On September 11, 2001, boats began taking people off Lower Manhattan before any official call. Captain Greg Freitas “instinctively raced back to the pier, ready to start his boat up to help in any way he could.”
With communications down, Coast Guard Lieutenant Michael Day was on his own. “Rather than trying to assert conventional control, Day picked up his radio handset.” The call went out to all available boats: “Anyone wanting to help with the evacuation of Lower Manhattan report to Governors Island.” Jessica DuLong, author of a book on the boatlift, said: “It was orderly, in most cases, but it was not organized.”
Early reports put the number evacuated at 500,000 to one million. A closer figure is believed to be about 270,000.