337 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: It seems like yesterday That bright blue day one year ago. And it is still so close because New York is my home. No, I was not near ground zero- 92nd Street and West End, where I work, is a long way away. Even further away is Harlem and my brownstone. I was putting on my sandals to come to work when ABC announced that a plane had just hit the first tower. There was no panic then because like others I figured it was probably a little twin engine deal that had veered off course. But like other New Yorkers I knew this meant a change in the way things would be run that day. The subways would be off, there would be no mail delivery. If you have lived in New York a while you think they'll use any excuse. But I knew also that I had to call my parents in Atlanta and tell them we were fine. I ran to the top floor to tell my oldest daughter not to go to Long Island to class that day- she may not be able to get back. She was fuzzy with sleep as I explained why. Then I ran back to my bedroom and sat on my bed to call my parents. That when the second plane hit. Suddenly I felt the need to go to work, to be with my other family. My husband was safe at work in Westchester County, my older daughter at home, but work was 11 blocks from my youngest daughter's junior high and I wanted to get her and take her home. Things were still calm and fresh in my mind. In Harlem the effects had not been felt yet so when I boarded the bus I was surprised to hear that several passengers had no idea what was going on. But as we went down Broadway to 135th Street to make a right hand turn we could see the elevated subway tracks leading to the 125th stop. All the trains were standing still. In fact, nowhere in New York city was a train moving. Many people were stuck for hours underground. Many people barely got out of the last train to go under the towers. By the time I got to work a mere ten minutes later the air had changed. There was a smell of something burning and there were helicopters everywhere. We were in the middle of a war zone. When the towers crashed our phone system died. The eight of us watched on tv and wrapped our arms around each other and cried. So many lives lost and for no reason. We didn't understandbut we soon disbanded to find our loved ones. Along with monay parents that had walked a long way, I signed my daughter out of school and took her hand and walked home. It was a long walk home without looking back. Buses passed that were full and couldn't stop. No one complained. No one honked a horn, no one cursed in anger at the slow moving traffic. I walked with people I didn't know who smiled at me because they were alive. We were alive. But unlike the woman turned to a pillar of salt in the bible no one looked back. We were 20 blocks from home when a bus that wasn't full stopped and picked us up. No charge, the driver said and smiled. Lots of smiles from people just want ing to get home. A boy sitting next to me was supposed to be in court that day, but the court was closed. He didn't want to go to jail, would they hold his hearing again. I assured this young man that they would. I told him the whole world was going to be on hold for a while. He didn't know about the plane in Pennsylvania or the plane that hit the Pentagon. He had been stuck underground on a train. Harlem at night lights up like a party. It is alive with people and noise. But on 9/11 when I went outside to look into the sky there was not one soul out on my block. I looked up into the beautiful night sky and saw our protection flying overhead. I had already stopped watching the news and started watching my daughters, little woman unnerved by a world at war that I never knew. I tried to give myself one memory to carry with me about that day for the rest of my life. And today a year later as the wind blows wildly and we grieve and remember I take out that thought to hold onto: September 11, 2001 was the most beautiful day that I have ever seen. Not since then has there been another day like it and I thank God for 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 story3012.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. 64.152.48.97 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I got to work by 8:00 on September 11, 2001. The last few months had already been pretty hectic for me. I was married in July and was in a pretty bad car accident in August. I was lucky to survive both events. All I wanted to do was get back to my regular work routine. That was hard to do since my work week now consisted of 3 doctor visits each week and a daily call to my lawyer and insurance company. The accident was not my fault, a lady pulled out and hit me when I was going 45 mph. I swerved just enough to allow both of us to walk away. If you have ever been in a car accident, you know how stressful it can be. You try to get healthy, you try to get your car replaced, you try to prevent the insurance company from taking advantage of you, and you are always trying to figure out what to do with the entire situation. It's always changing and nothing is ever easy. I work in a cube farm for a big company. Have you seen the Dilbert comic strip? Well, that's how I feel at work sometimes. I'm a technical guy that tries to keep people's pets alive. If you got a sick fish, your snake won't eat, your pond has a leak, you call me and I try to help you. My job can be fun or it can be very stressful. Normally, it's not a problem but with the last few months, my edges were frayed. That morning, I was waiting for my bank to confirm my loan for a new car. My bank had not received confirmation that my old car was totaled and had been paid off. The car dealership was expecting me to come pick the car up after work. Once again, nothing seemed simple. When one of my friends yelled over their cube that a plane hit the world trade center, I didn't pay much attention to it. I thought a 2 person plane must have hit it by accident. I continued making calls to my bank trying to get things taken care of. I was faxing information and calling my wife in a rant about the whole car thing. The radio confirmed a plane had hit the towers. They sounded very concerned about it but I didn't see the gravity of it. A small plane hitting the tower was tragic but not the titanic sinking. It would be in the headlines for a few days, the damage would be repaired, and that would be it. I didn't think it had anything to do with me. Then I heard other people talking about the towers. They were saying an airliner hit the tower. I figured it was the rumor mill blowing things up again. If you work in an office, you are either the person that spreads ehe rumors or the person that gets entertained by the rumors. Me, I get entertained by how far the rumor gets from the truth. Someone may have a flat in the parking lot but by the time I hear it, someone's tires were slashed by a jealous boyfriend that wants to kill Jane Doe. Then a few hours later, the truth pops up and you just shake your head. An airliner hitting the towers was hard to believe, an airliner hitting the towers on purpose just wasn't possible. When that rumor started, I chalked it up for paranoia. Then the second plane hit. I was staring out the window when I heard that. I wasn't thinking about the towers. I was thinking of how I was going to get my new car. I needed the loan approval by 3:00 today. I was thinking about my problems. I had been since August 16th. I guess that's why I just kept telling myself that the towers were really going to be okay. Maybe one plane hit one of the towers. A small two seater plane that some amateur pilot was flying. Then the calls stopped. I get about 50 to 75 calls a day. Everyone in my department gets that many calls. There is always a phone ringing but a little after 10:00, the phones just stopped. I could hear people mumbling about two jet airliners hitting the towers. There was talk of it being on purpose. I picked up the phone to make a call. Not to my bank or to my lawyer. I called my wife. She had been keeping up with situation in New York. She always started her day by listening to CNN. She said one of her employees, his dad works in the smaller trade center building. She told me the pentagon may have been hit by a plane. We didn't talk long. I just gave her the latest update on getting the car. I told her I would call her later. I called my bank again. I was getting closer to getting my loan approved. I just needed a little more time. I called my car dealer and told him i was having some trouble getting the loan. It wasn't I couldn't get the loan but I didn't have all the paper work done. I told him to bear with me and I would have the loan. I still planned to get the car today. Then I started getting on the web to see what CNN was saying about New York. I couldn't log on, the site was busy. I tried MSNBC and MSN. There were too many users on their sites. One of my friends at work had been on the CNN site all morning, they e-mailed the story to me. I was able to log on through their e-mail. I say about the towers being on fire. I read about the airliners hitting and how many people had lost their lives. I saw the pentagon had been hit. Then the word terrorist started to pop up on every headline. That's when if first registered in my mind. It was real. I read every bit of information on the web page. It didn't seem possible. I called my mom. She knew all about what was going on. She told me that my uncle in the reserves was at the pentagon. She was worried about him and had been calling family all morning. She couldn't get in touch with anyone. I called my wife again. She wasn't worried anymore. She was upset. The truth wasn't a flat tire in the parking lot. The truth was more than any rumor could fabricate. Two airliners had hit the world trade center. The planes had been hijacked by terrorists and turned into weopons against the United States. Another plane had hit the pentagon and a forth had crashed in Pennsylvania. It effected my mom through my uncle. It effectd my wife through her friend's father. And it effected me through them. I heard about people jumping from the towers. I read about it on the website. Then the towers collapsed. I hoped the people inside had gotten out but the news reports were grim. The loss of life was staggering. More information came in about police and fire fighters inside the buildings. I kept picturing it all in my mind but I just couldn't make a mental picture of it. I couldn't quite comprehend it. I needed to distract my self. I called my bank and they told me the loan couldn't be processed. All the banks were locked up because of the towers. It was one more way I had been effected by the tragedy. I called my car dealer and told him it might take me a few days to get things done. I couldn't get my new car. I can go another day without a car. What did it really matter. Somehow new cars, lawyers, insurance companies, and medical bills just didn't seem as important as they did at 8:00. I have the things that really matter. I called those people that matter and didn't worry about the things that don't matter. No new car? So what. So what. When I got home I watched the TV like every other American. I saw the horrible images over and over again. I felt angry and I felt sad and I felt this incredible loss for people I didn't even know. I was effected not just by the people connected to me directly but by those that were on that TV. I got that new car 2 days later. I bought my flag and put it on my car. I got my t-shirt with U.S.A. proudly written across the front. It suddenly wasn't corny to have these things. It was a matter of pride. It was showing support. It was cool to be American again. It was okay to show your american pride. My brother-in-law is in the Middle East now. He has been for some time but there is talk he is coming home soon. The world is different for me this August. I laugh about how hard it was to get married. I don't think about the car accident much. I'm grateful for being healthy and for having my family. I enjoy talking to my uncle that was at the pentagon that day. I don't take my freedom for granted. I still grumble about the things that don't really matter. But at the same time, I tell myself to remember the things that are truly important. I'm different. Most of the people I know now are. But some things are still the same. Tell me a story about a flat tire, I'll still laugh about it. Still laugh about those ballooned up rumors. But, so what. I know what's really important. 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 story1099.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-08-19 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 192.77.198.11 Annotation Annotations to this item. Economic effects Internet Rumors DOMESTIC 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: Dear: America Hello, My name is Gloria Jackson. I am 36 years old, married to a wonderful man (William) and the mother of two of Gods most beloveth blessings, a daughter(Morgan 8yrs) and a son (Noah) 22months. The day of September 11, 2001 was like any other day( so I thought). I awoke that morning shortly after my husband headed off to work to get my daughter ready for school. I went through my normal routine of dressing the baby and making sure they both had breakfast. When the clock read 7:45 me and the children set off in the car to take Morgan to school. It was a beautiful morning. I remember it well because as I was driving down Hargrove Road the sun was so bright in my view of driving that I had to put the sun visor down to able myself to see. Noah, was being a character as usual, playing in the car seat, while Morgan was wondering out aloud what the school days lunch would be, because she did'nt want to eat spinach!. I laughed and said "for your sake I hope that its pizza" and she replied "Wow, I do too!". When I drove up to the front of the school building I stopped the car and helped Morgan out of her seatbelt. I gave her a big kiss and told her to have a "wonderful" day. She gave me a big smile and said okay Mom, you too,and I love ya!. I waited in the car until she went into the building and drove off. Noah was cooing in the back, and I started singing his favorite song as I drove along. "The itsy, bitsy spider" always tickled him and still does to this day!. As I drove down McFarland Blvd., a shorter route home, the sun was still so very bright that I decided in that moment that I would not take him to daycare and me and him would go back to the house and bond a little bit more. We made it home and I put him inside his play yard and preceeded to pour myself a cup of coffee and listen to the morning news with Diane Sawyer. I remember the broadcast that morning because she was about to interview someone about decorating and I being a homemaker was very interested. During the telecast, Diane jokingly made a comment to Charles ( his last name escapes me, please do forgive me)and they both laughed. As I was about to go into the bedroom to retrieve a notebook, I heard Diane say " We have breaking news out of New York", I turned around midway, and as she was speaking there in the background of the Good Morning America telecast was a split screen of a metro area with alot of big buildings in view and one of them was on fire. The news was very sketchy. I could tell the broadcasters were having a difficult time trying to relay to the public what was happening. I heard Charles say " there has been a terrible tragedy, a plane has flown into one of the twin towers. As that was unfolding, I was shocked at what I say, I picked up Noah and sit on the sofa and continued to stay trans-fixed to the television. As I continued to watch with sad amazement, I then saw what every unfortunate person who was watching the broadcast saw, as another plane hit the other tower!!!. I was just astonishingly shocked and horrified!. I grabbed the remote to turn the channel to CNN news and they were broadcasting the terrible crash also. It seemed as though every television channel was now focused on the fact of the plane crashes. I sat on the sofa holding Noah and trying to stay composed but deep inside of me I felt scared for some reason. I guess it could have been from the true horror of what I was viewing on TV or the frightened look of utter shock from the broadcasters on every channel who tried with professionalism to rely the facts as they came in. Then it happened!! the World Trade buildings started to collaspe!!. My heart just dropped and I started to cry a silent cry for fear of upsetting Noah. There was more breaking news about the Pentagon being hit and the White House being evacuated. I was so afraid, but my inner peace which I know only comes from God, kept me serene through it all. I called my husband and told him to tune to the T.V. or radio and to come home if at all possible because I just didn't know whether America was under seige or what. I wanted to call everyone I knew and try to warn them personally. I called my sisters job and left word for her to call me. and I thought about checking my daughter out of school but was reassured when the school system said that they were handling the matter of the childrens safety. As the hours of that long day progressed... there was more shocking details of the tragedy that came out and just an over whelming saddness in the nation. I cried many times that day for the lost of the innocent people and the tragedy felt by the entire world. I hope to never in my life as God gives me each day that he deems... to never witness anything as horrific and tragic as what I saw that day of September 11, 2001. My heart goes out to all those loving souls who died for the freedom of the United States and for which it stands. I hope and pray that we all as Americans can take from this tragedy a respect for our fellow man and know that life is a gift and we are so very blessed to be in a country which values life and liberty and justice for all and that this horrible event in our history (as profoundly terrible and sad as it is) can bridge us all in a direction of unity and strengthen us in the years to come. May God bless this nation and the souls within.. Thank you. Gloria Jackson 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 story5083.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. 152.163.188.6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: Holding my children in my lap and watching in horror as the events unfolded on every channel of the television, I could only weep. America was under attack and we stood helplessly watching as planes began to do the unthinkable. The nation stood still as our innocence was stolen. My young children asked so many questions... "Why are you crying, Mommy?" was the first. I was so incredibly grateful to be holding my children and kissing my husband as he left for work. Throughout the day, I felt such an empty helplessness. "What can I do?" God showed me that I could seize the opportunity to teach my children about our great nation and about our great leaders. I pointed out every good deed I could find to help them see that our nation is about people and not just buildings. The kids learned about the president and his role as leader. Now, only age 4 and 7, they immediately recognize President Bush and they respect him as a man of integrity. Today as they watch the remembrances, they can fully recall the events of last year. 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 story4962.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. 65.239.47.217 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 that the first time I heard about the tradgedy of September 11, I was unloading my backpack at my locker. I overhead some other students raving about how a plane ran into the World Trade Center. At first, I thought that they were joking and that the incident they were talking about was just some bogus high school gossip. When I arrived at my first period English class, everyone was buzzing about the terrorist attacks. An announcement came on over the PA stating, "Teachers and students, please pardon this interruption. Will all teachers please turn off their televisions at this time and keep them turned off throughout the day. Thank you." Of course, no one listened to the announcement, and many teachers allowed classes to watch the news or listen to news radio. My Spanish teacher told the class that she had a friend in New York whose husband worked at the Trade Center, and my teacher had been beside herself with worry until her friend sent her an e-mail that was only one sentence long: "He didn't go to work today!" Upon realizing the reality of the situation, I instantly felt a pang of grief for all the people who at that moment were dying in the Twin Towers. I thought of their families and friends, and how so many people had lost their children, husbands, wives, and parents in those few hours. I also felt disappointed at the state of humanity, because I believe that all living things are inherently good-natured, and the malice of the attackers made me question that belief. When will we all listen to John Lennon and give peace a chance? Before September 11, I did not belive that I would live to witness world peace, but the attacks that day made me realize that it will take at least another millineum or two for world peace to become a reality. 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 story2656.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. 206.77.47.2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: Trabajo en un cybercaf? en Huacho-Per? para esa fecha recuerdo claramente como llegaban las personas preocupasidimas a llamar por telefono y tratar de comunicarse con sus familiares que de alguna manera estaban ligados al lugar de la traged?a. 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 story1410.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. 2002-08-22 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 200.60.14.253 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was in bed watching the remainder of Good Morning America trying to get a few more minutes of rest before starting my day, when I heard/saw the events of the day. I spent the rest of the day in shock, in tears, and in mourning for people I did not know. My heart just broke for the two cities of which I had visited. NYC in June for vacation, no less. It was my husband's birthday. Not exactly the time you feel like celebrating. So..we postponed it until the next day. As we will do this year, also. We will, instead, attend a memorial service this year as well. It is the least we can do. We have flown our flag and had r/w/b lights or a lighted flag on ever since. We will not take them down until BinLaden is captured,or killed, and until our troops come home, ending this war. We owe it to those lost on that day to never forget what happened. We owe them honor in this small way. We need to remember so that we will always remember that we are not in control of our destinies. We need to remember that we are not an invincible nation. It is our duty. This year will be marked by watching the news, attending a service, and taking a few moments out to pray for our nation and the families who lost their loved ones. This was a day I will choose to always remember. I have to. I feel I have no choice but to remember. 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 story2613.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. 152.163.188.6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: "The Towers are gone..." How can you even digest something so drastic? Looking back on the day, a year later, it makes me think once again just how terrible this tragedy has been. When I first found out that day of the disaster, it was probably the most unbelievable, in comprehendible situation that I have EVER experienced. I thought as if it was nightmare. But as I stared at the TV in awe and disbelief, I realized that the nightmare had only begun. Today, a year later, our nation still stands proud, strong, and united, as promised by President Bush. As we keep those lost in this act of terrorism in our thoughts and prayers, the fight against terrorism continues. And trust me, the battle has JUST begun. 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 story3056.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. 209.50.139.249 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 morning of Sept. 11, 2001 was a big morning for me, I was finally going to a big meeting with the Milwaukee Cty. Sherriff's Dept.My appointment was at 8 (central time)so I was walking into the courthouse when the first plane hit. Standing in line to go through security there were TV's- all of a sudden the news went to a breaking news- and it showed the plane hitting. I couldn't beleive it. I felt sick; everyone around me was in shock. I have family in the city and immediately thoughts went to them. I just stood there with all the other people watching in horror as the images was replayed over and over. I see the man I am to meet with run by- I ask him what is going on? He says he has to go to the airport- we'll reschedule. He tells me to get home. People on cell phones are yelling that Chicago is the next target I froze, my sister lives there. I try to call- no answer. I try to leave the city but if you've ever been to Milwaukee you know the traffic sucks on a good day. It was as if a tidal wave were rolling towards us-from Lake Michigan- everyone heading west and north and south out of the city. I tried to get my husband on my cell, but nothing. I am so scared as he is on a project in the tallest building on the Lakeshore. I don't know where to go what to do. I drive to work where everyone is gathered around the TV in my office. I sit there for an hour trying to get a hold of my sister, finally I talk to my mom and she says sis is on here way up out of Chicago. I cannot bear to sit a t work so I go home and watch the news. Finally husband comes home- we sit for hours. Finally we walk into the village for a candle light vigil. There is sadness everywhere. WE decide to walk up tp the tavern to get away from the TV, but they are playing it too. Everything changed that day. We had only been married for 3 months. We realized it would never be the same again. I carried around so much sadness and anger for months that I grind my teeth til this day. My heart breaks for all who lost love that day. Especially for the orphans of 9/11. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story10518.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. 2004-04-01 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 24.94.244.2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: On September 11, 2001, I was a regular seventh grader going to music class. When I saw, on one of the school's televisions, a plane going through a building. After I got to music I found out I had seen a plane go through the first Twin Tower. All trough music, we kept the television on to see if anything else would happen. All of sudden, Boom! Another plane crashed through the second Twin Tower. Everybody in the class was shocked. When I got home from school, I saw on the television that a plane had in Washington D.C. had crashed into the Pentagon. Something good that happened was four men stopped terrorists from crashing into another building. They did this by overtaking the pilots and crashing into an open field where there weren't any people. A couple of days later, I found out Osama bin Laden and his Muslim followers were behind the terrorist attacks. He said his religion told him to attack America, but other people of his religion says that is not true. My life has changed in a lot of ways since September 11, 2001. I have taken fewer things for granted, such as my family and my friends. Also, I now know the U.S. is not as indestructible as everyone says it is. This also shows that the U.S. has to be ore alert about terrorists, and they have to take extra precautions. My life has also changed because I am closer to my family more than ever before. I now realize I can lose anyone in my family at any time. I don't feel safe anymore. When a plane flies over my house, I think of September 11. I think anyone in the planes, in the buildings, or helping to try to save people's lives should be remembered. Also, I think the four men on the Pennsylvania flight should be remembered. This is because they overtook the pilots and crashed into a place where no people were around. the New York City police and fire department should also be remembered. They tried to save survivors from the burning buildings. In my mind, I will always remember what happenend on Septmeber 11, 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 story8495.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. 2002-10-18 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 24.60.58.139 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: Luego de vivir el horror durante un ano y medio en Colombia, ver los noticieros cargados de sangre, encontre en el traslado de mi esposo a la compania en Miami una luz y una esperanza para una vida mejor, o por lo menos sin tanto terror como el que viven los colombianos. El 11 de septiembre estaba en mi lugar de trabajo, la casa de Jean Pereira, una americana con dos bebes que me contrato para que le ayudara con sus dos hijos. Su esposo aun en la casa, nos aviso cuando vio en los noticieros, todo lo que habia sucedido, por mi mente solo paso la cara de mi hija de 10 anos quien estaba en el colegio cerca de donde yo trabajaba, pero sin saber nada mi cunado ya la habia recogido junto a mis sobrinas. Esa noche no podia creer todo lo que habia sucedido veia como la gente en su desesperacion se lanzaba por las ventanas y no podida creerlo, tantos muertos, tanto horror. Dios mio que paso? es este el fin del mundo?, mama que pasa porque exploto ese edificio? que respondo... todavia me cuesta explicarle a Daniela ya con 11 anos que paso el 11 de Septiembre del 2001, porque aun no lo he asimilado. Ana Morales 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 story4449.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. 172.145.240.94 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 watched the attacks on television and that morning reported into my Chapter in Santa Rosa California. I put my name on the list as available and shortly after September 11 was sent to Brooklyn as a Family Services worker. I was assigned with a team of seven others, nurses, mental health, and family service to Ground Zero. My job was to roam the streets and stop people allowed in to return to their apartments to claim their things. I also worked on a card table in various apartment buildings interviewing clients. I found people who needed assistance and helped arrange funerals, mental health care, food, family grants, and various other needs. We set up makeshift offices in Battery Park's vacated apartment buildings, South End and River Terrace below the barracades. The work was the most difficult, emotionally stressful job I have ever undertaken. We assisted many of the 43,000 families that had been evacuated and heard heart wrenching stories day after day for 30 days. The fire was burning and the smoke gave me a cough that lasted for ten months. I was there from September 22 through October 26 and returned again in January and February. I was proud to be there not only as a trained Red Cross worker but as an American. We worked there as volunteers and we didn't leave when it got tough. We gave every bit of emotional and physical strengh we had to that job. When I left New York there was nothing left of myself - I had given it all away. I feel we were all heroes and would never hesitate to do it again. jude patch guglielmino 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 story1434.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. 2002-08-23 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 209.148.96.48 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I will never forget my morning commute to SFASU on September 11, 2001. Luckly, I was listening to the radio and not my CDs. A startled female radio-jockey interrupted the music and said something on the line of "Oh my God, a plane has crashed into one of the twin towers." Soon, she announced "There's another that just hit the other tower. We are under terrorist attack." She began talking about the terrorism. These events were hard for me to phantom. How could this happen and why? My embedded belief of "Big-Ole US of A" being invincible was challenged. I feared for our safety. I did not want this to result in war. I did not want my dad to return to the service. Every time my heart pumped, I could feel adrenaline shooting through my veins and spreading throughout my body like a malignant cancer. I noticed I was speeding. I was in a hurry to get to SFA. I wanted to see actual footage. I illegally parked closer to the main entrance. People were glued to the screen TV. They watched in horror. I remember viewing bloody victims aiding the rescue workers. They were oblivious to their injuries. They put others in need first. How noble! Then, to my shock a tower collapses. I felt my heart drop as I watched it descend. I felt sorry for all the people on the planes, inside the collapsed tower, and the surrounding area. The attack on the Pentagon was announced. I was thinking how lucky I was to be where I was standing. I felt my heart drop for the victims, their families, friends, acquantiances, and the whole country. We are all victims. For me, seeing people jumping to their death was the most troubling. Viewing this made me feel faint. Class was about to start. Reluctantly, I stopped watching. I was hoping the professor would dismiss class. To my dismay, he did not. How can one focus on class and note-taking when this was happening? There could have been the possiblity of more attacks! I viewed my professor as being cold. It was so difficult to focus. I managed. Watching the news exhausted me. The fear, the suffering, the constant change of the screen. It was the topic of every channel. It was such a horrible event to see yet, I remained glued to the tube. In fact, I was mentally exhausted for about a week. Everywhere I turned, 911 was the subject. A local mental health clinic had their waiting room T.V. (which is mounted so that one cannot change channels) on CNN. That was such an odd situation. A clinic of some potentially unstable people watching a screen with bloody, screaming people running, people crying in anguish and horror, buildings on fire and collapsing. Makes me wonder about some of the staff's mentality. I am confident in saying a patient who is there because of this event would probably not want to view its horrors. 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 story1547.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-08-29 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 66.76.33.190 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 office is located in 4A1088D (Pentagon). I was at my desk listening to the radio (WPGC 95.5) I believe. When a breaking news story came through about the first plane that hit the first "tower" in NY. I had a student hire at that time, and she and I were in tuned to the radio. While sitting at our desk listing to the radio, about the first "tower", the second "tower" was hit. While this was going on, I decided to get up from my desk and take a walk trying to digest what I just heard. As I reached our main mail room (4B1062), I stopped to talk to a few of my other co-workers to tell them to turn on the radio for the news. It was approximately 0927. After standing there for approximately five (5) minutes, an enlisted member of our organization came running up the steps warning everyone in his passage to vacate the building because we had been hit by a plane. I immediately ran back to my office warning everyone that went pass me what was going on. When I reached my office, I informed my supervisor and my student employee, and all others that happened to be in my workcenter, what was going on and that we had to evacuate. Since the alarms hadn't been set off yet, we (my student employee and myself) immediately closed up the office, knocked on the other office doors within our passage and informed those individuals to evacuate (and why), and we then proceeded to exit the building. Once we were out side to safety, I immediately started my walk home. I knew I would not be able to take public transportation so I was ready to walk. I just wanted to get home to my kids and my dog. People say that cellular service wasn't working but in actuality it was, but the circuits were so tied up you had to keep trying to get through. I was fortunate enough that day because just as I had approached the Interstate 395 entrance (from the building's parking lot), we flagged down a guy who worked in the building (although we didn't know him) and asked for a ride across the highway. Fortunately for us, this guy happened to live two (2) blocks down the street from my house. I can't remember his name but I will always remember his face, and will be forever grateful to him. 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 story2471.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. 198.26.119.86 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 am a social worker in the Kids Department of the State of Delaware. I was attending a unit meeting with about five other social workers; our supervisor was presenting policy updates and the latest data under review for our cases. Our discussion was interrupted by our Regional Administrator entering the conference room. She told us that she had just learned that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, and that another had crashed into the Pentagon and that no one was certain what was happening. At first no one seemed to comprehend the event; our unit meeting continued another five or ten minutes, I think, before we were dismissed. But I could be wrong about that--the time factor is hazy. I was worried about my children in school, wondering if they were being sent home. I just know as soon as I could, I tried to find out more by going online (there are no TVs, and no one I knew had a radio available in my part of the office). I subscribe to the NY Times Direct, and as soon as I checked my mail, I saw several NY Times Direct News Alerts. When I opened them and saw the coverage--including the video clips of the actual crashes--I was heartsick. As the story continued to unfold, I was holding back tears. My father was in the Air Force and stationed at the Pentagon for many years before his death in 1989. The Pentagon being hit, for me, was an added immense blow. Later in the day I began to be concerned about my daughter scheduled to leave that week for her junior year in college abroad in the UK. I remember feeling that life would never go on as usual after that; that this was the beginning of the end of life as we have known it in the USA. I think I might have been right. 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 story11408.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2005-05-18 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 151.199.250.55 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: As a grade school teacher, I usually wake up at 6 A.M. for breakfast. I always watch the news as I eat. I awoke late that morning (at 6:20) and turned on the local ABC station to see a picture of the Trade Center towers in flames with the caption "Plane Hits World Trade Center." It didn't immeditely register with me. My first thought was that it must have been a small private plane, and I remembered that in the 1940s, a plane had hit the Empire State Building. I went to wake my roommate with the news, and continued getting ready for my day. I turned on the radio in the bathroom, and remember hearing Bryant Gumbel say "Oh My God" as he was looking at a video feed of the Pentagon. I ran into the living room, and saw the Pentagon attack as it happened. Only then did I learn of the true horror in New York. I saw the various videos of the planes hitting the towers, and saw that they were large commercial planes. I was numb. I drove to school, listening to the radio, wondering how I was going to teach that day. When I arrived, I found that we were closing because of our proximity to downtown Los Angeles. They were worried about more planes hitting skyscrapers. 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 story1069.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. 198.81.17.52 Annotation Annotations to this item. Television Coverage DOMESTIC Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: The night of 9/10/01 I wrote a note to my daughter's school stating I was picking her up around 10am on 9/11/01. I was off on 9/11 and was driving down the road listening to the radio when they announced a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I had previously planned to stop by my job and noticed the TV monitors which carried Bloomberg News when I walked in. They showed the building burning but I didn't think that much of it. Driving home the DJ announced the second building had been hit. I called the radio station and asked the announcer if he had ever read Tom Clancy and told him about the storyline in "Debt of Honor" where a plane crashes into Capitol. He said no but also that this was no book - it was real. When I got home I watched in horror the replay of the planes crashing. I called my mom, a government employee and asked if she knew what was happened. Mom said they were aware and her co-workers were monitoring the internet for information. When they started talking about a plane crashing into a building in Washington DC I called Mom again. She asked me to tell her what I had heard and I told her I wished she would come home. She said "no" because she said she was "essential" personnel and thought she would be needed if they closed the DC branch offices because she was in Jacksonville FL, far away from the tradegies. When they confirmed it was the Pentagon I called Mom again but since she didn't answer I left a message. It was time to pick up my daughter from school. It was a madhouse because many parents were pulling their kids out of school. One person told me they were taking the kids home because the other parent was in the military. The parent felt like they would be immediately called to active duty and wanted to see the children before leaving. I didn't let my 12 year old daughter watch a lot of tv that day but I saw the buildings fall live and it just didn't seem real. It was like watching a movie but one just couldn't comprehend this was real. Mom finally came home at noon because they closed all the federal buildings. I did make sure my dauhgter listened to President Bush because this was living history. 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 story1224.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. 209.214.132.4 Annotation Annotations to this item. Politics and politicians Radio Coverage DOMESTIC 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 principal concern on September 11th, after contemplating the sheer human tragedy of it all, was how to deal with the events as a history educator. Teaching at a small community college, I knew that I could not approach the classroom as the typical day, particularly coming from a historical perspective. While loathing the cliche "history in the making," I knew that for my students the events of the day would be that type of generational reference point such as Pearl Harbor, the JFK assassination, the moon landing, Challenger, etc. Therefore, I decided the most responsible thing I could do was to tell my students to make their classrooms in front of a television set or radio. While I was trying to arrange for a video feed in our main liberal arts building, our resident political scientist negotiated the placement of a television set in the lobby of that building. There was where many of my students attended class that day along with hundreds of their peers. My colleagues and I watched the students as much as we watched the news on the television since we felt that we were learning as much about our students and their private feelings as we might ever learn. Despite administration reminders that September 11 was "business as usual," those social science and humanities instructors--at least along my corridor--knew that perhaps the most valuable lesson that our students would obtain in their two years with us was unfolding before their very eyes. I told my students to consider not only the events themselves but also the reporting of the events. When I got together with classes on Wednesday and Thursday, much of the planned lessons on colonial America and ancient Greece were displaced by energetic discussions of terror and its consequences, American hegemony and the world, personal experiences of loss and suffering, and so forth. I was amazed at how many of my students told me that I was the first of their teachers to even talk about the events in the classroom even two days after the event. My experiences of September 11 reminded me of my duties as an educator--to value the student first, the learning process second, and the content lastly. The history classroom for me during and after September 11 became even more a flexible laboratory in which to study and comprehend the human condition, and I know that my students may remember it a bit as that as well. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story368.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-04-08 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 216.125.152.29 Annotation Annotations to this item. Students/Teachers Television Coverage Terrorism DOMESTIC Feature Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I want to first say I am very sorry to all the families and friends that lost a loved one. My heart goes out to all of you. When I first heard about the World Trade Center, I was on the road going home. Something just told me to turn on the radio that day.I was so shocked to hear about the attack on U.S.A. When I finally got home, I ran into the house and turned on the T.V., and started crying. Just thinking about all those people in the World Trade Center and the people on the planes really got to me. Why did this have to happen???????? I do know one thing, OUR great President will make everyone involved in this senseless act pay for what they have done to our people and Country!!!!! I say," NUKE ALL OF THEM!!!!!!" We will show all the other Countries that we will not let anyone mess with America!!!!!!!! We are FREEDOM and we will stay that way no matter what it takes!!!!!!!!!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!! Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1849.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. 2002-09-07 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 68.103.63.214 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: On September 11th, 2001, I was a third-year medical student working at Brooklyn Hospital on Flatbush and DeKalb avenues. I had just started my six-week pediatric rotation the day before. Our morning routine started with a case conference, where we all discuss interesting clinical cases. So, at around 9:00, we headed into a conference room for our morning meeting. Right before the meeting started, someone briefly mentioned, "Hey, did you hear there was an explosion at the World Trade Center?". Having been in NY for the 1993 bombing, I guess I realized the potential for a disastrous terrorist attack, but the more likely rationalization (before 9/11) was that an air conditioner exploded or something small. PERHAPS a small plane flew into the WTC. But it barely seemed worthy of attention, and we all returned to our meeting's agenda. When the meeting finished at about 9:40, I started to walk out of the conference room when one of my classmates ran through the hall saying, "Oh my god, did you hear? One of the Twin Towers fell!" I could hardly believe it -- It seemed SO impossible. Falling? You've got to be kidding me. This isn't some movie. However, I do have a best friend who worked in the WTC. At that point, starting to believe one of the towers might have actually fallen, I started to worry. I could feel my heart racing. I ran upstairs to the Nursery (where I was that week) to check out the TV (good for late night nursing), and to find out what was going on. The TV was on and all of the nurses were standing around it, looking on in disbelief. A PA student I was rotating with, Scott Fleck, followed me as I ran into the room. On the TV, all I saw was one tower still standing, burning, and the other collapsed. Suddenly, all I could think about is my best friend. He just started his job there about three weeks ago. Which tower was he in? What floor was he on, again? I started to completely panic. I was really worried that he was in the building. I started to react in a strange way, kind of a cross between crying and hyperventilating. I picked up the phone and called his apartment - Nobody was there. I called his dad. I left him a message, asking him to call my cell phone if he knew Dave was OK. I called my own parents, asking them to find out if Dave was OK, and to call me as soon as they heard anything. I must have looked awful at that point, because Scott the PA and the nurses in the unit started to try to calm me down. They were saying things like, "Calm down, which building was he in? Maybe he was in the other building?" I didn't know. I started to think, "Yeah, maybe he *is* still in the standing building", when suddenly, I watched on TV as the second tower went down, the newscaster screaming "OH MY GOD, THE SECOND TOWER IS FALLING!!" At that point, I lost all composure. It really sank in that the WTC had actually fallen. It wasn?t in the skyline anymore. The magnitude of such an event was enormous, and I guess I realized the nursery was the last place I wanted to be. Having five years of experience doing EMS up in Westchester, I guess it kind of came naturally to me to tell the nurses, "I don't think they need me here right now", and I left (with Scott in tow) to go down to the ER. Scott and I rode the elevator down to the basement, where the Brooklyn Hospital ER is located. I walked through the ER once. All I saw was chaos. Attendings were ripping up big pieces of cardboard to be used as signs to organize the patient flow. Nurses were rolling stretchers down the hall. There were a few patients covered with dust from head to toe, with non-rebreathing masks on, sitting on stretchers. I stopped for a moment, and talked to one of the ER residents. She gave me a quick run-down of what she had seen on the news at that point. Loosely, it went something like this : "They hijacked several jets, they also hit the Pentagon. The news was showing footage of people jumping from the buildings, but now they're not showing it anymore, I guess it's too distasteful. And I heard that Bush shot down a jet in Pennsylvania. The press said he didn't, but you know the government wouldn't admit to that." (Note : This was her opinion, not mine, but it does show how hard it is to get the facts in a moment of chaos.) I walked out to the ambulance staging area (again with Scott in tow), and all I saw were thousands of people walking up Flatbush Avenue. Some were completely covered in dust. Lots were crying. I realized this was not a joke, this was not a test, this was really happening. And again, all I could think about was my best friend Dave. At this point, the best way to describe my emotion was a mix of helplessness, anger, and sadness. I was crying uncontrollably. One of the residents (Mike Lynette) came up to me and suggested I sit down and relax. I didn't feel comfortable with that idea. One of my classmates, Nazli, came up to me and let me cry on her shoulder for a moment. Between my sobs I tried to explain why I was freaking out. "My best friend works in the Trade Center!" Somehow it seemed really silly that I should be freaking out that much about a best friend, but since I have so little family in America, my best friend IS my family. So when the security guard came up to me and tried to get me to calm down, I told him, "My brother works in the World Trade Center!" He seemed to understand my anguish better. So, standing in the small ambulance staging area at Brooklyn Hospital, completely surrounded by chaos and people crying and sirens and horns honking and cars unable to move... I decided to take control of my situation. I remember thinking to myself, "If something happened to Dave, I'm at least going to fight whatever evil did something to him." With that, I started to walk in the opposite direction of the mass of people. Scott the PA asked me where I was going. I told him, "I'm going down there, they're going to need help." Scott looked like he wanted to follow me, but he looked nervous. "Scott, seriously, stay here," I told him, but he seemed to cautiously follow me instead. "Do you think we'll get in trouble for leaving the hospital?" he asked. "Scott, the World Trade Center just collapsed, sometimes there are bigger things to worry about than getting in trouble." We started to walk down Flatbush Avenue, towards Junior's, when we ran into another man walking in our direction (opposite the crowd). He introduced himself as Robert Cartwright, a PA who works at Brooklyn Hospital in the ENT department. Robert seemed to be answering the same call as we were. His attitude was much more in line with my thinking at that point, saying stuff like, "I don't know, but I'm going down there to help." We decided to join him and walked down to Juniors, then turned right to walk towards the Manhattan Bridge. With police holding all non-emergency vehicles at a standstill, Flatbush was in complete gridlock. The road going over the Manhattan bridge was basically empty to vehicles, but was moderately congested with people running away from Manhattan. I remember seeing a few odd things -- One man dragging his suitcase. Another man rolling some kind of a clothes rack. The three of us walked up to the foot of the Manhattan Bridge, where there were police cars blocking the roadway so that only emergency vehicles and personnel could get through. We waited there for a minute, looking at the large plume of smoke coming from the southern tip of Manhattan, and all took a moment to think twice before crossing the bridge going over. While we waited there, we were joined by another doctor who identified himself as a radiologist. I think he said he worked at Mt. Sinai or somewhere. He joined us as we stood there, listening to the sirens, and watching the occasional emergency vehicle race over the bridge at breakneck speeds. We identified ourselves to the police standing at the entrance to the bridge, when they told us, "You guys are doctors? We have a pregnant lady in the building over here!" I'm not sure what the building was, in retrospect. It looked like some kind of a grey, concrete-and-marble, federal/school-type of building. All I know is that she was up on the second floor, and the building had some kind of a nurse/infirmary that we were able to get some makeshift supplies from. We first evaluated our pregnant mother in front of us. The radiologist put on gloves and reassured the mother that she was going to be OK. He then quickly examined her, while the rest of us prepared for an impending delivery by opening up boxes of maxi-pads and paper towels. Fortunately, after inspecting the patient, the radiologist reported that she still had time before she was going to deliver. Great. Sensing a need for supplies (all I had was my stethoscope), we packed a plastic bag full of maxi-pads, tape, and as many gloves as we could fit, and brought it along. We carried our mother down to the front of the building, and reassured her. Someone with an SUV/Van-type mobile drove up and volunteered to take her. We put her in the SUV with the nurse from the building and directed them to take her to TBH as soon as possible. I remember there being a moment where I thought, "Shouldn't we go with her?", but then I looked to my left and saw the enormous plume of smoke on the other side of the East River, and thought, "She should be okay and this is not a normal situation, I think we might be needed down there." Note : I was never able to figure out who the mother was. I didn't remember her name, and when I did my rotation in OB/GYN a month or so later, none of the residents were sure who she was. So the four of us walked up to the foot of the bridge again. We waited there with the officers standing guard, and asked if any vehicles were crossing over. "Well, yeah, they're going over, but I don't know when the next one is coming." We waited there watching the flow of people over the bridge ebb, and when nothing came for four or five minutes, we figured we would hoof it. With the policeman's permission, we started walking over the Manhattan Bridge towards Canal Street in Manhattan. As we walked over the bridge, I was in full EMS-mode. Ray Thompson, my EMT instructor from way back when, always talked about the need to be resourceful when times are tough. The example Ray always talked about was using a car visor as a splint, in a pinch. So as we walked over the bridge, I found some long steel bolts, about 18 inches long, that were lying on the side of the roadway, apparently left there by workers who were repairing the bridge. I thought to myself, "What great splints these could make!" as I grabbed two of them and kept walking. The mood was a little strange. There was the "Do you have a wife and kids?"-type of talk going on among us, since now the picture was emerging more vividly than ever. But we kept walking. Around halfway over the bridge, an emergency vehicle pulled over, a red Buick-Regal-type car with a emergency flasher stuck onto the dashboard. The woman inside picked us up. I don't remember what she said her role was, but I remember it being sort of a peripheral role, like, "Police Safety Officer" or something. Nonetheless, she was in as much of a rush as we were in, and we were plenty happy to get the ride over the second half of the bridge. The radiologist at this point told us, "Listen, I'm not sure what use I'm going to be to you guys, I think I would be of better use up at the Mt. Sinai". So when we hit the gridlock awaiting us at the other end of the bridge (Canal Street was being closed and was full of emergency vehicles and other cars stuck in the confusion), we exited the car. The radiologist headed north to his hospital, and Scott, Robert, and I walked south. As we walked south, we were still fighting against a big crowd of people running north. At this point, not too many were completely covered with dust, as we saw in the earlier crowd. They were still crying and anxious, but there didn't seem to be anybody to treat. We walked about three blocks south, and stopped in a Korean Grocery. The sun was actually pretty hot that day, and Scott was complaining of the heat. I think Robert also suggested that we get some water, not only for us, but for emergency purposes. We walked into the grocer and asked for water. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to pay for it, or not. I hoped that they didn't ask us for money, since none of us really had any. Robert came up with some cash, which we offered, but the grocer seemed to understand this was not a normal circumstance. Thankfully, when they saw us in our scrubs, and Robert in his white coat, they gave us several bottles of Evian for free. We took a few sips and packed the rest into our plastic bag / makeshift first-aid kit, and headed further south. As we walked another three or four blocks south, the police had set up barricades, preventing people from trying to walk south. They let us through without a question, I guess because they figured we were medical people going down to help. At one point, the sky started to get darker and there was this fine ash/dust falling all over. We actually stopped three Hispanic ladies who were walking out of the mess, and asked them for their masks, since we were walking into the mess. They happily gave us their masks and headed north while we walked south. We walked only a few blocks further south, the sky getting darker, and the dust getting so bad that I had to squint to keep it out of my eyes. The space between my mask and my face became very apparent, since I suddenly tasted the dust. It felt and tasted like a cold, gritty material. I figured it was a mixture of concrete and maybe very finely ground glass and asbestos. Scott started to get nervous again, and Robert and I offered him the opportunity to go back, but he followed along. The street followed down until we hit Fulton Street. Robert seemed excited to find Fulton street, since he told us he had worked down in the neighborhood before and knew the area. I remember Fulton was down near the WTC, but having never worked in downtown Manhattan, I didn't realize it was actually the street that crossed over the north part of the WTC complex. For some reason, I kept thinking of the Fulton Fish market, and how my high school visited the fish market back in 1988. As we turned onto Fulton, the scene changed dramatically. Now the dust was very bad. Breathing became very difficult, even with a mask. It no longer seemed like daytime - When I play this part back in my mind, it seems like it was midnight. Only later when I stopped to really think about it did I realize it was daytime. To give you an idea of the mood at this point, I can only describe it as being similar to the final scenes in the movie "Titanic", when Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett are below deck as the ship is sinking, and they see the random person running off with their suitcase, and another person running with their child and a bag of clothes. This was very similar in feeling. I remember seeing a random businessman trying to make his way home, and a person carrying a plastic bag as they walked north. There was also the strange feeling that something worse could actually still happen. I didn?t know if we should be expecting more, like an atomic blast, but again I figured it was probably over, and if not, this is how I wanted to spend my last moments ? Trying to help someone. The roads were strangely quiet. Not a single sound. Stores were all closed. Those that had metal grating in front had closed them in a hurry. Some stores had messy makeshift signs saying "CLOSED TODAY" hung in front of them. There was a small group of 2-3 teenagers looking nervous as they stood in front of a broken storefront, looking inside the store. I thought they might be looting, which pissed me off. I walked up to them to try to figure out what they were trying to steal, since the store looked like some kind of a jewelry store, and briefly said, "You guys aren't seriously looting, are you?? but then they looked back at me, and I realized that if an altercation were to happen, the police wouldn't be there to investigate. So I left them alone, and the three of us continued walking up Fulton. And in the midst of all of the doom and despair was suddenly this young woman, in her 20s, who was standing on a street corner all by herself. She had a shopping cart full of bottled water and paper cups. She was offering it to anyone who walked by, to help wash out their eyes. I thought it was peculiar that she had paper cups -- It seemed like such a nicety in the middle of all of this, an unexpected sign of civilization amidst the chaos, kind of like making sure your suit is pressed before you're going down in the Titanic. But she stood there, alone, offering it to the few people who were still there. To this day, I have no idea who that woman was, but I would like to thank her. If anyone knows who she is, please contact me. I think about her a lot. We explained that we were going down to the site to look for people, and she immediately gave us a gallon of water to carry along. After exchanging brief words, we continued on. I still feel kind of bad that we left her there. I'm not sure what she had seen an hour or two earlier, but clearly she was as determined as we were to try to have SOME control over this chaos. The dust was pretty thick at this point. I remember looking down and noticing it was up to my ankles. Suddenly, there were women's shoes all over the street. I was trying to figure out where they came from. Morbidly, I thought they might have been from the passengers in one of the jets, but more likely they were women's shoes that were quickly discarded as people fled the scene quickly. I also remember tripping several times over various things. Metal beams lying in the street. Papers from people's desks were blowing all over. I picked up one - I don't remember the details, but I remember it was a double-spaced legal document describing part of some lawsuit. I thought for a moment and wondered if the lawsuit was still going to happen after this. Once, while tripping over debris, I dropped my glasses in the dust. They completely disappeared in the 4-5 inches of dust that laid on the street like snow. I frantically tried to blow the dust away, only to get a mouthful of the stuff back in my face, but fortunately I was able to feel for them and get them out. We walked on, looking for anyone, any cries for help, when suddenly we came upon what I call "THE STUMP". The Stump was the remaining pile of burning debris that sat there at the site of the former Twin Towers. It burned intensely. Not just a crackling-type fire, but a real blow-furnace type fire, like when they are blowing glass and put it into that inferno to melt it. The WTC was right in front of us, the pile several stories high, burning intensely. And despite the bright, shooting flames, it still felt like nighttime. The dust was so thick that the light from the flames barely reached us. At that point, we realized we couldn't go straight, so we walked right past WTC building 7 and turned right to head north. The air seemed to get a little lighter, and firemen were rushing down to the rubble, carrying hoses. Another interesting note : There were several cars parked along the side streets that were completely crushed by debris, but there were also several that were burned. I was trying to figure out how a car would be set on fire. Did a fireball race down one of the canyons? One of the cars that was crushed and burning had it's alarm going, amazingly. "God will someone shut off that alarm? I hate those car alarms!" was overheard. It shows the morbid sense of humor the firefighters were having at that point. We walked further north, asking the firemen and police repeatedly if there was a triage station set up. Nobody seemed to know. We trudged on, covered in dust and still tasting concrete, and kept asking if anyone knew of a triage center. None of the police or firemen at that point had a clue. My guess is their radios were jammed with transmissions from other officers trying to coordinate bigger things. So we kept walking around. At one point we were picked up by a Hatzollah Ambulance that was partly crushed, its front windshield cracked, but it was still driveable. We jumped in and joined several orthodox EMTs who were also looking for where to go. They were a very nice bunch. Apparently, they were right under the overpass that led to the WTC, when it collapsed around them, and their ambulance got stuck under part of the overpass. Rather than just sit there helplessly, though, they managed to wedge it out from the overpass, and kept driving around, looking for where to go. Their ambulance got stuck behind a bunch of other emergency vehicles, so we stepped out (leaving our steel rod splints in their ambulance), and walked around again. Still, we kept asking the firemen and policemen if anything had been organized. Nobody seemed to know. Finally, one fireman said, "Well, they're supposed to set something up over on Greenwich and North Moore, but nobody is here yet." The corner of Greenwich and North Moore, 388 Greenwich Street, is the site of the Citicorp building. It was an ideal place for a triage unit. It has a decent sized courtyard, perfect for setting up the triage area. It has a good stretch of street in front of it, perfect for setting up an ambulance staging area. And it has a big red metal umbrella -- A piece of modern art -- But the big umbrella made it feel safe, and was a good place to tell people to meet when nobody knew the area. The only problem was that there were a bunch of EMS workers, paramedics, doctors, and other volunteers standing around, but still nobody to organize it. We all stood there for about a minute, waiting for updates of what we should do. At some point someone asked if we were supposed to be setting up a triage site here, and someone else yelled out, "Yeah, but FDNY isn't here yet." And then suddenly I felt the need to assume some responsibility. It seemed ridiculous to wait. We should start acting now. We didn't know who our patients would be, or how many we would have, but the World Trade Center has just fallen, and we can't just stand around and wait. So suddenly the leader inside me came out, and I started barking out orders and assuming control. I don't like to toot my own horn, so let me just say that it was very Forrest Gump-ish. I was just the right person with the right training in the right place at the right time. I don't think there was anything to it, really, it just needed to be done. So I started barking out orders and began to organize the triage effort there on the corners of Greenwich and North Moore. I can't remember exactly how I responded to the guy saying that we should wait for FDNY to show up, but these are a few of the phrases I do remember shouting: "No way, wait, we're not going to wait. Okay, everyone, LISTEN UP! We're here at a time of a national disaster, our World Trade Center has just fallen. We don't have much information right now about who or how many need to be treated, but we can't just stand around. We need to set this up and I need your cooperation! I want all EMTs and Paramedics to gather over here. Doctors and nurses gather under the umbrella. I want all ambulance drivers over here!" (Pointing to street corner for ambulances to park.) (In front of the group of ambulance drivers) : "I want all of the ambulances lined up over here, leave your keys IN THE AMBULANCE, and make sure they're off, I don't want any ambulances with dead batteries, and PLEASE STAY NEAR YOUR AMBULANCE, we need you to be available immediately." (In front of the group of doctors / nurses) : "Okay, I need people to gather by whatever your specialty is, if you're a surgeon, stick with the other surgeons, if you're a pediatrician, stick with other pediatricians. Please identify yourselves by your specialties. I also need someone to be responsible for organizing the doctors." (In front of the group of paramedics / EMTs) : "Okay, I need you guys to be our front line of defense, when patients show up here, you have to be the first to look at them and decide what to do with them. If there is something bleeding, put a gloved finger on it. Do whatever your skills are, but you're going to be our front line.? (In front of the group of volunteers) : "I need two people to be in charge of organizing the supplies that are coming in. Your job is going to be to organize it and keep it safe. I'll show you what some of the basic tools are, but you have to provide them to any worker who asks for them. I also need one of you to be in charge of organizing volunteers across the street in front of the Ryder sign. Take all of these people, organize them across the street, and try to keep track of who can do what. If there are any CPR-trained people, keep them in a special area." (To the police) : "Can we get the crowd back here? We're going to set up a triage site here. Do you have any yellow tape?" (In front of the doctors who identified themselves as emergency physicians) : "Okay, we need to set up the triage areas, I need one person to be responsible for each area, and one person responsible for directing patients to the areas." I guess at that point Robert was put in charge of organizing triage. Meanwhile, Scott continued to complain. I'm not sure if he was bored or nervous, but he tagged along, helping where he was asked. We had put about an hour of work into organizing our site, and the building manager from the building had just stepped over to tell me they were making the entire building available for the triage effort, when suddenly I saw a group of very official-looking fire officials walk up to our site, which had by this time become semi-organized. At least people were split into the proper triage areas, we had ambulances lining up, and people were assigned specific tasks. The police had roped off the area. One of the FDNY officials was Top Eppinger, who strangely enough is a spitting image of my old EMT instructor's son. (I actually thought it was him at first.) Tom stepped into our crowd and asked, "Who's in control here?? Having worked with firemen before when I did EMS up in Westchester, I know better than to try to step on their territory, so I told him, "I'm not in control, but I'm trying to organize things so far!" I think he appreciated that. At that point, FDNY was able to come in and bring the heavy equipment. They brought in a MERV - Kind of a mobile operating room / MASH unit on a bus. We decided to park it out in front of the street, and Tom decided to move our site more towards the middle of the block. At that point, I think Tom appreciated the work that had already been done, so he appointed me in charge of the medical services at the site. He would take over the fire / organizational stuff, and I would be in charge of assigning doctors to the right place, organizing the teams, getting and organizing equipment, and making sure patients were receiving the care they needed. I even got a little red fire marshal hat that I wore the rest of the day. (Tom said I had to wear it so he could find me if he needed to.) So during the next three hours Tom and I managed to build our little triage site into a full-scale, professional emergency triage site worthy of a disaster the size and scale of the WTC attack. We had a surgical bus with several surgeons. Paris Datillo, a nurse at Methodist hospital ER, was assigned to the bus to organize materials and assist the surgeons. Paris responded to the events of the day in the most professional and efficient manner, and kept totally calm. Paris and I kept reassuring each other that things were going to be okay, despite the chaos. And so our site was set up. We had doctors from practically every medical field - Pediatrics, OB/GYN, Radiology, Surgery, Neurology, Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Cardiology, Psychiatry, and Family Practice. We also had an entire team of counselors, psychiatrists, priests, ministers, and chaplains who were organizing to provide emotional support to our patients. I was really impressed with the dedication of the group, led by Richard Gins. They banded together, bonded quickly, and became a team much faster than the medical groups did. They waited towards the back of the site, setting up some of the chairs on the grassy courtyard as a makeshift counseling center. The only problem was, as Matthew Klam (a reporter who later wrote about his work at our triage site for the NY times) said in his description, ?we needed bodies.? That is, we weren?t getting a whole lot of patients coming our way. And this led to frustration. Although we had treated about 10 patients by that time, mostly for minor injuries and chest pain, it didn?t seem like enough, and people were getting antsy. Of course, everyone was so anxious that the only way they could feel any control of the situation that day was to help someone. But without people there to help, it left people feeling demoralized. The first sign of frustration was seen when the surgeons seemed to run off, leaving Paris in the MERV by herself. One of the last surgeons I talked to said something like, ?Nothing?s happening here, I?m getting out of here.? With that, he left us. Suddenly, my cell phone managed to ring. This was a surprise, since service had been very poor. I had heard the antenna for most cell phones was on the World Trade Center when it fell, so it seemed surprising that it was suddenly working. My parents called. I told them I was okay, and they told me that my friend Dave had called in to say he was okay. Dave called me a minute or two later. I told him that I came down to Ground Zero because I thought he was in the building, and warned him never to scare me like that again. He asked me, if I thought he was in the building, what did I think I could do to help him at that point? I pondered that for a minute before hanging up on him. Looking back, I guess it was the only way I could feel any control over the thought of having lost him as a friend. As the afternoon wore on, and people were getting tired, Marianne McCune, a reporter from NPR, came by our site. She wanted to give a report live, but her cell phone had run out of power. She borrowed mine and was able to give her report. After making the call and being on the air live, she interviewed me and recorded the interview on her tape recorder, as I described the layout of the triage site. Her report was later aired (I had friends in North Carolina and Massachusetts tell me they heard me), and I recently found it on the WNYC web site, in RealAudio. Although people were getting frustrated without more patients, there was actually a moment of excitement mixed with panic when 7 World Trade Center seemed to buckle, and finally collapsed as we all stood by on Greenwich Avenue and watched. I didn?t realize how close we were, but when it collapsed, the smoke came up the canyon towards our site, setting off a stampede of scared people. The stampede almost ran over everyone in our site, while I yelled ?SLOW DOWN!! DO NOT PANIC!!? at the top of my lungs, leaving my voice sore until the next day. You can hear me screaming on the NPR report, right after my interview gets cut off. It was odd to watch 7WTC fall down. It almost seemed unimpressive, compared to the destruction that was already there, but a new plume of smoke certainly scared people. I understand some people in our counseling group were physically injured as the crowd broke through the yellow tape and rushed our triage site. And yet, people were getting more frustrated. Tom, the lieutenant from FDNY, told me he was concerned that people would start leaving, and we would suddenly be put into action with half of our group missing. So we decided we would make a real effort to keep up morale. Fortunately, Matthew Modine, the actor and star of movies like Full Metal Jacket, Gross Anatomy, and As The Band Played On, stopped by. He tied a piece of yellow police tape around his arm (the sign that we were using for ?people who belonged on the site?) and joined us. Mr. Modine was very nice. I talked to him and thanked him for coming down, and he said something to the effect of ?whatever I can do to help support you guys, I?m here.? I actually think it helped people from getting frustrated. At least if there is a celebrity at your site, people think it?s worth sticking around for. (I was also able to tell Mr. Modine that the movie And The Band Played On was one of the reasons I went to medical school ? He told me he was flattered to know one of his movies had made a positive impression in someone. Odd to have that kind of a conversation amidst all of the chaos and confusion, but he was very nice to stop by and hang around for a while.) The group of volunteers across the street in front of the Ryder sign had now swollen to hundreds. People were coming up to me constantly, asking how they could help. A few people stand out in my mind. One man could barely speak English but said ?I am a metal cutter, how can I help?? Another man told me he was a rescue worker in Israel and wanted to help. Another man told me he was from Poland but was a construction worker and wanted to help dig through the rubble. I had to focus on keeping up the medical effort of our triage site, so I sent them all over to the corner under the Ryder sign. As the evening started to set in, Paris and I kept joking with each other, making a genuine effort to keep up morale at our site and keep people interested. Unfortunately, darkness started to set in. We had set up emergency lighting so that we could keep our triage site running well into the next day, but at around 8:30pm the decision came from Lieutenant Eppinger that FDNY had ordered our site to close. Our total patient count? 19 patients. We treated a few patients with chest pain and respiratory distress, but most were patients with minor bruises and cuts, and a few came to us just to have the ashes washed out of their eyes. Even our fearless counseling team was demoralized, having been unable to offer assistance to any of the firemen who came to our site after having lost so many of their co-workers. At that point, I informed the various medical team leaders that the site was officially closing up. I asked people to stay to help put the equipment into ambulances so that it could be brought to St. Vincent?s hospital for further use, but of course, people generally don?t like to clean up after their mess. So I ended up cleaning up the site with a few other key leaders, until about 10:00pm. And around that time, I started to head uptown with Robert Cartwright, Scott, and Scott Caruthers, one of the ministers in our fearless counseling group. As we walked north on Greenwich, now dark and empty, we passed several fire trucks loaded with firemen. The firemen were covered with the soot and ash from the collapse, and were collecting their hoses and fixing some of their gear. Everyone was so tired from the day we had all just had. Although our medical team was completely exhausted, I knew their day was far from over. I gave them all a tired smile and said thanks to them, as we walked on, looking for a subway. The Canal Street subway station was closed, but we walked further north until we found an open station. MTA was not even collecting fares ? The subways were running for free, to allow people to get where they needed. The N and R trains were not running, since they run right through Cortland Street and the WTC site, but we managed to find a Q train back to Brooklyn. I said goodbye to everyone, as we all split up, and finally found my way back to Bay Ridge, where I picked up my cell phone and called a few friends to tell them I was still alive and well. Most of my friends weren?t home, but I left messages telling them that I was okay. When I came home, the email awaiting me was full of ominous-sounding messages saying things like, ?Uh, we?re watching what?s going on in New York, are you okay? Please send us a letter so we know you?re okay.? There?s really not a way to explain how that day has affected me. I know it?s different for every New Yorker. Many families senselessly lost loved ones. Some raced in to help rescue people and to put out fires. Still others have lost their jobs, their apartments, and their livelihood. There are too many things to be said about that day, and I don?t think any one person can ever really get the full picture. I think a lot of us keep trying to understand it by asking everyone we know what happened, where they were and what they were doing that day. And every person?s experience helps put another piece of the puzzle in place, to try to make sense of what happened. But this puzzle is too big -- Nobody will ever really understand all of the pieces of the puzzle. The best you can do is to ask the people who lived through September 11th, or the people who have lived through any war or senseless tragedy, and let their accounts give us all a little more insight into humanity. 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 story849.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-07-02 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 162.83.221.104 Annotation Annotations to this item. Environmental/Health Impact Firefighters Ground zero Police Officers Radio Coverage Rescue/clean-up workers/volunteers Personal connection to someone at site WTC, attack NY:2 feature