By Susan Breslow Sardone
September 11, 2001, the morning started normally: A cup of hot coffee, a quick survey of the day's initial email. That's how news of the first World Trade Center attack reached this writer. A flurry of messages from an active listserv, all with the same subject line Re: Is Everyone Okay arrived before 9 a.m.
Alerted to switch on the TV, I watched the disaster unfold. Like many Americans, I spent the next few days volleying between the TV screen and computer, desperate for news of who was safe and how to help.
The Internet became essential when phone lines failed. Verizon, the leading local service provider, was acutely incapacitated. Its switching center near the Twin Towers, which handled some 200,000 telephone lines, filled with dust and debris, making calling a hit-or-miss affair. Its wireless offshoot lost 10 transmitter sites. Cingular Wireless lost six such cell sites, and Sprint had four wireless facilities damaged.
Email and instant messaging, transmitted across dedicated high-speed lines and cable modems, emerged as reliable ways for New York survivors to communicate amidst chaos and destruction. An employee stuck in a building blocks from the World Trade Center told Wired News, "Email is best -- I've been using AOL Instant Messenger to contact friends and have asked them to call my family."
At Yahoo, a spokesperson reported an unprecedented increase in traffic. With servers at many major Web sites taxed by heavy usage, pages loaded slowly. Cut-and-paste emails from the few able to access such information broke the news to many. Functionality that allowed viewers to email news stories as text or links also helped get the word out.
Bulletins from media companies such as CNN.com and NYTimes.com announced the news to their email subscribers. Some publications, including the Los Angeles Times online, encouraged readers to submit email addresses to receive disaster updates. Chicagotribune.com endeavored to connect to its community by soliciting feedback to the following question via email: "What will the Sept. 11 catastrophe do to the national psyche? How will the United States change?"
Soon, more than facts began to circulate: Misinformation and urban legends surfaced on bulletin boards and through mass emails. "Did Nostradamus Really Predict New York Attack?" a Yahoo! News feature debunking the prophecy myth, became the no. 1 most-emailed story by readers eager to disseminate the straight story.
Legitimate how-you-can-help emails from ISPs, individuals, and other sources also made the rounds. They were trailed by spammers, some of international origin, attempting to exploit emotions and solicit funds for bogus disaster-relief efforts. The FBI was alerted to those activities.
Meanwhile, leading companies in the email industry began pooling their resources in a coordinated HTML campaign to drive donations to the American Red Cross and eight other charities aiding victims of the terrorist attacks. A joint effort by NetCreations, 24/7 Media, Yesmail, ValueClick, MyPoints, SmartReminders, Sendmoreinfo, and Magellan was expected to reach some 40 million consumer and business email recipients worldwide.
"Most Americans are desperate to help any way they can,'' stated Rich Maradik, CEO of SmartDM, parent company of emailer SmartReminders. "Email is such a powerful medium that allows for direct contact and immediate response, allowing us as an industry to leverage millions of dollars quickly to charities." And in a time of disaster, it proved to be the most vital channel of communication for millions.
Copyright © 2001 Susan Breslow Sardone