Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
EVACUATION OF PREMISES
One of the most common elements of any Emergency Response Plan
deals with the full or partial evacuation of the facility. This type of evacu-
ation refers to a location-specific evacuation and not a general “flee-the-
country” evacuation discussed above. Often a timely evacuation literally
means the difference between life and death for the employees, visitors,
and guests present in facility during a catastrophe. Nearly 3,000 people
were killed in the World Trade Center attack. Apart from the several hun-
dred who died instantly as the planes crashed into the towers, the rest died
because they were unable to get out. Literally thousands of lives were saved
by the heroic firefighters and police officers who helped evacuate the
occupants of the buildings at the cost of their own lives. Interviews with
many of the survivors revealed that most had no idea what to do in the
moments after the impacts. Many people who had escaped gathered in the
immediate area at the base of the Twin Towers. Prior to the second impact,
many were told it was safe to return to their offices in the second tower,
which had not yet been struck. Still others stayed in their offices and were
not evacuated. They were unsure what to do and had no idea of what was
yet to come. Few businesses had Emergency Response Plans; instead, they
relied on building management to conduct drills and advise the tenants
if evacuation was necessary. Few had considered just how long it would
take to walk down 100 flights of stairs in stairwells filled with panic-stricken
people. No provisions had been made for special-needs people, such as
people in wheelchairs. How many additional lives were lost by this failure
to prepare for disaster?
Still, there were some exceptions. A former soldier and Vietnam com-
bat veteran named Rick Rescorla was the vice president of security for
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. His office was on the forty-fourth floor of
the South Tower. Rescorla was serious about the need for training and
preparation and conducted evacuation drills at least twice a year. He had
been present during the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and
personally ensured that every one of his firm's employees was safely evac-
uated. On September 11, Rescorla was at work when the first plane struck
the North Tower. In an error of monumental proportions, the Port Author-
ity officials at the trade center did not order an evacuation but rather told
the tenants of the untouched South Tower to remain in the building.
Rescorla, grasping the significance of what had happened, ignored their
