Drills

Thank God for  drills;  they helped snatch rescue from tragedy.  Flight crews made the controlled descent,  rescue crews raced to get terrified passengers out of paralyzingly icy waters, and mariners in ferries and other boats assisted as needed.  A team.

When I took this foto in Elizabeth this morning, my thermometer read 19 degrees, and my fingers numbed quickly in the cold and wind.  Imagine the passengers and their terror followed immediately by the need to move hastily to the nearest exit, sloshing in frigid water.  Not even the best swimmer could make it to the nearest bank of the Hudson.

The call today was no drill.

Mere minutes are critical;

seconds matter.

Has anyone made of list of responding vessels including those on Qban’s foto from Flickr below?  Qban shot this from Jersey City waterfront.

from Qban’s Flickr photostream

Drills . . . overcome panic and paralysis.  Kudos to the responders.  Here’s a link to reader-provided fotos to the NY Times.

All fotos except Qban’s by Will Van Dorp.