- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
June 2011 Moms
KKinATX
member
Terrifying Day- long
KKinATX
member
If you watched the news at all today you probably heard there were bomb threats on a few university campuses around the country. I work on one of those campuses. DS's daycare is on campus as well. Thankfully there was no truth to this bomb threat but the events of the morning were pretty terrifying. Around 9:45 we started hearing the emergency sirens blaring on campus. They went off for about 2 minutes straight. There is supposed to be a recording that comes on afterwards either to say this was a test or to give instructions for what to do. No recording played and then the sirens stopped. The university has an emergency text system to notify the campus of safety issues but when we checked our phones none of us had gotten any texts. A minute later this text came through: "Evacuation due to threats on campus immediately evacuate all buildings get as far away from the buildings as possible. Further information to come." HORRIFYING. We had no idea that it was a bomb threat or what was going on and I immediately thought of Jamey and how he was not safe at school. It took me about 10 second to grab my things and run out of the building. Of course, since we didn't know what was going on I had no idea if it was even safe to be out in the open. My DH went to Virginia Tech and although he had graduated 2 years before the shooting there, we had several friends who were still in school and on campus the day of the VT shootings. My mind kept going to that, and how the shooter that day moved across campus and killed people in more than one location. Being out in the open seemed just as scary as being inside a building that was not safe. Jamey's daycare is in a church about 2 blocks from my building and I ran the entire way there. Most students seemed to not be in a huge hurry, walking at a fairly normal pace and I was running and weaving in between them to get to the church. I get there and the daycare director was already aware and begining to notify parents that they had to come pick up their children. I see Jamey and start crying. The kids of course have no idea what's going on and their sweet little faces looked kind of confused about why all the grown ups were in a panic. The daycare had to evacuate and walk with all the children to another church several blocks off campus. They loaded up the babies in the big 6 seat stroller and all the teachers, assistants and parents that had showed up were carrying kids and holding older kids hands to walk with them. I was so torn because I didn't know if I should go with the daycare (other parents were helping move them to the evacuation site) or take my baby and get as far away as I could. The problem with leaving campus was that my car was in a parking garage another couple blocks away that I would have to walk to while carrying Jamey. I still didn't know if it was safe to be out, and the last thing I wanted was to put him in danger. I kept trying to call DH but the network was so bogged down no calls were going through. I was texting him but getting no response. In the moment it felt like I was making a life or death decision for the both of us and I couldn't even talk to DH to help guide me through this. I finally made a mad dash the two blocks to the garage, again weaving in and out of students but this time with Jamey on my hip. Getting out of the garage was difficult because traffic was backed up several levels with other staff and faculty exiting. We finally got out and drove away from campus towards home as fast as I could. As we got a little further away I could finally get a call out to DH. He didn't answer so I just kept calling over and over again. A minute later he called me back and said he had been in a meeting but wondered if something was wrong when I kept calling. I just started sobbing and told him what had happened and how scared I was that Jamey wasn't safe. I still didn't know all the information about the bomb threat and told him to go online to find out more about what was really going on. The vagueness of the text message the university sent out made the situation really scary. People watching the news or reading online knew more about what was happening than those of us on campus. They did eventually send out another text informing the campus that there was a bomb threat but I'm sure that pretty much everyone was already off campus by that point. What a scary day. While I was running from my building to the daycare I actually wondered if I could die. That sounds dramatic but in the moment with only the little information we had there was no way to know what kind of danger we were in. That was quite a long story I just typed there. Tonight, hug your little ones closely and a little longer. I know I will.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Terrifying Day- long
I can't imagine either. But I know I probably would have reacted the same way as you. I am already uptight when it comes to Avery's safety but this would have scared the living daylights out of me. I probably would have found a closet to hide in.
I thank God that you and everyone else on your campus is safe today.
My food & craft blog: Fraises et Tartines
BFP #2: 9/29/12; EDD 6/8/2013; m/c 10/5/2012
BFP#3: 1/29/13; EDD 10/5/2013 - Baby Claire arrived 10/6/2013
This... That is so crazy. I'm sorry that you had to live through that.
This. So glad you both are safe.
Glad you are okay! :
Yeah, I realized that being in the parking garage was potentially a risk but my gut instinct was to get as far away from campus as I could, and I was pretty limited to how far I could go on foot with Jamey. I knew that the garage would be backed up but it was actually not as bad as I thought. I was parked on the 3rd level so I was able to get out in about 5 minutes. I'm sure people parked on higher levels had a longer wait. Obviously if there had been an actual bomb in the garage yeah, we'd all have been goners regardless of how long it took to get out or what level we were on. For what it's worth, the garage I was in is a few blocks off campus so it's not like its in the heart of the university. There are also 5 or 6 other garages as well as several large parking lots so its not like this was THE one parking garage where everyone would be exiting from. You are right though, we were like sitting ducks.