Explore the Archives
A Journal of the Plague Year Arizona Collection Australia Boston Bronx Community College New York Brooklyn College New York Canada Las Americas Lockdown Staten Island New Orleans Oral Histories Philippines Sacramento Community Based Organizations Southwest Stories Teaching the Pandemic The City College of New York

Collected Item: “The Big Flee”

Give your story a title.

The Big Flee

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

Text Story & Photograph (Facebook)

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

Early in the morning on March 17, my roommates and I fled San Francisco. It felt extremely weird leaving my life behind, but we would return to normal soon (or so I thought). As we piled our belongings into the back of a friend's car I looked around to see nobody. Not even an early morning jogger or any sign of life for that matter. In the airport we got through security in five minutes and saw around two others our whole time there. It was as if time had stood still in the city. At the time I was extremely scared, as what evils could cause a city-wide shutdown? How dangerous was CO-19 if all colleges had moved to online learning and forced every student out of the dorms? Little was known about the effects of CO-19 in March, and as I write this on August 23, 2020 more is yet to be discovered before we can safely reopen as a country.

I chose to include this photo with my story as it was taken on March 16, 2020, the night before San Francisco's mandatory shutdown. It was eerie how silent the once bustling streets of downtown were. I had never witnessed something like this in my life.

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

#USF #H396

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

Photo: Dan Churchill

Give this story a date.

2020-03-17
Click here to view the corresponding item.