Another entry at Stupid Security that leads to this article from Wired.
For nearly four years - steadily, seriously, and with the unsentimental rigor for which we love them - civil engineers have been studying the destruction of the World Trade Center towers, sifting the tragedy for its lessons. And it turns out that one of the lessons is: Disobey authority. In a connected world, ordinary people often have access to better information than officials do.and
After both buildings were burning, many calls to 911 resulted in advice to stay put and wait for rescue. Also, occupants of the towers had been trained to use the stairs, not the elevators, in case of evacuation.The report can be found here.
Fortunately, this advice was mostly ignored. According to the engineers, use of elevators in the early phase of the evacuation, along with the decision to not stay put, saved roughly 2,500 lives.
1 comment:
I like to think that after the 93 bombing, I would have got out of the buildings too, regardless of what the official word was. I dislike being up that high, so once I heard that a plane had hit one of the towers I think I would have been on my way down. (I know my ex-co-workers, who were in a nearby building, all evacuated right after the first plane hit.) I don't know whether or not I'd have used the elevators, though. I guess I would have if I was in the second tower. If I knew there was a fire in my building I think I'd play it safe and go for the stairs and trust in my fitness level. Which might have got me killed. I'm so thankful we were no longer in NY on that terrible day.
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