On September 18, 2001, just one week after the 9/11 attacks, I was deployed to the World Trade Center site as part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Public Assistance Recovery Program. While working at both ground zero in New York City and at the Staten Island Landfill, I performed debris management services as well as monitored and provided FEMA programmatic support to the forensic recovery teams. I demobilized from that project in May of 2002.

Large disaster events such as 9/11 require complex solutions to response and recovery efforts. In order to accomplish this feat, emergency managers must think outside of the box. Many of the new and creative solutions established during 9/11 recovery efforts are now common practice.

For example, debris specialists had been utilized prior to the response to 9/11 attacks. However, their role was further defined during 9/11. Additionally, the discussion and planning for large scale Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Explosive (CBRNE) events was further refined as the result of the recovery from 9/11.

The task and scope of debris planning has grown since the 9/11 attacks, requiring local, state, and federal emergency management officials to consider potential hazards and resulting debris fields in a manner that was not as widely considered prior to 9/11. Handling debris as potential evidence and a crime scene, as well as the inherent issues associated with the “chain of custody” of debris by local, state, and federal law enforcement has emerged as a relatively new planning component associated with debris generating events.

I learned a great deal about large-scale debris management, as well as unique issues associated with a man-made disaster from my experience at ground zero—experiences I wish we did not need to consider, but ones that were an honor to contribute to finding solutions for, as well as lessons I’ll take with me to debris planning projects and other disaster sites.