Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management
George Washington University
Not just the people living in New York City or in Washington D.C., but many millions of people all across the country felt they were potential targets, especially those living in other large cities. The local, state, and federal responses were immediate and massive amounts of resources were deployed to the attack sites. Initially, it was estimated that the casualties in the World Trade Center could be around 10,000 and 800 people were estimated to be dead in the Pentagon incident. Sadly, the initial firefighting teams, including the New York City fire chief, deployed to the scene were among the dead and missing. The loss of about 300 skilled firefighters and their chief was a major blow to the response force.