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 awoke to an early alarm at 5:50 AM Pacific Time in Glendale, California. As a television producer, I had to get up early for a commercial shoot that day, and, as usual, I had set my alarm the night before to the Los Angeles all-news AM station, KFWB. The first words I remember hearing were "...top 15 floors of the World Trade Center..." which jolted me out of bed, and into the living room to turn on the TV. I tuned in ABC TV, to a long tight shot of the north side of WTC 1. The impact point was clearly visible, and at that time, the newscaster was mentioning a commuter plane may have struck the tower. In a flurry of thoughts, I remember thinking the sky was too clear for that to be an accident, and that the hole was too large for a commuter plane. My girlfriend was awake by this point, and I told her about what had happened. Horrified, she couldn't watch any more, so she left the room. Then, it happened -- still watching ABC news, their video feed locked on a tight shot of both towers (so tight, that a little sliver of sky was visible on both sides), I was listening to Peter Jennings when everything went into slow motion: I registered a flash of a plane on the right of the frame. I instantly thought it was a plane in the distance taking off from Newark airport across the Hudson, since the distortion of the long lense compressed the image of the towers. About a second later, the fireball erupted on the left side of the frame. I remember Jennings stop his commentary, and hearing in the background, the ABC news room staff in New York yell and scream. Right then, what I suspected in the back of my mind became reality for me. It was clearly a terrorist attack. For the next hour, I was glued to the TV, like the entire world. I never lost my grasp of the fact that what I was witnessing was real, but my grip was shaken when the first tower fell. Once again, a tight shot of about 10 burning floors in WTC 2, an eruption of flame and dark gray soot, and a rush of clear thought: There was an explosion...the corner is falling... the tower is falling. Clear as day what was happening, but it almost didn't register. I almost couldn't comprehend what I was watching. When the second tower fell, I thought, at first, it was a replay of the first tower. Only when the camera zoomed out and revealed both towers down did I realize the truth. I made it to my shoot. I gathered the crew of 40 together and made a speech -- I don't remember the details, other than if anyone wanted to go home, they could. No one left, and we went about shooting -- amidst it all. Ironically, surrounded by millions of dollars worth of the best video equipment in the world for our commercial, the only TV we could get was a black and while 7" monitor with an improvised antenna, which was on between takes. As we finished shooting, I walked outside to a beautiful Southern California sunset, not a plane in the sky, and knew I, like so many of us, I will always remember this moment: where I was on that black Tuesday in September. 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 story10361.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. 2004-01-23 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 206.117.136.48