Industrial chemicals that caught fire, or that did not, might have sent toxic fumes into the downtown atmosphere, damaging lungs and skin, invading work places and residences.
On the whole, the ugly billows from both ends of the tunnel proved to be benign.
The whole metropolitan population is in debt to the courageous firefighters who entered the tunnel, into the unknown, to deal with a fire they could not locate. Also the police, hazardous materials experts and public works workers who toiled on no notice through the night to cope with the fire, train mishap, water main break and power outage that paralyzed a great city.
They had other plans for the evening. But this was their job and they did it.
City, state and federal authorities were right to err on the side of caution in closing roads, waterways, baseball, business and normal life until public safety was secured.
The one thing that did not work well was the civil defense siren. In nearly a half-century it has been tested but never before used for a real emergency. Those who heard it did not know what it conveyed.
Were they to duck beneath desks in event of nuclear attack? If not, what was the loud siren saying? For those who were just trying to go home in the evening rush hour, the best response was to carry on doing it, assuming they heard a mere malfunction.
People have long since learned to turn on radio, television or the Internet – or battery-operated radios in the event of power outage – to learn if something big is happening. The siren probably did not alert anyone who did not already know about it.
The emergency showed just how interconnected modern society is, how dependent we all are on everyone else functioning normally.
The disruptions to city life and to East Coast commerce will go on for some time. More lessons will be learned in ensuing days.
New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, Norfolk and the rest had better pay attention. Here, but for the grace of God, go they.
