Teams from Disaster Research Center study New York’s ‘ground zero’ (Click on photo for larger size photo and caption to download)
		Two days after the World Trade Center tragedy, a team from the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center was in New York to observe and study the recovery effort firsthand. Graduate student Tricia Wachtendorf and postdoctoral researcher Jim Kendra were given clearance to visit Ground Zero and the midtown planning centers, where they attended meetings, taking notes and watching what was taking place. Director Kathleen Tierney also visited New York a few days later, and other students have gone to New York as observers. “The New York City Emergency Management Center, which was located in the World Trade Towers complex, was destroyed, and it was impressive how quickly the city and center reestablished itself,” Tierney said. “West side piers on the Hudson in midtown Manhattan were taken over. Pier 90 was the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) emergency field office; pier 92 was the city’s Emergency Operation Center and pier 94 housed the Victims Center. Computer stations were quickly installed, communications established and the GIS (Geographic Information System) was up and running, thanks to many offers of assistance.” “There was an outpouring of altruism—a convergence of people wanting to help,” Tierney said. Wachtendorf and Kendra were driven from their hotel each day in official vehicles to both Ground Zero and to the command posts in mid-town Manhattan. They were issued badges and went through stringent security checks, since this was not only a disaster site but a crime scene as well.]Lower Manhattan was unrecognizable, according to the team, and those at the site referred to it as a new borough of Manhattan, with landmarks gone, replaced by rubble and mountains of debris. Ground Zero was divided into different areas–with search and rescue workers and firemen at some locations, and iron and steelworkers, cranes and equipment at others. “It was as bad as it can be. While a loss of property is a hardship, the high casualties set this disaster apart from others,” Wachtendorf said. Watching the command posts work and sitting in on meetings, Wachtendorf and Kendra learned about how officials dealt with health, safety and logistics issues–coordinating hundreds of agencies and countless donations, housing displaced persons, installing utilities, caring for the injured, recording information about victims and the removing of debris. “People were working long days, and the centers quickly made preparations for staff. At first, only snack food was available but that was replaced by catered meals and cots were available for sleeping,” Kendra said. The Victims Center was heart-wrenching, Wachtendorf said. A large wall acted as a memorial, with photographs of victims, many of them young people depicted on their wedding days or with their young children. The center was set up for victims with information kiosks, interview sites, counselors, a special area for children and a place for processing death certificates. The team and Tierney will return to New York to follow the progress of the recovery effort. “We have had tremendous access and when we assimilate all that we observed, we will share our findings with New York officials about the disaster and hope it will help other communities with their planning and response,” Kendra said. Tierney also was quoted in an Oct. 7 article in The New York Times, entitled “A City Changed Forever? History Reveals a Resilience Born in the Tumult of Crisis.” The article pointed out that there is a “deep and substantial body of scholarship about how cities work in times of catastrophe,” quoting Tierney who said, “Disasters don’t alter the course of social change. They may accelerate trends but you don’t see a reversal of what was already happening.” The article continued, “Prof. Tierney said that based on patterns of disaster past, New York—barring future events that no one can predict—will probably resume its previous trajectory.” For a complete version of this story, visit the University’s UDaily website at [www.udel.edu/udaily]. The Disaster Research Center (DRC) has been located at UD since 1985. Founding directors, Russell Dynes and E. L. Quarantelli, are now professors emeriti of sociology. The world is the center’s laboratory. Earthquakes, typhoons, hurricanes, tornados, floods, man-made catastrophes, civil disturbances or riots are part of the center’s agenda. Faculty and staff have traveled to communities in the U.S. and to countries around the world to study and analyze disaster preparedness, response and recovery. In addition to its own database of information, DRC serves as a repository for information from other agencies and researchers worldwide. This library is open to agencies and persons involved in emergency management. DRC also has organized multinational research conferences focusing on disaster issues. Contact: Beth Thomas/Sue Moncure, (302) 831-8749 Oct. 11, 2001
					Four UD researchers associated with the Disaster Research Center (DRC) visited the disaster site in New York City, including (from left, standing) graduate research assistant Rory Connell and undergraduate assistant Jill Cope, and (seated) Kathleen Tierney, DRC director; and James Kendra, DRC research fellow.