Looking For Article

[jon]

A reader sent me an email looking for a specific article. I will do some digging but I wondered if this rings a bell to anyone?

"A few years ago, I read an article that talked about how people respond during a disaster, that its not like Titantic where everyone screamns and runs and causes havoc, that people become almost catatonic. It talked about a fire and the twin towers. One of the points of the article was the benefits of evacuation drills and how one man in the towers responsible for the evac planning of his company used a stop watch and insisted the practiced regularly, even though he was on the 20 something floor, most if not all, of his people were safely evacuated. I would LOVE a copy of that article, I cannot find it anywhere."

Thanks,
Jon Seals

[KevinD]

I think you may be referring to a book by Amanda Ripley called "The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why". A very useful book to have on the shelf.

If my memory serves me correctly, it does have a story similar to the one you mention.

Kind Regards
Kevin Duxfield

[jon]

Thanks.

[eldientepeak]

Jon,

I believe you are thinking of the story of Rick Rescorla, Chief of Security for Morgan Stanley. Quite an amazing man. He was credited with "predicting" the 9/11 attacks, saved thousands of lives and unfortunately died in the process. There was a 2005 documentary created about him that was shown on the History Channel.

Another perspective of that day can be found in Joe Dittmar's "Lessons Learned from a Date with Destiny" presentation. His personal account from that day offers some very powerful perspectives that we can all continue to learn from.


Regards,

Jim Callahan