Question Authority
One of the counter-culture slogans of the sixties and seventies was to question authority (another was "Better dead than Red." This takes on new meaning in the conflict between Red and Blue states. But, I digress). According to this Wired article on the events of September 11, a study found that those who relied on their own judgment and sources of information, and therefore evacuated the towers rather than listened to 911 operators who told them to wait for rescuers to reach them, survived. Those that waited, died.
In addition, the common procedure for passengers of a hijacked plane, at that time, was to do nothing and wait for authorities to deal with the situation. Fortunately, the passengers of United Flight 93, hearing, via cell phones, of the attacks, disregarded the procedures and took independent action.
The bottomline seems to be that in an emergency, each citizen must make their own assessment of what to do rather than to rely on authority. This is at the same time empowering and frightening because of the possible consequences. However, free people everywhere are willing and able to make such decisions and this study, for one, seems to say we are usually right.
Aloha!