The Internet as a disaster response tool.

O n September 11, 2001, St. Vincent's Manhattan, the trauma center closest to the World Trade Center (WTC), implemented its disaster plan within minutes ot" the first plane's crash into the first lower. In the initial three hours alone, the hospital received and began treating more than 800 patients. Along with meeting the medical, social, and spiritual needs of patients and families, the staff of St. Vincen t ' s Manhat tan and St. Vincen t ' s Catholic Medical Center (SVCMC), of which St. Vincent's Manhattan is a member, also faced one of the greatest crisis communication challenges in the history of American health care. Cell phones became useless shortly after the attack because the number of calls at tempted exceeded the capacity of the infrastructure. Regular telecommunications in and out of hospitals became unreliable as thousands of people tried to locate friends .\nt.\ loved ones.