Sep 9, 2011 5 min read

On Sept. 11, 2001, as it became clear to those inside the Twin Towers that getting out of them was a matter of life and death, 40 percent of those who made it out said they took the time to gather things from their desks before heading down the stairs, according to a survey of more than 1,400 survivors. About one thousand people took the time to shut down their computers before evacuating the World Trade Center towers, according to another study.

One unidentified woman, who had just finished yelling at her stunned colleagues to “Get out of the building!”, went to her cubicle to get her purse and then found herself walking in circles. “I was looking for something to take with me. It was like I was in a trance,” she said. She knew she had to leave, but she found herself searching for supplies. She picked up a mystery novel she had been reading.

The woman’s behavior, which seems strange in the face of what hindsight tells us was mortal danger, was not unique. In the gripping and well-researched book “The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes — And Why,” journalist Amanda Ripley looks at Sept. 11 and other tragedies for answers as to how and why people react the way they do in the face of disaster. The “gathering process” that the mystery novel woman and many others went through inside the Towers is a common reaction, Ripley writes, as our brain’s normalcy bias fights through denial.

As we mark a decade since the Towers fell, it is important that our national remembrance is coupled with serious efforts to learn from the lessons of Sept. 11. So while we’ve spent trillions as a nation in this effort, I strongly suggest spending $15 on Ripley’s book instead. The book is a result of Ripley’s efforts on a story for Time magazine’s coverage of the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. She was curious as to how the survivors were doing, many who had mostly stayed out of the spotlight. What she found was that they wanted to know why they weren’t better prepared for what they experienced that terrible Tuesday morning.

Moreover, Ripley discovered that in the years since, training efforts for dealing with disaster haven’t done any better in preparing those who would be in the survivors’ proverbial shoes. That’s because those efforts are often focused on first responders, but as one of the survivors told Ripley of himself and the fellow survivors, “We were the first responders.”

The simple lesson of the book is this: You matter, what you do matters and you need to have a plan before disaster strikes. Equipping first responders with the latest and greatest technology is fine, but it is useless compared to equipping the public with actionable knowledge of what to do in the worst of times.

This is meant in no way to denigrate those first responders who gave their lives to try to save people on Sept. 11 or those who risk life and limb in “everyday” disasters like house fires and flooding. Rather, it’s a recognition of the very real — and very scary — reality: it’s the regular people, not the first responders, who will need to know what to do in order to become survivors rather than victims.

With that in mind, “The Unthinkable” helps decode our brain’s unavoidable reactions in the face of mortal danger. It’s a book, as Ripley puts it in an appendix, “populated by stories, people, and science.”

This is not a book about how to build an emergency kit. It’s not a how-to guide. Rather, it’s a thought-provoking, and hopefully life-altering, book that aims to change they way you look at disasters.

In the years since I first read it, it’s convinced me that even though the airlines’ safety briefings are woefully ineffective, I still pay close attention every time I fly. I always look to see where the emergency exits are in a building or a theater. I actually read the fire escape route on the back of the hotel room door.

That’s because “The Unthinkable” taught me that in a crisis, many people’s brains essentially shut down, how your brain is literally taken hostage in a crisis. It makes very clear that despite what images you have of yourself in a pinch, you have literally no idea how you’ll respond in a disaster.

So with the lessons of the book in mind, I do the dress rehearsals for disaster in my head and figure out the fire route ahead of time. That way, on the off chance that I’ll need the information, it will already be there.

The funny thing is after reading a book about all the terrible things that can happen I feel more relaxed, rather than more anxious. That’s probably because I feel more prepared — that it isn’t up to fate or chance or a first responder to save the day. And preparing all of us is what the real focus of post-9/11 America should be about. “It’s only once a disaster strikes that ordinary citizens realize how important they are,” Ripley writes. “…Survival often depends on the behavior of the [person involved in the disaster].”

So while we’ve spent a decade and billions on homeland security, we’ve made no real concentrated effort to tell us — you and me — what do to in the face of disaster. And so on the anniversary of Sept. 11, isn’t that what we owe to those who lost their lives? To ensure that we — the regular people — are part of the solution.

If you’d like to borrow his dog-eared copy of the book, Brandon Szuminsky can be reached at bszuminsky@heraldstandard.com.