http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.06/start.html?pg=3
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Why it's smart to disobey officials in emergencies
For nearly four years - steadily, seriously, and with the
unsentimental rigor for which we love them - civil engineers have been
studying the destruction of the World Trade Center towers, sifting the
tragedy for its lessons. And it turns out that one of the lessons is:
Disobey authority. In a connected world, ordinary people often have
access to better information than officials do.
Proof can be found in the 298-page draft report issued in April by the
National Institute on Standards and Technology called Occupant
Behavior, Egress, and Emergency Communications. (In layman's terms,
that's who got out of the buildings, how they got out, and why.) It's
an eloquent document, in many ways. The report confirms a chilling
fact that was widely covered in the aftermath of the September 11
attacks. After both buildings were burning, many calls to 911 resulted
in advice to stay put and wait for rescue. Also, occupants of the
towers had been trained to use the stairs, not the elevators, in case
of evacuation.
Fortunately, this advice was mostly ignored. According to the
engineers, use of elevators in the early phase of the evacuation,
along with the decision to not stay put, saved roughly 2,500 lives.
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