On the morning of 9/11, I was working with Todd Danielson on getting the October issue of GeoWorld magazine to the printer. That issue’s cover story was meant to be a feature that highlighted New York City’s NYCMAP, and I had just received a photo from the designer that prominently featured the twin towers. As the event unfolded, it became clear that we had to pull the cover, and the feature, from the issue out of respect for the tragedy and loss.
It wasn’t shortly thereafter that we began to hear about the critical role that GIS was playing in New York City to understand the impact, and aid the recovery. The highly detailed NYCMAP, that was recently completed after a 5-year and $5million effort, was a very important resource. Remarkably, the main copy of NYCMAP was lost at the EOC in 7 World Trade Center when that building went down. Luckily copies were available at many of the partner offices, and a copy from Hunter College found its way to a temporary command center on Sept. 12.
I interviewed many people over the course of GeoWorld‘s coverage of the event, and worked closely with Bruce Cahan to develop a detailed report for the cover story of the January 2002 issue. That feature, and supporting online materials, don’t appear to be available on the GeoWorld site, but a copy of that feature is available from Bruce Cahan’s Urban Logic website in PDF format. I think it provides worthy reading on this day of remembrance, both for the personal accounts, and the perspective on the role that detailed maps and mappers play in providing some order in the face of chaos.
From this feature:
“Without EMDC and the city’s base map, many of the emergency services, relief agencies, media and private companies would have had to generate their own views of Lower Manhattan to remediate the effects of the terrorist attack and its aftermath. EMDC let these groups communicate, collaborate and leverage disparate assets and specialists in real time with a maximum of efficiency and effectiveness. The whole world has watched New York City recover from Sept. 11, and spatial technologies played a critical role.”
I had a personal connection to the Twin Towers, having lived in New York City for several years in my early 20s. In this past life I worked for COOK’S Magazine, and we often held special events at Windows on the World at the top of the North Tower. I also was attending New York University at the time, and had many visits with my adviser who worked at the World Trade Center. It’s still hard to fathom the loss of life, the emotional blow to the country, and the changes that this watershed moment precipitated.
