Flutter Point

When the call comes, leave immediately.

Bring your team and set up a base camp near the site. Access must be controlled. Establish a perimeter, hire security. Factor in the speed and direction of the wind when calculating the largest possible radius of fallout, debris, remains.

Most often, the scenarios you handle will not involve survivors.

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When he asks what you do for a living, tell him the version from the company website. You offer assistance in the event of unforeseen structural events, or something equally bland. Do not volunteer details. Elaborate only if prompted. Use words like "management" and "recovery."

Do not describe the way jet fuel overwhelms the natural scents of grass and trees, or the number of mornings you wake up to find soot in your hair, your clothes, the contours of your ears.

Describe a description, not what you have seen, smelled, or touched.

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There are many reasons a structure might fail, and your client—an airline, a real estate developer, a municipal government—will be anxious to receive your assessment.

The structure may not have been strong enough, not tough enough. There may have been fatigue or corrosion, defective materials or a manufacturing error. The client may have failed to account for some variable, like the increased frequency of weather catastrophes or the human capacity to take anger out on others.

You have seen all of these varieties of failure, and what has been left in their wake.

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One of your first priorities must be establishing the identities of casualties. Clients should provide you with as much information as they can–employee records, passenger manifests. This will prove more difficult in the case of a public or commercial space, a mall or government building, places that bring unknown visitors on unknown whims.

Families should be put up near your base of operations. It is important for you to be able to communicate with them all at once, before speculation can spread. Accommodations should not be convenient enough, however, that a bereaved parent or spouse might wander out in the middle of the night in search of lost loved ones.

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When he asks what you have seen, on your third or maybe fourth date, teasing, smiling, do not give in to the temptation to share. Trust the experience of so many deflated romances: he does not know that he does not really want to know.

When next of kin have arrived at the site, gather them into a neutral meeting space. Choose a hotel ballroom, a large tent—someplace appropriate to wedding receptions and bar mitzvahs.

Stand in front of them and explain what will happen.

Be kind but impersonal. Wear a suit and tie. You should be reliable but generic, a man they can entrust to deliver some kind of closure.

Do not get attached to any one story.

Have counselors on hand but do not offer your own time.

Force yourself not to offer your own time.

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Say that a thorough investigation is underway. Reassure them that when there are answers to be had, they'll be the first to know.

Do not say that the world around us fragile.

Do not say that you look for the emergency exit of every building you enter, that you cannot stop yourself from ballparking your odds of escape.

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When he takes you home for the first time, do not let him see you making note of stairwells, the locations of fire alarms, the age and architectural construction of his apartment building. In the morning, refrain from asking, even casually, if the building has been seismically retrofitted, or if he keeps a fully-stocked first aid kit.

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Establish reasonable expectations.

Never promise a body. Only explain why when pressed. Not asked—pressed.

For those who will not let go of your arm, who block doorframes and elevators until you'll respond, find an explanation of high-speed impact or total collapse that uses the fewest possible colloquial and anatomical terms.

Do not wonder how many years your words will haunt them.

Never disclose how many unreconstructable pieces a loved one can...