The Mall is packed. The bridges out of DC are shut down. People are cold and tired. Check out my story for Slate about how to survive a crowd crush.
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In Case of Emergency
Michelle Rhee
Ryan said on January 22, 2009 at 11:24 am
I had this in mind all the while I was making my way to the capitol grounds for Obama’s swearing-in. From the Metro to the Mall, I saw not one police officer or official of any kind directing crowd traffic in any way. By the time I got to the Blue gate at the Capitol, we encountered one or two bits of barricade fencing, which seemed to have been arbitrarily placed in the way of the crowd. There was some guidance for us once we were through the gate, but there seemed to have been no planning whatsoever for crowd control anywhere else.
I was surprised, by the end of the day, that nothing had gone awry.
Ron Bacorn said on January 23, 2009 at 6:03 pm
I wish I would have read this sooner. I was trampled at 5:00 Jan. 20th. I was at the New Carrolton exit of the Metro. I was getting off at the last stop and the car was empty. Aprox. 50 people tried to enter the empty car as I was exiting. I weigh 220 pounds. I don’t go down easy but they knocked me down and stepped on me. A FEW nice people helped me up and then pulled me through the crowd by my coat. If I were a 100 lb. girl, I would be dead now.
Amanda Ripley said on January 26, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Ron, I am so glad you made it out of there OK. That sounds like a really frightening ordeal. I am curious to hear more, if you want to share. Why were people charging you as you tried to get out of the train? If the car was empty, what was their rush? Do you have any theories on what happened? And how it might have been prevented? Did they seem to know they had knocked you down? Thanks for sharing.