Crisis Management

Hong Kong Copes with SARS, 2003: The Amoy Gardens

Publication Date: November 01, 2004

In the last days of March 2003, the frightening new disease known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, seemed to threaten to spread out of any control in the one of the world's most densely-populated cities: Hong Kong. After weeks of effort to...

The Forest Service and Transitional Fires

Publication Date: September 01, 2004

This case outlines the operational challenges of decision making in a common example of high stress, high stakes, urgent situations: dealing with potentially rapidly evolving wildland fires. The case briefly outlines the policy choices during...

"Almost a Worst-Case Scenario": The Baltimore Tunnel Fire of 2001 (C)

Publication Date: September 01, 2004

In the late afternoon of a hot day in July, 2001, an accident beneath the streets of Baltimore threatened to turn into a disaster. A freight train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed and caught fire inside a tunnel that ran beneath one of the...

"Almost a Worst-Case Scenario": The Baltimore Tunnel Fire of 2001 (B)

Publication Date: September 01, 2004

In the late afternoon of a hot day in July, 2001, an accident beneath the streets of Baltimore threatened to turn into a disaster. A freight train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed and caught fire inside a tunnel that ran beneath one of the...

"Almost a Worst-Case Scenario": The Baltimore Tunnel Fire of 2001 (A)

Publication Date: September 01, 2004

In the late afternoon of a hot day in July, 2001, an accident beneath the streets of Baltimore threatened to turn into a disaster. A freight train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed and caught fire inside a tunnel that ran beneath one of the...

The New Hampshire Landslide Warning

Publication Date: February 01, 2004

This case describes a situation (based on actual events, but disguised in this telling) in which city officials receive a warning that as a result of persistent snow followed by rain, there is a significant probability of a major landslide from...

When Prevention Can Kill: Epilogue

Publication Date: August 01, 2003

In the wake of the terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in September, 2001, the United States began to take seriously threats which had, heretofore, been generally discounted. Among these was the possibility of...

When Prevention Can Kill: Minnesota and the Smallpox Vaccine Program

Publication Date: August 01, 2003

In the wake of the terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in September, 2001, the United States began to take seriously threats which had, heretofore, been generally discounted. Among these was the possibility of...

Command Performance: County Firefighters Take Charge of the 9/11 Pentagon Emergency

Publication Date: June 01, 2003

The terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 on the Pentagon brought death and destruction to one of the nerve centers of American power, a site where top military officials came to work every day. When terrorists deliberately crashed a commercial...

Charting a Course in a Storm: US Postal Service and the Anthrax Crisis

Publication Date: May 01, 2003

On October 21, 2001, a postal worker from a mail sorting facility in Washington, DC, died of inhalation anthrax--a disease virtually unseen for a century. The next day, a second employee from the same facility died. Fear of anthrax had already...

Rudy Giuliani: The Man and His Moment

Publication Date: May 01, 2003

In the hours and days following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks which destroyed New York's World Trade Center towers, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani distinguished himself, in the view of many, for his style of leadership. A combination...

Giving in the Wake of Terror: The Charitable Response to the Attacks of September 11

Publication Date: October 01, 2002

On September 11, 2001, after airplanes commandeered by terrorists crash into the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania countryside, Americans searching for an outlet for their horror and grief begin...