“We’re in the water!”

Abstract

This chapter describes how, when the South Tower came down, boats of all kinds amassed along the water's edge, cramming their decks and interior spaces with evacuees, trying to deliver as many people off Manhattan as possible. This unregulated effort raised Coast Guard concerns that overcrowding would cause problems on the water. Although low water had hit the Battery at 8:50 a.m., the currents in this portion of the Hudson River were determined by more than just the tide. Sometimes the current continued to pull downstream even as the flood tide began. Such were the conditions on the morning of September 11; many mariners reported a “ripping” ebb well into the ten o'clock hour. This complicated the waterborne evacuation.