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 corporate recruiter working for State Street Corporation in Kansas City. On September 11th, 2001, I was scheduled to attend a college career fair at Emporia State University in Central Kansas (my alma mater). Just before 8:00 CST, two colleagues and I were in unusually heavy traffic leaving Kansas City. We were checking radio stations fir a traffic report. Never did we find a traffic report, but we did hear something mentioned about a plane crash in NYC. Thinking nothing of it, we turned off the radio as soon as traffic picked back up. When we arrived at the university, sightly more than one hours later, we were greeted at the student union by career fair workers. They were anxious. With shaken voices, they told us all about the tragic news from the East Coast. "New York has been attacked!" It goes without saying, that morning, the career fair was virtually empty of job seekers. Furthermore, none of us recruiters were even thinking about the career fair. We did not have access to a television in the student union, thus all of our information about the unfolding events was learned via radio and word of mouth. Because cell phone service was limited to non-existent that day, the recruiters had formed lines to use the pay phones. Most of the recruiters spent the morning trying to contact his/her corporate headquarters to find out what was going on a home and what to do next. By noon, I was able to contact the receptionist at our regional office in downtown Kansas City. He relayed the message from our manager for us to return to Kansas City, immediately. It turns out that the National Guard had evacuated downtown Kansas City, and everyone was returning home to be with family. It was utter chaos in the heartland, as we drove back to Kansas City. Lines of cars waited to get off the interstate highway to purchase gasoline, prices that had sky-rocketed within a few hours. Radio broadcasts varied with horrifying stories from rumored attacks in the Midwest, rumors of additional strikes being planned across the US, to food and gas supplies running on empty, to the death and chaos on the East Coast, to a war already being planned. The National Guard was being called out in cities like Kansas City, Topeka, Wichita and the like. Finally, I arrived at my apartment in Kansas City in time for the evening news. I turned on the TV and hear the voice of Dan Rather and see the scenes from NYC on the screen. That was the first time I saw the scenes from NYC. I couldn't move. I broke down in tears. Only having a cell phone at home, I was unable to make contact with friends and family. The typically busy boulevard down below was quiet, an unnerving silence. Like many, I felt the world had come to an end. I felt alone. With a bottle of wine and a pack of cigarettes, I sat all evening in front of the TV all night and cried. 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 story10460.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. 2004-03-02 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 204.151.97.186