Listen In The Post-Gazette's Colin Dunlap speaks with local residents who attend or work at Virginia Tech about the shooting on campus this morning: Stacey Vidt, Virginia Tech assistant track coach and alumnus, of Hampton Will Snyder, freshman, of Elizabeth Township Scott Dillie, sophomore, of Upper St. Clair Brent Dillie, senior, of Upper St. Clair Online map See a map showing where the shootings occurred on the Virginia Tech campus. Related coverage Cable news reports relied on cell-phone videos

For Brent Dillie, a fourth-year engineering student from Upper St. Clair at Virginia Tech, the call he got after his 11 a.m. class today from his girlfriend was nothing out of the ordinary.

But her news was. A gunman was killing people: at least 31, including himself, the worst mass shooting in American history. Among the nearly three dozen injured was Hilary Strollo, a 2006 graduate of Pine-Richland High School.

"But for this many people to be shot, wow, really it is surreal," Mr. Dillie, 22, said.

Will Snyder, 19, a wrestler at Virginia Tech who graduated from Elizabeth-Forward High School, also described the campus scene as "surreal."

"Looking out my dorm window, it is like a movie scene," he said. "There are police everywhere and ambulances everywhere. I've never seen anything like it and never thought I would see anything like this."

Students were described as diving out of windows and hunkering in dorm room corners, trying to stay safe from the still unidentified gunman.

Mr. Dillie said his girlfriend told him there was a shooting at the Ambler-Johnson dorm, which is one of the biggest dorms on campus.

"Everyone is saying that there was this guy who went there and shot his girlfriend and then shot the [residence assistant] who stepped in and reacted to the shooting," Mr. Dillie said.

Nearly three dozen people were reported injured, including Ms. Strollo, who graduated last year from Pine-Richland High School. A statement issued this afternoon by the Pine-Richland School District said she was being treated at a local hospital and was "in recovery."

Mr. Dillie's brother, Scott, a sophomore at Virginia Tech, had just finished soccer practice and was down in the locker room when he got a text message.

"The text said two people had been shot in one of the dorm rooms," Scott Dillie said. "Our soccer fields are right next to the dorm where this happened and as we were looking over all the cops came running out of that dorm, which is West Ambler-Johnson. They then across to the second site to where there was shooting."

"I feel like it could have happened anywhere," he said. "It kind of gives the campus a bad name, but it could have happened anywhere. It hasn't sunk in yet. I feel bad for all the kids and the University."

Mr. Snyder, an industrial design major, said he was at wrestling practice when the first shooting occurred. When he left practice for class, he saw police officers raid a nearby dorm.

"I don't know if they were SWAT team member or what, but they went into the dorm."

He went quickly to his dorm and was told to gather in the basement with other students.

As the news out of Blacksburg, Va. filtered in to area parents with children at the college, disbelief quickly gave way to stark fear when they found phone lines jammed.

"My husband called me at work and said he couldn't reach our son," said Donna Kaczanoski, of Bethel Park, whose son, Jonathan, is a junior math major at the school.

"My first reaction was I was devastated. Devastated."

When she couldn't get in touch with her son via his cell phone, she asked a nephew to try. Through the school's Corps of Cadets -- Jonathan is part of the campus' Air Force ROTC -- he learned her son was safe.

Soon after, she reached him on his cell.

"All he told me was that we was staying in his room," she said.

"It's unbelievable to me that this happened. Nobody knew about this [gunman] having guns? Somebody had to know."

Meanwhile, as more became known about the events of this morning, students began relating their own experiences. Some thought the influx of police and ambulances on campus had to do with several recent bomb hoaxes. Soon enough, though, they discovered the awful truth.

Dan Cafaro, a sophomore business major from Upper St. Clair, was on-campus at the time of the first round of shootings. Cafaro heard gun shots and scurried to his car and, subsequently, to his off-campus apartment. Tonight, Cafaro was highly-critical of the way the school handled the time frame between the first shooting and the Norris Hall killings.

"I think that Virginia Tech handled it the wrong way," Cafaro said of the school's decision not to lock down campus after the initial gunfire. "I think a lot of the students who were on campus would agree only because maybe they weren't harmed by it, but they were put in harm's way. [School officials] are saying that, at the time, they didn't think it was going to spread and that it was an isolated incident.

"I don't really understand why a guy has already shot two people and is out on the loose doesn't force them to lock campus down. He had already shown that he wasn't afraid to shoot someone."

Caitlin Bluey, a junior majoring in Human Development, said she was leaving a cycling class she taught at the gymnasium across the walkway from West Ambler-Johnson this morning when a policeman waved her away.

"I was walking past the building and the cops came out and told me to get in my car and go back to my apartment," Miss Bluey said.

When she returned to her apartment, just off campus, she received a campus-wide email telling students not to come onto campus and, for those with dormitory rooms, to stay indoors and away from windows.

Miss Bluey, 20, who graduated from Upper St. Clair High School and whose father serves on the school board there, spent today with a friend, Leah Croker, a junior finance major who graduated from North Allegheny High School.

"There are still some people we know that we haven't heard from," Miss Bluey said. "I'm just distraught right now. I know it'll definitely hit once we know actual names and pictures are put up. I know for a fact that if there are that many who died there's going to be someone I know."

Miss Croker said one friend was inside Norris Hall, the scene of the worst parts of the rampage, when the shooting broke out. Both women described the young man as devastated, hardly able to speak.

"We just started calling all our friends and making sure everybody was OK," Miss Croker said. "We're trying to account for our friends. There are some people that are still missing that were around that area or had classes in that building, that we're still trying to contact."

Stacey Vidt, 26, a Hampton Township native who competed in track at Virginia Tech and now is an assistant track coach, was in her office across from the West Ambler Johnston dormitory when the morning's first shooting occurred.

"Upon walking into the parking lot, I was in shock as to how many police cars were outside of the dormitory," Vidt said. "The sirens just continued from there on for about two hours. I walked back into my office and we were greeted with another e-mail stating that there was a gunman on the loose."

"I try to imagine what 22 people is, and actually the death toll has just risen to 32. You try and imagine what that is and how many many lives that might affect," Vidt said. "To see something so tragic happen in a place that I call home is just truly shocking."

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.