemco fire crash rescue 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 story1024.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. 2002-08-15 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 129.174.27.149 Annotation Annotations to this item. Firefighters DOMESTIC Notes Notes about this item. From: Donnie Holmes <fireguy456@yahoo.com> Date: Tue Jul 9, 2002 10:19 pm Subject: Re: [Fire_EMS_Instructors] Digital Archive - EMS Responds and Remembers 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 this same day last year I was working in the Office of the Provost, The University of Texas at Arlington. Needless to say, this event was quite a shock. I have friends, both on and off campus, that relocated here from New York who did their best just to function that day. Perhaps being so far away from New York, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon was the reason I did not react more emotionally than I did. Don't misunderstand me, I was upset, in fact, I was downright angry over the loss of physical life; upset over the loss of way of life; and upset over the loss of beautiful buildings. Angry because someone had the audacity to commit such brutal acts of murder. America has always taken in those that came to our country, irregardless of race, creed, religion. We opened our arms to those who willingly and freely came to us. There is a saying in Texas to those who litter our roadsides - "Don't Mess with Texas." Well, right now to those who planned, initiated, carried through, and celebrated the terrorists' actions on September 11, 2001, Perhaps we should say: "Don't Mess with America. We are united. We are proud. We are resolved to do whatever we have to do. Make no mistake, we will do 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 story2867.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. 129.107.49.125 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: My name is Scott. At the time of September 11th, I was a Deck Seaman aboard the USS Benfold(DDG-65), fresh off our secopnd visit to Hawai'i and was three days away from the end of our six month deployment. I awoke early(as all sailors at sea do)to get some chow so I could relieve the helmsman watch on the bridge. Exactly one half-hour after revielle, the plan of the day is relayed over the 1MC(PA) system. What was intresting this time was the XO(Executive Officer, Second in Command) coming on saying that they are getting confirmation on an event. The XO doesn't give briefs on the 1MC, especially in the morning. I don't remember his words exactly, but I do remember him telling us it was the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon and that another plane was down in Pennsylvania, my home state. Needless to say, we were all dismayed. My first thought was "They finished the job", thinking of the terrorists that tried and failed the first time in '95. My thoughts drifted to retaliation, since this target killed thousands, which is an act of war. Most of us wanted to go home, but after hearing the news with our ship full of missles we didn't shoot, a great deal of us wanted to turn back. And we knew only one guy could have done it. Soon after that, they receieved a video from the Constellation(the carrier we were attached to) of feed from CNN that showed what happened. We just couldn't believe it. Later on, I had to take some reports to the Captain that day and he asked me how I was doing. I said,"Sir, I am just sad that someone attacked our country, Sir". He said with determination "We will avenge". We sadly didn't turn back. We went home on September 15th as planned to a foggy San Diego. It felt odd. All we got was a plastic "lei" around our ship, which signifies the end of our deployment, our "Welcome Back Home" greeting. Except this time, no one was there on the pier to greet us with happiness. Later on, I felt such warmth. I got to go out into San Diego and what did I see? I saw so many homes, so many storefronts filled with American flags. Back in the Gulf, during those long hot days, I wondered what would make Americans proud again. I knew. A war that we could morally stand behind. I am sorry that is what it took, but I haven't felt more patriotic since that time. 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 story9434.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. 2003-08-24 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 192.156.5.35 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: The date 9-11-2001 I woke up at the usual time which is six o,clock in themorning. INstead of going staight to the shower like I normaly do in the morning to wake my self up, something told me to go down stairs. That's when I saw my mom watching the television with a look I never seen her use before. It was a combination of shock and fury on her face. At first I did not reallise what was on the TV. Until I saw one of the Trade centers full of smoke. During this they were not sure if it was a flying accident or terrorism. Looking at the pricture I felt sorry for all the pore souls htat were in the building as well as the souls that were on the plane. Yet with all what I was seeing I was not showing it on my face or my attitude, which really shocked my mother. She felt that I should be Hysterical about what I was seeing just like the way she was acting. Eventually I went to school in my history class with all my fellow students as soon as we entered the class we started watching what I was already wathcing at home. In school people either looked shocked and worried, or calm and cool like the same way I looked at home. Then I saw it in history class dthe second plane crahing straight into the other trade tower, and at that moment I knew that it was a terrorist act. I still looked the same like as though nothing has happened, yet I knew that more information would come. Idiots I said to myself they did all this and they could not even knock one building down with one of our own planes. I was very impressed with the structure of the Twin Towers how they were able to take a direct hit from a plane and still stand. Not knowing that soon the first Twin Tower would soon fall. I thought that this shows more of the Americans strength than it's weekness. Soon I saw the first Tower fell it was like a building was being swallowed up by a giant fire cloud, like hell itself rose from the ground to swallow the hard work of America. I heard many gasps from all my fellow students, many of which were the young ladies in the room. I could not blaim them for the way they felt. Even with all that Hd happen I never saw one person in the entire school cry from what they saw. Yet I believe that anger ahd more control over all of us than sorrow did. I was thinking a little bit after that if they took two planes they may have taken more. Almost as soon as I heard this I heard the report about the Pentagon being hit with a plane. That is what had happen to that day. 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 story8269.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. 2002-10-02 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 209.79.72.175 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 filling in a form for acceptance of my welfare payemnts commitments and reading the latest news on Teletext when a report flashed up in yellow on the page I was reading "Plane crashes into World Trade Centre. More soon". I had to admit that I didn't know what the World Trade Centre was until six minutes later when every terresital channel dropped their schedules and joined their own 24 hour rolling news network. I saw the second impact, the reports from the Pentagon, both collapses and President Bush's live statment all in a state of absolute unbelievabiltiy at what had happened. In fact it was until the end of that week that what had happened finally sunk in. 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 story9811.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. 194.217.194.138 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: Escape From The 80th Floor September 11, 2001 As I told my husband, I truly never expected to add "survival of a terrorist attack" to my resume. My company was located on the 80th floor of One World Trade Center, the north tower close to ground zero. When the plane struck the building it felt exactly like an earthquake. The only advanced sound was a large windful swoosh. At first we had no idea if it was a bomb or the building had been struck. The mayor was correct when he talks about the toughness of New Yorkers. It was amazing how calm, supportive and helpful everyone was throughout the day. Here's my personal account of the day. It began as any ordinary workday. My husband dropped me at the Dover, NJ train station and I caught my usual 5:47 AM to Hoboken. It has always been my habit to get to work early. I like those quiet early morning hours in the office. Once in Hoboken it was a quick run down the stairs to the Path Train and a 10-minute ride to the World Trade Center complex. Lately I had begun to walk up the stairways and even the one long escalator to the shopping mall level. As a Baby Boomer it had become important to me to get in better physical shape. At the top of the escalator I walked over to the Fine and Shapiro Deli. One large flavored coffee to go please. I love their cinnamon flavored coffee but there wasn?t any this day and I settled for Vanilla Almond. Immediately upon leaving the deli I passed an Asian grandfather who walked with a limp. I never knew his name but he always boarded my train at the Summit stop and it had become our laughing habit to wave at one another or sometimes to even stop and speak to each other as we re-met every morning outside the deli. I remember we only wished each other a ?good day.? I continued walking past the flower kiosk and admired the sunflowers and lilies. The flowers were beautiful but I remember thinking always too expensive for my budget. On past the Gap and checking out the windows to see the latest in their fall fashion offerings. On past Banana Republic and the American Caf?, into the revolving door and out onto the first floor of tower one pulling out my building pass as I walked. I looked up to see an elevator with it?s doors open in bank one and rushed ahead to slap my ID on the electronic reader and push through the turnstile and into the elevator thinking how happy I was that I didn?t have to wait extra minutes as there were only a few elevators available in this bank. Two had been out of service for over 6 months as renovations were taking place and one had been commandeered for the use of Windows on the World for the past month or so. Here visitors to the 107th floor received escort service. It strikes me now that I never paid much attention to how long the elevator ride took, it always seemed like minutes but it may have been less than a minute. The doors slid open onto the 78th floor lobby and I along with other passengers moved onto the next level of elevator banks to get to floors 80 to 107. Those going to the 79th floor took an escalator. It was now 7:15AM and there was already trade center personnel manning lobby posts and waiting for the visitors who would be shepherded to the top floor for a risk management conference. A co-worker reminded me, that we had been working to get a speaking spot at this conference. The coincidences of the day still amaze me. The door to the second bank of elevators slid open and I stepped out onto the 80th floor. Two other passengers continued to higher floors as the doors slid closed. I think about them and wonder if they also made it out. I stooped down to collect our copy of the Wall Street Journal and moved down the hall through our office door at my company TheBEAST and into the reception area. We had recently installed an electronic clock-in system and I punched in my employee number to register my attendance. The clock read 7:16 AM. As I moved through the office on my way to my desk, I waved to Jerry Sabbagh and Luke Liotti, two fellow workers monitoring our server farm. I went to my desk and booted up my computer and began my workday. As other co-workers came into this side of the office (which we had dubbed the West Wing) we said hello to one another. Jeff Borenstein one of our sales staff who suffers from MS, Josephine Buonaguro another marketing staff member planning a December wedding, Carl Carrie our President and CTO who had recently recovered from two broken wrists, Geoff de Lesseps our CEO, Peter Rushing our resident Power Point guru, Kim White Sales Administrator and Sharon Premoli our EVP of Strategic Partnerships and Alliances. I know others were also arriving on the other side of the office; our official list includes a number of our technologists. I later found out that the exact count was 16 of us on the floor when the plane struck. Jo stopped by my desk to comment on how we were both wearing the color red. We had an ongoing joke about the power color of the day being the one color most employees were wearing on any given day. Pete and I had a discussion about changes to be made to a presentation that Geoff needed before 9AM. I picked up a research survey and headed to the copy machine. The copier was on the interior of our side of the office just outside Sharon?s office. I stepped over to speak briefly with her. She?d recently lost of pair of reading glasses and I wondered how she was making out. Had she found them, did she have to get them replaced? I walked around the corner to see how Pete was doing and he commented that he was just about finished. Later I would learn that he had just hit the save button when all hell broke loose. I walked back towards the copier when we heard the almost silent swoosh of wind, followed by a loud thunderous ka-boom, and the building shaking under our feet as if an earthquake had rippled by. Ceiling tiles fell and both Sharon and Carl ran into the hallway. We felt as if something had hit the building but everyone thought about the potential of a bomb. No one thought about a plane being used as a bomb. I headed for my office intent on grabbing my purse. Only a few months earlier I had complained loudly about the fact that a fire alarm had been installed directly over my desk and the matching strobe light on the opposite wall. I kiddingly told everyone that if there were a fire someone would have to come and get me because I would be both deaf and blind from the alarms going off. One of the sales staff had joked back that they would tie a rope around my ankles and extend it to the fire exit where there would be a sign that read, ?in case of emergency pull this rope.? But the alarm didn?t go off immediately. Other than our own voices, it was amazingly quiet. We heard no screams or further explosions. The office did fill with smoke within a minute or two and our personnel headed for exits. A hallway wall that had been pushed in blocked the way out from the northeast hallway that led from the front door of our office. We believe now it may have been part of the plane that pushed the wall in. It would also account for why the elevators would have filled with flame and smoke so quickly. I wonder if they knew that and aimed on purpose for that side of the building. It may have saved our lives. We exited into a stairwell and started what we thought was a long climb down 80 flights of stairs. We got only as far as the 77th floor when we came up against a locked door. As we discussed options, the smoke started to get thicker. I was incredulous and frustrated. How could a damn door be locked in what was meant to be an escape route? I used my scarf to cover my mouth and nose. I heard a commotion behind me and heard people saying someone with a key was coming through. We stepped aside our hopes rising. The key made no difference, the door was jammed shut. We were ushered into the Port Authority office on the 78th floor. There was no smoke here and we could breathe. We were told they were looking for another way out and we should go into any one of the empty conference rooms along the south west side of the building. We asked if we could turn on the TV and use the phones. I turned to look at the television to see the exterior of our building. I could hear that our building had been hit by a plane. No mention of a terrorist attack. As I turned to watch some of my fellow co-workers making phone calls, there was a second ka-boom, the building shook again and debris started hitting the windows. I thought some part of the plane or some part of the building that had been hit by the plane had exploded and debris was sliding down from the floors above us. I would later learn it was a second airplane diving into the other tower and it was debris from that explosion hitting the windows. I advised people to move back into the interior of the office and away from the windows. Thank God they never shattered. We left the TV and so never saw or heard any more about what was happening. It struck me later that at that moment I only had one fleeting thought that perhaps we were stuck on the 78th floor and I might not get out. I immediately dismissed that thought and just knew I wasn?t going to die there. Within 5 or 10 minutes we were advised that another route out had been found. I would learn later that another coincidence of the day was ending up in the Port Authority office as they had all the keys to all the stairwell doors. One of them would lead us out. We moved to the opposite side of the office forming a single file line. I could see Carl, Sharon, Lee, Angela, Kim and Leslie ahead of me. I expected to move immediately into a stairwell and was surprised that it was a hallway. As we turned the corner we entered a second hallway where one of the employees from the office we had just left was hosing down the ceiling above our heads. You could see where they had put out a fire and where it was starting up again. Ceiling tiles lay at our feet and smoke was still filtering through the gaping ceiling as we ducked down to get under wires hanging loosely from the ceiling and then ducked under the hose and sloshed our way to the stairwell. This is what I mean by the spirit of New Yorkers. It is because of the initiative of these Port Authority employees that we got out. We started down. I started to pray that none of my co-workers were in the elevators on their way up when the plane struck. We didn?t pass any other building personnel, firefighters or police. I assumed that the flames and smoke shooting down the shafts from the explosion of the plane?s fuel on impact had immediately knocked out all the elevators. I knew that the only method for getting up or down now was the stairs and 80 flights is a long way whether you?re going up or down. The calm of the people around us as we walked down was amazing. People who had been hurt or were having a problem getting down were being assisted at every point. When congestion slowed us to a stop no one shoved or made a scene we all waited patiently until we could move again. People passed information up and down the line to try and keep people informed about what was happening and those with blackberries sent as many emails as they could for folks around them as none of our cell phones worked. I was about a third of the way down and we had come to a point where we were stopped for a few minutes when I heard my name called out. I turned around and saw Jo and Peter about a flight and ? behind me. Jo asked if I wanted Peter to send an e-mail to my husband. I was so glad to see some of my co-workers as we had become separated when we left the Port Authority office. I reached a stairwell landing and stepped aside to wait for Jo and Peter to catch up. I would later suspect that doing this saved my life. We sent Roger an e-mail. I realized he probably wouldn?t be logged onto our home computer but I couldn?t remember his work e-mail. His address was always just a click in my work computer?s email address book. I pulled out my palm pilot and looked it up. We sent a second message. He would only see them after I was out and had spoken with him by phone. We finally got out of the smoke when we hit the 35th floor. It felt great to breathe fresh air and lifted everyone's spirits. We had been walking down for a little over ? an hour at this point. Peter took my book bag and Jo mother-henned me into taking off my jacket. We could feel the heat in the stairwell. Peter continued to offer to send e-mails for those around him. Jo always asking if I was ok and reassuring me, I thought, how strange, she?s younger than I am and I?m really not afraid. Perhaps I don?t look as tough as I feel. At this time, we also started running into building personnel. One young black man standing at the back of a stairwell landing advising everyone to be careful, hang onto the handrail, don?t slip because an injury would mean you?d have to be carried out. He told us that; ?God loved us and would see us through this. He was with us and we would get out.? We shared a smile. I doubt he ever made it out. I thought to myself, ?you sound like one of God?s angels, sent to reassure us that we were not meant to die this day.? Around the 27th floor we ran into firefighters climbing up. I can't imagine what it must have been like to walk up that many flights with all the gear they had. They looked so winded at that point. I doubt that they made it out before the building collapsed and my prayers and thoughts are with them and their families now. By the 7th floor, the stairwells were flooding with water from what we assumed were the firefighting efforts or maybe building sprinklers that had gone off. I looked down at my feet and the water was ankle deep. The stairs became even more slippery and we clung to the handrails. I felt one moment of panic when I thought, ?would these stairs hold up under all this human and water weight?? And then a feeling as if someone had squeezed my shoulder and whispered in my ear, ?you are going to survive this, do not be afraid.? I was immediately calmed. We continued trudging down. We were feeling buoyant when we hit 3 and thought we're almost out of here. It had taken us a little over an hour to get this far. But the adventure it seems was far from over. At that point, as we learned later, building 2 collapsed and hit our building. Once again it felt like a bomb had gone off as the building shook again and there was this tremendous whoosh of air that almost knocked us off our feet. At that point the lights went out. We were pulled into some sort of vestibule until the air had calmed. Jo and I clung to each other until the noise from debris falling had stopped. Jo always reassuring me that we?d be ok, we?d get out. I believed her. I knew that by waiting for Jo and Pete I had just missed being on one of the lower floors now covered in debris. There was so much debris that our way out was blocked. I remember thinking there is no way I walked down 77 flights to die 3 floors from safety. There was a fireman on this floor with us. He advised us that he was going to look for another way out. Someone passed up a flashlight and he and another person moved through the vestibule and down a hallway. We heard there was no way out we?d have to go up. We formed a human chain each person hanging onto the person in front of them and in back of them. We climbed back up to 4. No way out. We were advised to climb another flight. I hung back and said no, it?s the wrong way, we have to go down not up. Then the news came up the line to turn around, come back to 3, a firefighter has found a way out. We clung to each other as we followed the person in front of us and moved toward the flashlight we could see ahead of us. The firefighter had punched a hole in the wall to get us out. We made our way out into the 3rd floor rotunda in the dark. We got our first glimpse of what looked like a war zone. We walked through ankle deep dust and I remember thinking that I was disgusted that my shoes were going to be ruined. I loved them and they were fairly new. Then I heard my husband?s voice in my head telling me that was the last thing I should be worried about and I could always get new ones. We followed the directions of rescuers telling us to hug the wall and walk toward the flashlights. We were directed through a doorway that led into the outside plaza in front of the US Customs building. As we were directed to a stairwell leading to street level we climbed over girders and moved around office furniture and layers of office papers, twisted metal, broken glass and other debris. I remember thinking it was too much debris to be just from the top of our building. We still didn?t know that the south tower had collapsed and with all the smoke and floating ash we couldn?t see that it was no longer standing. I still can?t quite picture exactly where we were despite the fact that I walked through that plaza almost daily at lunchtime. Nothing looked like it used to. By now we were wet and covered in this ash. People all looked like their hair had turned pre-maturely gray. We were told to walk quickly up the street. By now my eyes were burning and I couldn?t see anything because I had so much dust in them. A man came up and told us there was an ambulance on the next corner where I could get my eyes washed out and he started walking us towards it. Just as we got there, it drove away. He left us and Jo and I walked another block where we found a truck giving away bottled water. He handed me one and I upended it into my eyes and washed them out. We turned around and saw Geoff de Lesseps and Jeff Borenstein walking towards us. Then we saw Pete who we had been separated from when the lights went out. He had helped a woman who was having trouble walking to get out. Within minutes of getting out (we now know it was no more than 4) we heard a rumble, turned to see our tower begin to collapse and a large cloud of black moving up the street. We ran. I don?t know how many blocks we covered before we couldn?t see the cloud chasing us. We slowed to a walk and I tried my cell phone. It took a few tries and I thought, I won?t be able to get through and Roger and Steve won?t know I?m alive. Finally, the phone rang and I heard my husband say ?hello.? ?I?m out, I?m ok.? Oh, God it?s a miracle he cried, where are you?? I thought he meant what street are you on and I tried to find a street sign. We continued to talk reassuring each other. I told him I needed to save the phone battery and I?d keep checking in to let him know what I was doing. Geoff got stopped 3 times by press to be interviewed. We finally came to a small corner park and stopped to see if we could find any of our co-workers. We made calls and started a list, one column for those we knew were out and safe because they weren?t due in the office that day, vacations, business travel, trade shows, doctor?s appointments and one for those we didn?t know anything about. As Jo reached her mother, the offer of an apartment on 23 west 10th street came and we began to walk up. We spent the better part of the rest of the day in that apartment on 10th street, calling around to track down the rest of our co-workers. By Thursday we would know that all 65 employees were safe and sound and we owed God our thanks. At 3PM Pete and Jo?s mother went for pizza. We discovered that all the ATMs and credit card machines had been shut down and the only place open were a few pizza shops. Nothing ever tasted as good. At 3:30 PM we got news that trains were running from Penn station. Kendra who had come across town to join us, Pete and I walked up to 6th Ave and took a bus up to 32nd Street. We got off and walked up to Penn. I looked up at the board to see that the 4:07 PM was delayed. I was tired and itchy at this point. By 4:30PM they announced a gate and like salmon we swam towards the gate and down the stairs to the platform. The cars, aisles and doorways filled up quickly. I couldn?t get on and for the first time felt frustration. I had to get on the train; there might not be another one. I turned and ran down the length of the train in the opposite direction until I found a doorway with enough room to squeeze through. I walked into a car and sat down. The train was packed, standing room only and would take almost 2 hours to get from New York to Dover. As we pulled into the Chatham station I saw people in hazardous jumpsuits and boots. One lady, accompanied by a man got on with a bag marked hazardous materials and sat down right next to me. I turned around and saw a lot of empty seats and thought, ?why me?? I stood up and changed seats. I?d had enough adventures for one day. I would later learn that the bag was full of clothes of people who had been in the WTC incident. The rumor was there might have been some kind of chemical (like anthrax) on the plane. I was met first by the local and state police and then by my family, Steve, Kim and Roger at the Dover train station. I had to be interviewed by the police. ?Had I seen anyone celebrating on the bus or train?? No, everyone was very sober, thoughtful and sad. Finally, I got to go home. It is surely by God's miracle alone that I got out. I am grateful to be alive and grateful for my family and friends who prayed for me that day. Amazingly, I never felt afraid and I believe that was because I truly felt God's hand upon me. It was not my time and I'm sure he heard all the prayers on my behalf. I feel sadness for the families and friends of those who have not been found and I add my prayer now to those of others from around the world. I'm not sure what is next. But for now smelling the flowers is just fine with me. 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 story1514.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. 2002-08-28 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 12.3.88.200 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: On September 11th 2001 I was preparing for my best friends wedding that day and had to make a run into a local Meijer to pick up odd and ends I will never ever forget the masses of people that were standing infront of the display of T.V's people were crying and holding one another and then did I finally realize what was going on. I dont think my eyes blinked for not even a second,I was watching a man shaking his head when the second plane flew into the second tower my heart dropped and I began to cry. The horror of what I was watching was enough to cancel the wedding and I remained glued to the T.V I have no family in New York but I could feel the pain countrywide. We have begun to put the pieces back together but to the familes of those who had loved ones in any of the places we are remembering today my heart will always and forever go out to you. To the Unsung Heros who never hesitated to save another human life regardless of what danger they had to face,every night You are also in my prayers. God bless everyone on this awful day. 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 story4906.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 64.12.96.8 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I heard of the World Trade Center attacks while I was online doing research. Went to the living room to see what the news was talking about and then saw the second plane hit Tower 2. Still can remember me reaction "Oh S- - -" Called my wife at work to make sure she was okay, since she work on E 26th Steet off of 5th Avenue. Told her I was okay and was scared for her. Took a quick ride over to Ft. Hamiliton Garrison since Grandmother needed some things from the Commissary that's when I learned that the Pentagon was hit, more dispbelief that America was hit yet another time. Had the opportunity to drive two (2) female soldier home that were shopping at the Ft. Hamilton Commissary, DID NOT take any money from them to take them home, it was at least I could do for someone in the Armed Forces of the United States, after all serving our nation at a time of Nation disaster. All that day tried to get my wife on the phone to make sure that her and her coworkers were okay, found out later on all were present and accounted for. For a good part of the time had to call my in-laws in California in order to call my wife in Manhattan (right accross the East River from Brooklyn). I was so happy once my wife wallked off the train several hours after she left work and had to walk from E. 26 Street in Manhattan to the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a sad day also, since family friends had lost family members in the Twin Towers and it was not a pleasant feeling going to the wake. I am grateful for the many people who got out alive. I am grateful for all the Firefighters, Police, AMbulance Workers, Volunteers who worked at Ground Zero for so many days and months in the search and rescue. For Fr. Judge giving his life ministering to the Firefights that day. It is still hard to watch the images on television, hard because so many lost their lives. God Bless America and Our Troops here at home and overseas for the job they are doing. 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 story1647.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. 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: On the day of september 11 i was walking into class and i saw the tv on the news showing one of the twin towers on fire i thought they were showing somthing from a bombing in 1991 so i thought nothing of it.Went to second peroid my geoghraphy teacher he told us all about it. So we are just watching it and my teacher is pretty worried cause he has family up there and so did I. The class was silent and then the second plane hit everyones mouths droped didn't no what was going to happen nexted.No one really believed it was happening i mean it was like a movie alot of people said. We are asking why is this happening i mean who is doing this and my teacher had nothing to say he didn't no what to say. So we are still watching it no one is taking there eyes off the bells for are class changing have just stop everyone is jsut watching the news.We see people jumping off a heaving cloud of smoke from both towers there trying ti evaquate the biuling as fast as they can and some people get out but then it starts to cruble and fall like a pile of sticks. Some kids were like NO NO No i mean how why speachless didn't no what 2 say. The English teacher runs in from next door told us to put it on cbs the petagon has been hit 2 and then every light in the whole school went out the called a code red everyone got under there tesks.People were so scared thought we were going to be hit or somthing no contact with one on the outside and then i membered i had my radio in my book bag took it out and usaully iw ould get in trouble but my teacher was like some on tell us what is going on. He heard it had been hit and it went on like this for a half an hour just us listeing to the radio. LIghts came back up everyone let out s sigh of releafe but not quite safety.Principal comes in and says we will try to have a regular day it is to much violence for these children i am like what this is wack we have a right to no what is going on and him and my geoghraphy got in to a agrument. Kids were geting picked up and called out left and right i heard my name so i went up and my mom pciked me up and we went and got my sis. Went to 711 cause my sis wanted a slurpy they had the tv on there and the cashregister guy said just take it and Godbless wich stook in my head for a while.My friends had got picked up as well and we all went to watch it on the big screen Tv and we just sat there all say listening to news reportes hearing bout the chrash in PENn that could of hit the white house and we were like man this is crazy and we all didn't really sleep that much waking up and going back till morning and school the next day. 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 story9192.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. 2003-04-18 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 67.8.232.40 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: It was a normal day at Barker Central High School. Well, at least it had seemed like a normal day. I was in my second period class when one of the other Social Studies teachers came into the room during the middle of the period. This was rather odd because no one usually visits the room until the period has ended. My teacher and the other teacher walked out in to the hall to discuss something so she told us to hold on for a minute. When she came back into the room she did not seem like she was in the same happy mood that she usually is in. She turns on the television to CNN and there on the screen it showed the World Trade Center towers. There was a thick grayish black colored smoke coming from them. At first, I had thought that the building had somehow accidentally caught on fire. This was when only one of the towers was crashed in to. When CNN had played the video footage of an American Airlines plane running straight into the trade center at full speed had I finally figured out what a great tragedy had taken place. People had first claimed it was some type of failure with the plane. This was not the case at all. A second plane had crashed into the other tower just a few moments later. That is when I knew that this was not an accident. It was not possible for two planes to both run into the same building in the same day. During this time of the year we had first started learning about the Taliban and it?s effects on Afghanistan. What a coincidence that was. I was totally outraged when I thought of this conclusion and that it could possibly have had to do with that organization. The bell soon rang for class to end. I ran to my locker to see what new news everyone else had heard about this devastating event. Many were thinking the same thing as me. What is going to happen? Is this going to start another war? I was so angry at that moment that I could have punched my locker as hard as I possibly could. Luckily, I didn?t. All I could think was, why would someone want to do such a terrible thing to our country. What had we done to make them so angry with us? It was not until the second period that I had heard that the first tower had collapsed. During gym no one seemed in the mood to play any sports. We all stood around the whole entire period and watched the news to find out any more information we could. The day went by very slowly. In every class that I went to we did not do anything but watch television. Some people had thought this was funny. It was not funny at all. I could not see any reason for why and how they could even think that this was funny at all. The World Trade Center was perhaps one of the strongest buildings in the United States of America. Many firefighters and policemen had risked and lost their lives for innocent people. September 11th will never be forgotten. That day brought us together. It was a great tragedy but it also made us much stronger. 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 story597.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. 2002-05-14 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 66.153.79.47 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 Sept. 11 I was in Tower One (North Tower) on the 86th fl. when the first hijacked airliner struck . My boss and I were the only ones in at the time in the morning. My Boss saw the plane it the building. After the shock of the plane hitting the building, we tried to get out, after the celing and walls came crumbing down we had to dig our way out, but still could not get out becuase there was to much smoke and we could not see anything. So we ran back to our desks and made calls to our love one's and I changed my high heels and put on flats. We new the drill as we were there in 1993 when the building was bombed. We then made our way back to the door the hallways was clear, and we made our way down the stairs. If took 1 and a half hous to reach the bottom, we never new anothr plane had it the building. When we reached the gound floor we know we were safe and were hugging and kissing and thanking GOD. Then building TWO fall, which cause an explosion. I was blown from one side to the other side, I was tired and hurt, wet and scared I had been blown into a pile of glass on my knees. It took every bit of strenght I had to go on but I did. I heard a man's voice saying if you see the light come to the light, and I did and he got me out. One year later I have 40 stiches and I have had to have an operation on my knee, and I sit here today with a case on my knee as a reminder of 9/11/2001 Yvonne R. Barker 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 story4372.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 162.83.145.160 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: How did you witness history on september 11th? Share your experience. Wayne called me telling me the first plane hit the World Trade Center building. Has your life changed because of September 11, 2001? If so ,tell, us how. Yes I view life to be more precious. I don't take freedoms we have as Americans for granted. What do you think should be remembered about September 11th? The sacrificing the Americans (firefighters) made to save other fellow Americans. We need to be more aware of who our enemies are and to defend our country. Did you fly an American flag after the events of September 11th? Have your feelings about the American flag changed as a result of September 11th? Yes, we did fly an American flag and we still do. No, we always had strong feelings for what the flag represented. 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 story8834.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. 2002-12-17 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 216.54.14.84