- James Kendra
Director, Disaster Research Center
- Tricia Wachtendorf
Associate Director, Disaster Research Center
The disaster response on September 11, and over the next days and weeks, showed the adaptability and resourcefulness of ordinary people when confronting an extraordinary crisis. We use the term “ordinary” with caution, because there is nothing ordinary about what people did. With support from the National Science Foundation, we have studied several examples of disaster response in New York on September 11, and many of the people we talked to said something like, “We did what we had to do.”
One such example is the evacuation by boat from Lower Manhattan. Several hundred thousand people evacuated to New Jersey or Staten Island in an improvised fleet of ferries, tugs, dinner boats, and other vessels. While some were responding to a U.S. Coast Guard call for all available boats, many were responding of their own accord. There was no planning for this enormous effort, which involved spontaneous partnerships of private mariners and waterfront workers and public officials such as the Coast Guard. The familiarity of the maritime community with each other and their close knowledge of the marine environment were vital. So was their willingness to get their boats underway before knowing precisely what they were going to do. That’s not necessarily the best way to begin an emergency response, but it freed their thinking to be flexible and creative. Their ability to envision a role for themselves, a strong commitment to rescue, a flexible response environment that facilitated their participation, and a willingness of the U.S. Coast Guard, harbor pilots, and harbor police to allow for a decentralized response were also important elements. A physical way for mariners to get into the area and make their capacities known, of course, also helped.
We were reminded of 9/11 during a more recent horrifying event: the July 22 mass shooting at a Norwegian youth camp. After the bomb exploded in Oslo, word spread of the shooting. Not only did formal responders converge to the island, but so, too, did everyday citizens with access to boats. Whether they were at home when they heard the news, as was Kasper Ilaug, or on the water, as was German tourist Marcel Gleffe, they improvised a boat evacuation of those fleeing for their lives. As Gleffe described to the Daily Telegraph, “…you just do what it takes.”
9/11 Remembered: Doing “what it takes” in emergency response
UD associate sociology professor and assistant director of the Disaster Research Center Tricia Wachtendorf
Video
Planning is always essential, and no one would argue that formal emergency management agencies do not have a mandate to think ahead. At the same time, however, as a nation we’ve moved in a direction that attempts to more tightly control disaster environments, where we specify roles of any and all responders and pre-credential volunteers. In doing so, we sometimes forget that improvisation is an important element of any disaster response. Planning is vital, but post-disaster environments also need to facilitate improvisation and unanticipated involvement by those not part of the formal response system. As we consider the events of ten years ago, and look back over more recent tragedies, we should remember that it is these latent capacities in our own communities that often help formal responses succeed.
Tricia Wachtendorf is an associate professor of sociology and criminal justice and the associate director of the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center.
James Kendra is an associate professor of public policy and administration and the director of the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center.
Both Wachtendorf and Kendra arrived in New York City two days after the attacks and spend much of next two months at key response facilities observing what transpired. Their work on 9/11 has continued over the past decade, and they have a book forthcoming on the 9/11 boat evacuation.
9/11 Remembered: Doing “what it takes” in emergency response
and Tricia Wachtendorf
Director, Disaster Research Center
Associate Director, Disaster Research Center
The disaster response on September 11, and over the next days and weeks, showed the adaptability and resourcefulness of ordinary people when confronting an extraordinary crisis. We use the term “ordinary” with caution, because there is nothing ordinary about what people did. With support from the National Science Foundation, we have studied several examples of disaster response in New York on September 11, and many of the people we talked to said something like, “We did what we had to do.”
One such example is the evacuation by boat from Lower Manhattan. Several hundred thousand people evacuated to New Jersey or Staten Island in an improvised fleet of ferries, tugs, dinner boats, and other vessels. While some were responding to a U.S. Coast Guard call for all available boats, many were responding of their own accord. There was no planning for this enormous effort, which involved spontaneous partnerships of private mariners and waterfront workers and public officials such as the Coast Guard. The familiarity of the maritime community with each other and their close knowledge of the marine environment were vital. So was their willingness to get their boats underway before knowing precisely what they were going to do. That’s not necessarily the best way to begin an emergency response, but it freed their thinking to be flexible and creative. Their ability to envision a role for themselves, a strong commitment to rescue, a flexible response environment that facilitated their participation, and a willingness of the U.S. Coast Guard, harbor pilots, and harbor police to allow for a decentralized response were also important elements. A physical way for mariners to get into the area and make their capacities known, of course, also helped.
We were reminded of 9/11 during a more recent horrifying event: the July 22 mass shooting at a Norwegian youth camp. After the bomb exploded in Oslo, word spread of the shooting. Not only did formal responders converge to the island, but so, too, did everyday citizens with access to boats. Whether they were at home when they heard the news, as was Kasper Ilaug, or on the water, as was German tourist Marcel Gleffe, they improvised a boat evacuation of those fleeing for their lives. As Gleffe described to the Daily Telegraph, “…you just do what it takes.”
9/11 Remembered: Doing “what it takes” in emergency response
UD associate sociology professor and assistant director of the Disaster Research Center Tricia Wachtendorf
Video
Planning is always essential, and no one would argue that formal emergency management agencies do not have a mandate to think ahead. At the same time, however, as a nation we’ve moved in a direction that attempts to more tightly control disaster environments, where we specify roles of any and all responders and pre-credential volunteers. In doing so, we sometimes forget that improvisation is an important element of any disaster response. Planning is vital, but post-disaster environments also need to facilitate improvisation and unanticipated involvement by those not part of the formal response system. As we consider the events of ten years ago, and look back over more recent tragedies, we should remember that it is these latent capacities in our own communities that often help formal responses succeed.
Tricia Wachtendorf is an associate professor of sociology and criminal justice and the associate director of the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center.
James Kendra is an associate professor of public policy and administration and the director of the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center.
Both Wachtendorf and Kendra arrived in New York City two days after the attacks and spend much of next two months at key response facilities observing what transpired. Their work on 9/11 has continued over the past decade, and they have a book forthcoming on the 9/11 boat evacuation.