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 Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Wednesday, November 07, 2001 2:27 PM The 9/11 attack and evacuation of residents To Whom it may concern: On August 1st, 2001 I moved to 41 River Terrace along the esplanade, at the end of Chambers St. It is a building in what is called North Battery Park City. On the morning of 9/11/01 I was standing on the corner of West Side Highway waiting to get a taxi at 8:50 A.M. I witnessed the terrible attack on the World Trade Center. By the time the second plane hit, I along with hundreds of others ran for our lives. I escaped down a subway stairway. I am not alone in this but I feel that I will never be quite the same again. I still jump at any loud noise. For weeks after the attack, I had visions of the attack running in my mind. I went to friends uptown in the city and stayed there while I tried desperately to find out what was happening to the building where I lived. I tried countless times for information, walked miles every day to see if there was any news as to when or if I could get any of my belongings or important papers or medication. There was NOTHING on TV about any of the evacuees. NOTHING. Days later, I finally made it through the checkpoints begging, and got 15 minutes to gather everything I thought was important in my life. I was timed by a park employee along with others to be sure that I got back down into the lobby after 15 minutes. The treatment of the residents in this area by all authority and the Mayor's office and the OEM was deplorable. Two weeks after the event, we were told we could move back in but never given assurance to the quality of air, the safety of our environment. We then suffered thru weeks of checkpoints where we were never given proper ID's by the city or by our landlords (who were completely unavailable to the residents of these buildings). In short, we were evacuated or ran for our lives and then left to fend for ourselves until we returned home where we were treated like criminals by a myriad of "authority" and uniforms...one not knowing what the other was doing or "who" was truly in charge. I have been a resident of NYC for over 20 years, and I have never seen such poor organization and communication but I am beginning to understand it was poor all along it just showed up more in this crisis. While our Mayor was busy taking care of press meetings, going on the Oprah and Saturday Night live shows, 10,000 citizens were completely forgotten about, including by our Federal Government. Although one can understand the reasons why the event and loss of life for so many people would take precedent, there was no reason that the residents that were in such turmoil had to fend for themselves. We had no transportation....a resident had to get her way into the Command Center to represent us and plead to have a bus or shuttle come in to help us get around. There was no one to help the disabled. I saw an elderly woman with a walker, trying to get down the streets to a doctor and not one Police officer tried to find a way to get her help. We could have had the Red Cross get golf carts or something to help out those situations. People were struggling with their children's schools being taken over and not knowing how to deal with getting them to another school and then trying to get themselves to work with no transportation. I myself had go see the CFO of Mercantile Exchange to get some help on using their leased ferry for the residents of Battery Park City. Someone tell me why we as residents have had to do all this for ourselves. Where was our city government?? Busy taking tour guides of celebrities thru Ground Zero. At least that is what we saw each night on the TV.....not how or where were the residents that had to flee to parts unknown or any hotels they could find. Almost seven weeks later they still are not all back in their homes. And still no one has helped us from any city office. They apparently left it up to the Red Cross and FEMA to take care of us...but that is another story. I feel this city government committed terrible injustices to the residents surrounding the WTC. I have lost my job on top of this nightmare and am dealing with a rent strike because the owners will not offer a proper reduction on market value of what we signed leases against. Not one city official has stepped up to be involved in any of these issues involving property value or suffering. If it at all possible I want to sue this city for what took place here after 9/11. No one could have been completely prepared for this awful event but what went wrong with the evacuation of residents and what followed afterward, should not ever happen again to any American Citizen. I want it known that there was a second tragedy that took place within blocks of WTC and it was the neglect and complete avoidance of all the residents in this area. We are now facing major issues about our health. I want to know WHO allowed the residents to come back here to live if it was not testing safe...I understand it was the OEM. They should be brought up on charges. Today, outside my window, I now look at barges and cranes that remove the debris from the WTC on a 24 hour basis, no one in the building is getting any sleep and no one in the city offices cares. They had no regard for life when they put that crane where they did, their only concern was how fast could they get the debris out. When they took over the highschool and the middle school to use as a staging area for the rescue squads and the OEM, they had no regard for life.....there were other buildings near the area that could have been used. I intend to use every ounce of energy and focus I have left to make sure that the people who were responsible for making such inept decisions in regard to where people were living will be held accountable. Do I feel that I am entitled to compensation as a victim in this tragedy...YES. I do not want to see any funds denied to the families that lost loved ones but as I look out at the cranes and barges for the Weeks Marina company I see plenty of money going into the hands of a commercial company who had no suffering in this tragedy.....they are getting plenty of overtime and a lot of money from the Federal funds being given to NYC for this attack. The residents of this area should be compensated for the fact that they became victims in this tragedy along with the Small Business people and the families of those who died but not just because we were so dramatically effected, but also for all the injustices this city brought upon us as residents with their lack of concern or regard for our lives. Individual Comment New York City, NY September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-11-07 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 dojW000190.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. email 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. 2001-11-07