America reeling in horror and shock

The American nation reeled in horror and security measures spun into effect

as the work day began with a series of plane crashes that tore through the

World Trade Center and left smoke billowing from the Pentagon.

"I'm very afraid. I don't feel safe," said Charlin Sims, taking a cigarette

break outside her office in downtown Columbus, Ohio. "I want to hug my son."

Bells at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbus rang for the victims, and

flags were lowered to half-staff in many states. Nationwide, crowds gathered

around television sets in airports, bars, hotel lounges. The space station

commander could see the smoke rising above New York.

"My whole family's from Boston, and two are always flying," said Diane

Morse, dialing her cell phone in tears in downtown Cleveland. "We always fly

American." Relatives and friends worked at the twin towers, she said.

Government offices from coast to coast launched emergency preparedness

operations, even as questions were raised about how what appeared to be a

well-coordinated terrorist attack could be carried out.

"It's sort of like a terrorism movie you see on television," said terrorism

expert Michael Gunter at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville.

Other planes were apparently hijacked and crashed, including one that

crashed near Pittsburgh.

The memory of Pearl Harbor was offered up again and again, with all its

images of sneak attacks, national honor and war.

"This is our second Pearl Harbor, right here in the nation's capital and New

York City," a somber Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., said as he stood in a

capitol park after his office building was evacuated.

Also speaking of Pearl Harbor were an airplane passenger stranded in

Orlando, military veterans, a Wall Street worker fleeing the smoke and

debris of the attack itself.

"Someone is trying to make a serious statement and I hope we do likewise,"

said Scott Gilmore at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

A World War II veteran in Nashville for a reunion of the U.S.S. Intrepid

aircraft carrier was incensed. "I feel like going to war again. No mercy,"

said Felix Novelli, a New Yorker with friends who work at the World Trade

Center. "We have to come together like '41, go after them."

"We're like everyone else, in shock," said Carol Windham, a spokeswoman at

Birmingham International Airport in Alabama. Planes were grounded

nationwide.

Heightened security went into effect at government and corporate offices –

at the Army's main germ warfare defense laboratory in Frederick, Md., city

offices in Colorado and oil refineries in Louisiana.

Monuments like the Gateway Arch in St. Louis were closed.

"I don't think there's any place in America right now that's not at risk,"

said Andrew Hudson, a city spokesman in Denver, where emergency preparedness

officials gathered in the basement of City Hall.

Students at Kansas State University in Manhattan skipped class to gather at

television sets, sometimes with professors' blessing.

"It seems ridiculous that I would stand in front of my class talking about

Plato when something this important is going on," said Laurie Bagby, an

associate professor of political science.

In a Philadelphia hotel lounge, where dozens of people gathered to watch

television coverage, a visitor from Texas wept.

"I can't believe what I'm seeing. I never thought I would see anything like

this in my lifetime," said 20-year-old Beverly Evans of Dallas. "How can we

stop something like this from happening?"