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Andreas_Rebmann

Annotation of

Lessons in the Rubble: The World Trade Center and the History of Disaster Investigations in the United States

In response to

How is the argument or narrative made and sustained? How much scientific information is provided, for example? Does the film have emotional appeal?

The narrative is maintained through both very real, detailed descriptions of actions taken for both specific cases and the handling of large groups of patients. It also goes into some lesser known events of 9/11, such as the triage camps being destroyed by the collaspe of the towers and how the situation evolved throughout the two crashes and collaspes that day. It appeals to the emotion of the viewer in many ways. It discusses the incrediable physical and psychological damage that the victims sustained during the disaster. It then handled the emotional trauma and determination that the first responders and doctors had to deal with when they saw their gore and chaos of their city all around them while needing to maintain their professionality and ability to care for their pateints. It also later in the film talked about the first responders who lost their lives in their dedication to save others, with direct emotional appeal through the portayal of one first responder who lost a long time friend becoming choked up remembering his fallen friend once again.

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Andreas_Rebmann

Annotation of

Lessons in the Rubble: The World Trade Center and the History of Disaster Investigations in the United States

In response to

What audiences does the film best address? Why?

I think it can both bring the public to better understand first response and disaster response better as well as serve as a great film for other first responders to better understand what happened and how that day was handled.

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Andreas_Rebmann

Annotation of

Lessons in the Rubble: The World Trade Center and the History of Disaster Investigations in the United States

In response to

What are the main findings or arguments presented in the article?

Investigation after large-scale national tragedy is often contaminated with the many factors that surround that event. Since the attack on the World Trade Center was so deeply rooted in politics, culture, international relations and emotional connections, the investigation following the attacks failed to result in a dispassionate, scientific verdict. Instead, it became muddled in the many conflicting and intertwining interests that came with the attack.

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Andreas_Rebmann

Annotation of

Lessons in the Rubble: The World Trade Center and the History of Disaster Investigations in the United States

In response to

What is the central argument or narrative of the film?

The central narrative of the film is the many complications, setbacks, and incrediable challenges that the first responders of 9/11 faced when attempting to medically aid the many victims of the disaster.

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Andreas_Rebmann

Annotation of

Lessons in the Rubble: The World Trade Center and the History of Disaster Investigations in the United States

In response to

Where has this article or report been referenced or discussed?

It has been cited 5 times, in three papers (The World Trade Center Analyses: Case Study of Ethics, Public Policy and the Engineering Profession; Engineering Risk and Disaster: Disaster-STS and the American History of technology; Making Sense of Disaster) and two books (Expanding the Criminological Imagination: Critical Readings in Crimonology; The Martians Have Landed!: A history of Media-Driven Panics and Hoaxes).

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Andreas_Rebmann

Annotation of

Lessons in the Rubble: The World Trade Center and the History of Disaster Investigations in the United States

In response to

What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by? Why?

Not much, to be honest. I was disappointed they didn't mention fire fighters much in it though.

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Andreas_Rebmann

Annotation of

Lessons in the Rubble: The World Trade Center and the History of Disaster Investigations in the United States

In response to

Who are the authors, where do they work, and what are their areas of expertise? How is the author professionally situated in respect to emergency response? Note any other publications/research foci that are of relevance to the DSTS Network.

Scott Gabriel Knowles is the head of the Department of History at the University of Drexel College of Arts and Sciences. His work focuses on risk and disaster, with particular interest in modern cities, technology and public policy. He is a research fellow at the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware, and has been a member of the Fukishima Forum collaborative research community since its inception in 2011. His work on public policy in relation to disaster-preparedness is focused on his home city of Philidelphia, and has written extensively on how to better prepare the city and preserve its legacy.

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Andreas_Rebmann

Annotation of

Lessons in the Rubble: The World Trade Center and the History of Disaster Investigations in the United States

In response to

How (if at all) is emergency response addressed in the article or report?

This article covers the investigation procedure following a tragedy, and how the outcomes of these investigations tend to be muddled due to factors outside of logic and reason. These influencing factors make it difficult to draw conclusions as to what contributing factors were most significant in the damage sustained during the tragedy, and how to best avoid them in the future. For this reason, it addresses how difficult it is to improve disaster-response when so little useful information can be gleaned from the modern investigatory procedure.

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Andreas_Rebmann

Annotation of

Lessons in the Rubble: The World Trade Center and the History of Disaster Investigations in the United States

In response to

What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? Why?

The personal stories of the event, especially of the one paramedic whose name I didn't catch (Hispanic, Female). The emotional tellings of the events were incrediably visceral. I cannot conceive a scenario worse than what they had to deal with.

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Andreas_Rebmann

Annotation of

Lessons in the Rubble: The World Trade Center and the History of Disaster Investigations in the United States

In response to

What three points, details or references from the film did you follow up on to learn more? Write short descriptions of what you learned in your search, providing citations.

The number of emergency workers lost during 9/11:

343 Fire Fighters - http://nyfd.com/9_11_wtc.html

60 Police Officers

8 EMTs and Paramedics - http://www.world-memorial.org/Tribute/EMS/medics.html

EMS Lesson's Learned from 9/11

http://www.jems.com/articles/2006/08/lessons-learned-911.html

Changes were made to the mutual aid system. Resources that had, in the event, run out or were needed sooner than they were used are now better stocked and available. Some new trainings were implemented.