New York City officials are planning for a Dunkirk-like evacuation of Manhattan island in the case of an emergency. In the early days of World War II, a "bathtub navy" was assembled between Dunkirk, France and Dover, England, in order to move hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the Continent to safer ground as the Nazis advanced across France. Hundreds of small craft were sent across the English Channel to ferry stranded and cornered British troops back to England.
Similarly, New York officials are planning an evacuation across the harbor to Staten Island and New Jersey, utilizing small craft to move millions of people in the event of an emergency. "The Trans-Hudson Emergency Transportation Plan would use New York Harbor ferries - including over 100 private water taxis and dinner-cruise vessels, along with huge Staten Island ferries - to swiftly move people to a staging area in New Jersey's Liberty State Park."
On 9/11, a few thousand people were moved out of lower Manhattan on ferries and private craft, but the majority of people downtown had to walk off of the island on foot over the Brooklyn Bridge.
