on the issue of national security....

There is something the government doesn't tell you.

I hear from the right that we are not protected enough. We are not safe. No matter how many machines and security gaurds we get, if someone wants to create an attack,they are going too.

Many people died in the towers on 9/11 that didn't have too.

Why?

because they couldn't find their way out. Many went to the top floors to find the door locked. Many didn't know that the stairwells didn't go all the way down that you had to cross lower floors(who made that design?)

Fact is, most have never even been on a fire drill.

NYC has a budget of a billion dollars. Not one cent is spent on civilian training. The only thing we are ever taught is to wait for the authorities.

It took on average 4 min longer for each person then the models ever considered. Teh stairwells had to be shared with firemen. People stopped to gather things, people didn't know where to go. A few were in wheelchairs that couldn't use the elevator, one guy was carried down dozens of floors.



Morgan Stanley and Dean Whitter are the largest companies in the WTC with 3000 employees. They only lost 6 people. Because the head of security insisted on everyone, no matter who you were, did fire drills, find multiple methods to escape. To leave immediately (people have a tendency to gather.) He was the thorn of executives, interrupting meeetings and losing costly time.

When the planes struck the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, Rick Rescorla embodied that spirit of survival. The head of security for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter at the World Trade Center, Rescorla believed that regular people were capable of great achievements, with a bit of leadership. He got Morgan Stanley employees to take responsibility for their survival--which happened almost nowhere else that day in the Trade Center.

Rescorla felt it was foolish to rely on first responders to save his employees. His company was the largest tenant in the Trade Center, a village nestled in the clouds. Morgan Stanley's employees would need to take care of one another. He ordered them not to listen to any instructions from the Port Authority in a real emergency. In his eyes, it had lost all legitimacy after it failed to respond to his 1990 warnings. And so Rescorla started running the entire company through his own frequent, surprise fire drills. He trained employees to meet in the hallway between the stairwells and go down the stairs, two by two, to the 44th floor. The radicalism of Rescorla's drills cannot be overstated. Remember, Morgan Stanley is an investment bank. Millionaire, high-performance bankers on the 73rd floor did not appreciate the interruption. Each drill, which pulled brokers off their phones and away from their computers, cost the company money. But Rescorla did it anyway. His military training had taught him a simple rule of human nature: the best way to get the brain to perform under extreme stress is to repeatedly run it through rehearsals beforehand.

After the first few drills, Rescorla chastised employees for moving too slowly in the stairwell. He started timing them with a stopwatch, and they got faster. He also lectured employees about some of the basics of fire emergencies: Because roof rescues are rare and extremely dangerous, people should always go down

how to survive disaster.


I have read other articles where the executives took the credit.

Fact is, as the other pointed out, on average, it takes 26 hours for search and rescue dogs to show up. Do you know how to keep yourself alive during that time?

How many people have sat out fire alarms to continue working?

Are people ever forced to learn to take alternative methods of escape out of their buildings?

Do you know that if you read the emergency packet on the plane and make note of the exits and how to use them, you automatically increase your chances of survival by 25%?

So why is it after 9/11 that people have still not been forced to fire drill more?

Fact is, how you respond instantly to a disaster, determines your survival. Not the authorities.

To wait for authorities can spell your doom.

The auther wrote a book called the "unthinkable" who survives disaster adn why."by Amanda Ripley.

And everyone should read it.

It will definetly change your mind about "being safe". Because the only person that will keep you safe is you.

This is no offense to rescue workers by the way. But on large scale opersations, it is just too crazy to save everybody.

There is a town outside of New Orleans that the author documents, who didn't lose a soul during the hurricane. Because the town does routine evacuations. They have extra gear in storage and they are timed in how fast they can get into their boat and to the pre appointed destination.

So tell me, if you had an emergency in your building right now, do you know at least 2 different ways to get out with your eyes closed?