Remembering 9/11 and responding to disaster
Today, we remember the lives lost on a horrific day 23 years ago, 9/11. On that fateful day in 2001, terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners scheduled to travel from the East Coast to California. Two planes crashed into each of the Twin Towers making up the World Trade Center, while another hit the Pentagon and the fourth crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa., after passengers revolted against the hijackers. The attacks caused the deaths of 2,977 victims, in addition to thousands more who were injured or suffered long-term respiratory illness from dust from the pulverized buildings.
It was the deadliest terrorist attack in American history, as well as the deadliest incident for our country’s firefighters and law enforcement personnel, killing 343 and 72 members, respectively. First responders rushed in to put out fires, help people evacuate the towers, pull people from the rubble and tend to the wounded.
Fire Department New York Chief Joseph Pfeifer was the first fire chief to arrive on scene that morning. He implemented a command center in the North Tower’s lobby, assisting with the rescue operation. He exited the North Tower shortly before it collapsed at 10:28 a.m. His brother, Kevin, was a fellow firefighter who went up into the tower and was unable to escape in time. He spent his last moments helping other firefighters evacuate, in turn delaying his own escape.
Joseph views his brother as a hero for the actions he took to save lives, even while putting his own life in jeopardy.
“9/11 is made up of little stories of people doing small things or making small decisions, which turned out to be the difference between life and death,” Joseph said in an oral history recorded by the 9/11 Memorial Museum. “There’s incredible stories of people’s action[s] that day that saved so many others.”
It wasn’t just in the immediate moments of that morning that people stepped up to help. People stood in line for hours to donate blood. The Red Cross started a relief effort that would last years and recruit people from across the country, ultimately with more than 57,000 team members. The majority were volunteers, including thousands who had joined the organization for the first time. The United States of America felt more united in the days and weeks after the attacks than it had in a long while. In the early days after the attacks, Americans prayed more often and attended church more often. They were also more likely to show their patriotism. In October 2001, 79% of adults said they had displayed an American flag. A year later, a 62% majority said they had often felt patriotic as a result of the 9/11 attacks.
Also in October 2001, 60% of adults expressed trust in the federal government – a level not reached in the previous three decades, nor approached in the two decades since then (according to Pew Research).
All in all, there was a sense of being united as a nation, united by ideals that we have always held dear like “liberty and justice for all.” A life-altering crisis like that has the tendency to reveal people’s true colors. In this case, it brought people together with greater resolve that our country – and freedom – was worth fighting for.
That brings up the question, when faced with a tough situation, will people isolate in fear, hoarding whatever resources they have, or will they come together to share and help each other? Lately I have been reading “One Second After” by William Forstchen, a 2009 novel that poses the scenario of the United States being hit with an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) by a foreign adversary, which knocks down the grid and renders nearly all electric devices useless. Most vehicles do not run, unless they are old and don’t have a computer in them. Since all mass communication systems have been shut down, information only comes by word of mouth, and then it’s only rumors. The situation demonstrates just how fragile our modern way of life is and how quickly it could change.
WhileIcannotwholeheartedlyrecommend the book – as it has some language and I’m not all the way through it yet – it certainly does give a person pause to think about how one would react in that type of situation and how prepared they are. The main character of the book is a professor in a small North Carolina town where everybody pretty much knows everybody, not unlike our small towns right here in central Wisconsin. After the EMP, it doesn’t take long for people to start looting the local grocery store, convenience stores and pharmacy. There are riots and fights over the goods. A couple of thieves make off with a bunch of opioid painkillers supposed to be used to treat patients at the nursing home. Most of the nursing home workers go home to their own families and don’t come back to work, leaving the patients with no one to care for them. People in positions of authority threaten to confiscate working vehicles from residents for the “greater good.”
Although chaos and fear abound, many people also step up to help, whether it’s the local restaurant owner who hosts a giant barbecue for everyone after the attack, the traveling nurse who is passing through the area and goes to help at the nursing home, or the ex-military members who provide security for the town against would-be thieves and bad actors. When people pool their resources, the resources last longer. They also share their individual skills and areas of expertise to problem-solve as they go.
If confronted with a crisis situation like described in the book, I would hope our little town of Loyal or any of the other small towns around here would respond like the group of people I just described and band together to help each other out. I know it’s possible, because I’ve seen it in times of need before, like when people’s properties were damaged by tornadoes earlier this year or back in 2021, or when the community has come together in recent years to support people battling cancer.
The adage, “United we stand; divided we fall” rings true and I hope we can hold on to that.
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