On 9/11 the Coast Guard put out a call: All boats who were willing should report to Governor's Island to effect a rescue of the hundreds of thousands trapped on Manhattan Island. This documentary, by Road2Resilience, a project of the "independent think tank" Center for National Policy, documents what happened next.
The stated goal of Road2Resilience is "building the reflexes and instincts necessary at every level of American society to respond quickly and wisely to future crises." Resilience in cities comes in many forms. Disasters natural and human-made test our cities in ways we'd never expect. In this case, half a million New Yorkers — the number that were ultimately evacuated by boat — found out how valuable it is that the city’s nimble transportation infrastructure extends all the way out to sea. On that day, skyscrapers were a liability, but density and redundancy (in transportation) were not.
