On 9/11, Washington, D.C. experienced a spontaneous, voluntary mass evacuation of the hundreds of thousands who work but don't live in the city. Some who live here also left. The President, who was in Florida that morning, was kept away for several hours.

I witnessed a good chunk of the exodus from my front steps. It was remarkably civilized and calm (drivers were more polite than on a normal day), cars stopped for traffic lights, waited their turn at 4-way stops. Drivers, their radios cranked on the news, and pedestrians streaming down the sidewalks toward destinations sometimes miles outside the Beltway, asked me and my neighbors what we were seeing on television. I welcomed into my home for a couple hours a hyperventilating stranger and her friends who had been forced to abandon their cars in their parking garage when police screamed at them to run away from the Capitol.

All the while the news was reporting that the State Department had been bombed, a plane had flown into the Pentagon, the White House had been hit and several 747s were unaccounted for and inbound over the Atlantic Ocean.

Meanwhile, the President was flying to a secure bunker in Nebraska.

In a few hours the city streets were pretty empty. By mid-afternoon it was eerily quiet (airports closed, trains stopped) as a police officer told me that he'd just come off the Southwest Freeway (part of I-395) and it was deserted.

How an evac would go in the event something like a dirty nuke went off or a chem-bio attack and residents had to also leave, I would not venture a guess. I'm afraid now that security officials have an evac plan it would be a massive screwup (such as everyone north of Pennsylvania Ave -- including Virginia residents -- would have to evac north into Maryland and everyone south would have to evac to Virginia). Theoretically Pennsylvania Avenue then would be clear for emergency vehicles to drive east and west across the city. I'd be forced to evacuate through some always dangerous neighborhoods. Scary.

From Wikipedia (for what that's worth)

Washington, D.C. has the second highest percentage of public transit commuters in the United States, behind only New York City.

Commuters have a major influence on travel patterns in Washington, D.C. 671,678 people are employed in Washington, D.C., with only 28% commuting from within the city.

After Hurricane Katrina and the New Orleans experience, this DC stat has concerned me:

35.4% of households in Washington, D.C. do not own a car.

DC car ownership is less than New Orleans' was.

"The Capitol was evacuated. And for the first time ever, the Secret Service executed the emergency plan to ensure the presidential line of succession.

At 9:57 a.m., Air Force One thundered down the runway, blasting smoke and dust in a full-thrust take off. Communications Director Dan Bartlett was on board: “It was like a rocket. For a good 10 minutes, the plane was going almost straight up.”

By 10:30 a.m., America’s largest city was devastated, its military headquarters were burning. Air Force One turned west along the Gulf Coast.

Air Force One set course for an underground command center in Nebraska. Back in Washington, the president’s closest advisor, Karen Hughes, heard about the threat to the plane and placed a call to Mr. Bush.

“And the military operator came back to me and in a voice that, to me, sounded very shaken said, ‘Ma’am, I’m sorry, we can’t reach Air Force One.’” recalls Hughes, who was out of the White House during the attacks.


It was disconcerting to be in DC when it wasn't deemed safe for the President to be there.