Pittsburgh lawyer Gregory Jordan planned to spend his first full day in England meeting with the staff at his law firm's London office.
This story was written by Post-Gazette staff writer Johnna A. Pro based on her reporting and that of staff writers Moustafa Ayad, Pamela Gaynor, Wade Malcolm, Barbara White Stack, Dan Fitzpatrick, Jonathan D. Silver, Maeve Reston and Mark Belko.
But by 10:30 a.m. London time, Jordan, managing partner of Reed Smith LLP, had phoned his wife in Pittsburgh to say he was safe, issued emergency orders to his British staff and begun organizing car pools to get 200 employees out of the city after four bombs exploded in the heart of London at the peak of the morning rush hour.
"It takes you back to 9/11," Jordan said by phone as he navigated through the traffic-free streets of London. "The people of London have been incredibly united and unflappable."
'You want to get home'
Squirrel Hill native Robin Boles knew something was wrong when she heard the wailing sirens from her first-floor office, just a five-minute walk from the Underground bombings.
Boles' first thoughts were for her daughters, Barrie, 20, and Blair, 17, who were at their suburban London home.
"Because of the vulnerability of 9/11 you just want to get home," said Boles, director of In Kind Gifts, a charity funded by Prince Charles.
Boles spent most of the morning and afternoon in her office in the Lloyds TSB Bank building. With cell phone service disrupted and traffic blocked by police and the British Army, streets and sidewalks became the only refuge for many commuters. Boles was able to e-mail her family here to let them know she was OK.
By mid-afternoon, she defied alerts by British emergency officials to stay indoors until an all-clear was sounded. Walking past officers, ambulances and squad cars, she took the first train out of London for the 20-minute ride home. Her daughters were waiting to envelop her in hugs.
Bill Wade, Post-GazetteAlan Wilson,53, of Leicester, England, was in Pittsburgh for business with Lipid Technologies, and returning to England when he learned of the attacks.
Click photo for larger image.No panic
Among the Pittsburghers in London was Bill Byham, chairman and chief executive officer of Pittsburgh-based DDI, a worldwide human resources development company, and author of the book "Grow Your Own Leaders."
Byham and his wife, Carolyn, have been staying at their London home near Paddington Station for the last 10 weeks. Neither realized anything was amiss until word began to spread.
Byham said all of his London employees were accounted for and no one else from the Pittsburgh headquarters was there. Around the city, the mood was calm, he said.
"I was out walking around this afternoon. The bad thing for Americans is that it reminds you of 9/11," he said.
With Underground and bus service shut down, people leaving downtown London formed a sea of humanity walking westward out of the city, Byham said, although no one seemed to panic. Outside of the immediate blast areas, people went about their daily routines to the extent they could, he said.
"I walked over to Paddington Station. There were enormous lines waiting for taxis. Then I walked to Hyde Park and up through Queens Way, which is a shopping district. It was like being there on a Saturday. The stores are open. There is no panic."
Byham said he was particularly saddened for Londoners who on Wednesday celebrated the news that the city would host the 2012 Summer Olympics.
"You've never seen a town in a better mood than [Wednesday]," Byham said. "Everyone was ecstatic. Church bells were ringing. Everyone was smiling. It's a shame to go from that end to this. It means people have further to fall in terms of their psyche."
Crowded buses
Johnstown native Saskia Valencia, a psychology and anthropology major at the University of Pittsburgh, was on her way to work at a community center for homeless refugees when the bombs went off.
"I started the morning off with my usual routine of going to the nearest tube station, but when I got there this morning, they had a security guard blocking the entrance and signs posted all around saying that there was a power failure that was affecting all the tube lines in London," Valencia wrote in an e-mail to the Post-Gazette.
Valencia and others were redirected to buses, all of which were crowded.
"Everything seemed OK, though, until the bus driver kept stopping and turning off the bus. At one point, he was running through the bus, and yelling at everyone to check and see if there were any parcels lying around that did not belong to us."
Valencia said no one on the bus knew about the bombings and the majority of people were annoyed about being late for work. She got off the bus when she overheard a woman on a cell phone in front of her talk about a bomb. She walked the rest of the way to work past police officers and closed tube stations.
"With 9/11 and the bombings in Madrid last year, I guess I can say that I knew it was a possibility that something like this could happen, but I didn't think it would happen while I was here. The British seem to be shocked by it, too, but at the same time they seem to be not entirely fazed by it because of the IRA bombings that have occurred here in the past."
Sign of returning normality
West Virginia University Professor Patrick Conner was leaving a coffee shop when he saw a throng of people walking very fast near the British Library.
"Can that many people be late for work?" thought Conner, an English professor and director of the WVU Press who has been in England for the past few days researching a book he is writing on Anglo-Saxon poetry.
Conner made his way to the library and it was there in an e-mail alert from CNN he learned that a series of bombs had gone in the London subway and on a double-decker bus in Russell Square, not far from the library.
For a time, he was locked in the library, but that order later was lifted. As he departed, he saw signs of normality, noting "a nearby pub was open."
No effect on flights here
At Pittsburgh International Airport, it was business as usual, with no change in the yellow alert level, said JoAnn Jenny, Allegheny County Airport Authority spokeswoman.
US Airways and four other carriers that fly into London reported no travel disruptions yesterday. Most would not say if security was increased, but all were quick to reassure passengers skittish about travel to London that other arrangements could be made -- at no charge.
US Airways, which does not fly directly to London from Pittsburgh but does have a connection in Philadelphia, allowed passengers scheduled for trips yesterday or today to reschedule up to seven days later, with no change fee or advanced ticketing requirements. Or passengers can apply the value of their London ticket to a trip elsewhere, as long as the trip is made within seven days of the original departure date.
Northwest, American, Delta and Continental made similar offers.
Travelers at the airport bound for England said terrorism was worrisome but would not stop them from going abroad.
Among them were Zena and Peter Bettney of Fox Chapel, she from Greece, he from England, putting their 17-year-old daughter Gemma on a Continental Airlines flight to Manchester, England, where she works.
"It is scary," Zena said, "but we are not going to lose the freedom to travel."
City, county beef up security
Allegheny County and Pittsburgh authorities said security was beefed up in response to the London bombings. Mayor Tom Murphy put the Emergency Operations Center on a "high readiness alert status." Police supervisors were asked yesterday afternoon to increase patrols, boost security at public buildings and restrict access to "critical infrastructure."
While in Washington, D.C., testifying before the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, Gov. Ed Rendell said he was concerned that the attacks took place despite security measures already in place in London.
"I don't think we can say for any [mass transit] system or any place in this country they're as secure as they ought to be," he said. "There is no subway system in the world that has more surveillance cameras supposedly to be able to detect people with large objects or suspicious activity than London does. Nobody comes close to matching that. ... So no, I'm not confident that we're as secure as we can be."
First Published: July 8, 2005, 4:00 a.m.
