Boaters are Awesome Folks

[redbrix]

Folks
A good friend of mine sent me this link, titled "BOATLIFT, An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience"

https://www.youtube.com/embed/MDOrzF7B2Kg?rel=0

I suppose there is a way to actually upload the video, but I am not that techy

[Lonestaralaskan]

Thank you for posting this! It was super inspiring, but a tear jerker as well. Sharing with my family.

[Cpt Pat]

I suggest not watching that video with anyone you don't want to witness you cry. It's that moving.


People will just step up and do what's needed in a crisis - contrary to what the Incident Command System courses have taught me. A detailed analysis of our cultural resilience and why so many things went right on 9/11 is covered in the book: "American Dunkirk: The Waterborne Evacuation of Manhattan on 9/11."

[a64pilot]

People are different, some will rise to greatness if you will, however some will run out for some undocumented shopping, and it’s not always the ones you would suspect either.

[JPA Cate]

@redbrix,

Thank you for posting that. Good on those guys! ....We were not in the US when 9/11 occurred. It was really good to see folks come to help. And good on the USCG, too, for trying to organize it all.

Ann

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by Cpt Pat

I suggest not watching that video with anyone you don't want to witness you cry. It's that moving.


People will just step up and do what's needed in a crisis - contrary to what the Incident Command System courses have taught me. A detailed analysis of our cultural resilience and why so many things went right on 9/11 is covered in the book: "American Dunkirk: The Waterborne Evacuation of Manhattan on 9/11."

You gotta design for the worst case with ICS, Katrina had cops abandoning their posts and shooting unarmed people in the back.

[Cpt Pat]

Originally Posted by redneckrob

You gotta design for the worst case with ICS, Katrina had cops abandoning their posts and shooting unarmed people in the back.

The Incident Command System (ICS) has come under a lot of criticism for being too hierarchical and for not accommodating people who are trying to help those around them as spontaneous volunteers - like all those civilians who stepped up on 9/11. Applied too rigidly, ICS says to those volunteers: "We're in charge - get out of our way. Just sit there passively and wait for the authorities to take over. You're not part of our plan."

I have a friend who was a Sky Marshall after 9/11. I told him that, if a hijacking ever happened on one of his flights, he'd better respond quickly because otherwise he'd have the passengers' footprints all over his back. In an overwhelming emergency, it's the authorities that need to get out of the way. Facilitate and coordinate, but don't hinder.

The boatlift was well underway by the time the CG called for: "all available boats." Mariners saw a need and responded spontaneously. The CG did a great job of coordinating, but the most important thing they did NOT do was get in the way of the volunteer response. The CG disserves huge credit for that wisdom.

I suggest reading the book I cited above for an analysis of the volunteer response on that day. What the authors found may make you more optimistic about how well people can respond when the authorities are completely overwhelmed and without a plan.

[jmh2002]

Here's the video link without the embedding:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDOrzF7B2Kg