American Dunkirk: The Waterborne Evacuation of Manhattan on 9/11

When the terrorist attacks struck New York City on September 11, 2001, boat operators and waterfront workers quickly realized that they had the skills, the equipment, and the opportunity to take definite, immediate action in responding to the most significant destructive event in the United States in decades. For many of them, they were “doing what needed to be done.”

American Dunkirk shows how people, many of whom were volunteers, mobilized rescue efforts in various improvised and spontaneous ways on that fateful date. Disaster experts James Kendra and Tricia Wachtendorf examine the efforts through fieldwork and interviews with many of the participants to understand the evacuation and its larger implications for the entire practice of disaster management.

The authors ultimately explore how people—as individuals, groups, and formal organizations—pull together to respond to and recover from startling, destructive events. American Dunkirk asks, What can these people and lessons teach us about not only surviving but thriving in the face of calamity?

• All Available Boats: The Evacuation of Manhattan Island on September 11, 2001
• Dust to Deliverance: Untold Stories from the Maritime Evacuation on September 11th
• Security and Loss Prevention: An Introduction
• Security Risk Management Body of Knowledge
• Disasters: A Sociological Approach
• Managing Crises: Responses to Large-Scale Emergencies
• National Incident Management System: Principles and Practice
• Hazard Mitigation in Emergency Management
• The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11
• Hotel 9/11: An Oral History from Survivors of 3 World Trade Center