After the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, several hundred thousand commuters were evacuated from Lower Manhattan by an improvised fleet of ferries, tugs, yachts, sightseeing boats, and other assorted harbor craft. During and after this effort these same vessels, and others, shuttled emergency workers and supplies into the city to assist in the rescue and relief operations. These activities required individuals, groups, private companies, and government agencies to work together. Some had done so before, but many had not, yet they had to organize themselves and to coordinate their efforts under great stress, with changing and conflicting information, and with urgent needs for action. This project will study how they accomplished the evacuation and subsequent boat-lift of supplies: how they formed new relationships or relied on old ones, how they suspended existing procedures and developed new ones, how they gathered and exchanged information, and how they drew on old knowledge and new inspiration to form a rapidly-improvised but effective system for meeting the demands of an extraordinary crisis. The outcome of the study will be a framework for understanding how individuals and groups understand sudden change in their surroundings, how they communicate with others in complex environments, and how they develop new strategies for meeting emergency needs.
Findings from this research will be of use to researchers who are interested in understanding and improving people's ability to respond to crisis situations as well as to emergency management practitioners and to members of the general public, who are increasingly asked to be participants in planning for and responding to disasters in their communities. The study will examine how individuals and groups improvise and make sense of startling events that are outside their experience. Thus the results will add to the knowledge base of how people cope with large-scale disasters. Results will also include recommendations on ways to enhance the ability to respond to disastrous events, not just in government agencies, but also in the private sector where the ability to respond promptly to disaster has strong national economic implications. Findings from the research will also be incorporated directly into the teaching at two universities where substantial disaster management education takes place, so that students will be able to implement the results of the study in professional settings.
