His Crazy Drills Saved 2,700 Lives #9/11 #evacuation #rickrescorla

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]Did you know a man was called paranoid and obsessive for doing evacuation drills that ended up saving thousands of lives? Rick Rescorla was head of security at Morgan Stanley in the World Trade Center. [music] After the 1993 bombing, he insisted on quarterly evacuation drills. The executives hated it. They called [music] him disruptive, bad for business, overly paranoid. While other companies relaxed their security, Rick studied terrorist tactics. He created escape routes that violated [music] standard protocols. He prepared for what everyone said would never happen again.

[00:00:31]His colleagues mocked him, called him obsessive, told him to stop wasting everyone's time. On September 11th, 2001, when the first plane hit, Rick ignored Port Authority orders to stay put. Instead, he immediately began evacuating Morgan Stanley's 2700 employees using his unauthorized procedures. Nearly [music] every single person made it out alive. Only 13 Morgan Stanley employees died compared to hundreds in other companies. Rick didn't survive. He went back to help others [music] evacuate. His widow received millions in recognition. His methods became the gold standard [music] for emergency preparedness. Sometimes being called paranoid means you're the only one paying attention.