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Learning From 9/11 for Future Crises

By the time a bevy of reports are completed, 9/11 will be one of the most intensely studied disasters in U.S.

From the August 28, 2002 Edition
Ron Scherer / Staff Writer
The Christian Science Monitor

UNDER REVIEW:
The response of firefighters is the subject of several studies. Here a beam that is being analyzed on Sept. 12.
Image Credit: File Photo by Melanie Stetson Freeman -- CSM Staff.

The McKinsey study also cited the New York Fire Department for a communications system that failed. Twelve minutes before the towers came down, for example, emergency operators -- who were overwhelmed with calls -- started to hear from people in the towers that the floors were collapsing. That information apparently did not get to the right people.

NEW YORK -- CSM
Two days after the attacks on the World Trade Center, James Kendra and four others from the University of Delaware's Disaster Research Center were headed to New York to study how it would respond to its greatest crisis ever.

They quickly obtained access to the Office of Emergency Management, the Family Assistance Center, and the facilities set up to care for the exhausted rescue workers. From their observations, they concluded that creativity and improvisation -- such as the Coast Guard, ferries, and anything else that could float moving 1 million people -- are important in responding to such disasters.

"Our objective in disaster research is to learn what can be applied to future situations, to improve planning and improve responses," says Dr. Kendra, the research coordinator.

The University of Delaware researchers are far from being the only ones on such a mission. Over the past year, structural engineers, disaster specialists, private consultants, and the federal government have been busy interviewing, analyzing, and trying to draw lessons from Sept. 11. Some of the studies are already done, while others are just beginning. Emergency officials around the nation will read most of them and discuss them at conferences.

By the time everything is completed, "it will one of the most intensely studied disasters in the history of the United States," says Kendra.
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2002 © The Christian Science Monitor.

Dan