US on coast-to-coast alert

Authorities in the United States are on alert alert from coast to coast following the attacks in News York and Washington.

All air traffic has been halted, high-profile buildings have been evacuated and security tightened at strategic facilities following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Many federal and state office buildings were closed, as well as prominent

tourist attractions - Disney World in Florida, Seattle's Space Needle, the

Gateway Arch in St. Louis and Knott's Berry Farm in southern California.

Even the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles was shut down.

Evacuations were ordered at the United Nations building in New York, and the

tallest skyscrapers in Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Cleveland and

Minneapolis.

In Massachusetts and Maine, most state employees were sent home, and state

buildings shut down.

Military bases across the country went on alert. Extra security was added at

the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons and research complex in Oak

Ridge, Tenn., the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and at Fort

Detrick in Frederick, Md., home to the Army's main germ warfare defense

laboratory.

The Kennedy Space Center in Florida was under an "enhanced security

awareness."

In Louisiana, the state police urged petrochemical and pipeline companies to

be on alert. Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which handles supertankers in the

Gulf of Mexico south of New Orleans, suspended operations.

In California, Gov. Gray Davis convened a meeting of the State Emergency

Council and requested heightened security in all state buildings.

In Los Angeles, the police went on tactical alert, and mobilized an

anti-terrorist division. A tactical alert means officers are held over from

the earlier shift to bolster the day shift and police only respond to

priority calls.

In Virginia, authorities ordered intensified security at the naval complex

in Hampton Roads and imposed a lockdown of offices at the state Capitol.

The horrific attacks prompted Gov. Mike Leavitt of Utah to meet with law

enforcement officials to reviewing security planning for the 2002 Winter

Olympics.

"It's a reminder the entire world is vulnerable to lunacy," Leavitt said. He

said he was more determined than ever to have "the world's most

sophisticated security" for the Olympics.

Under orders from the Federal Aviation Administration, airports nationwide

halted all outbound flights, while keeping their runways open for incoming

plans.

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

Birmingham International Airport in Alabama.