Confederacy of a Dunce - London explosions

Thursday, July 07, 2005

I am here at work just around the corner from the bus explosion on Tavistock Square. The area is completely cordoned off and eerily silent except for passing ambulances on occasion. Other folks who came to work late didn't manage to get here, being turned away at Holborn (for example). It's hard to know much about what's going on, I finally managed to catch an online radio station (first Resonance FM, then LBC once Resonance started playing music; everything else is overloaded) but most of my time is assuring everyone I know that I'm ok. Phone contact is irregular, I guess because the lines are overloaded and/or limited for security/emergency purposes

This morning I took a #253 bus to get here, when it stopped at Euston station there had already been some trouble as the station was being evacuated and vans full of police officers in an extremely frantic state zooming in the direction of Kings Cross station. I walked to work from Euston, right down Tavistock Square, the eventual site of the bus explosion. I heard the explosion from inside the building, but I'd not been here long at all. Mrs. Dunce was on the tube (Victoria Line), passed through Kings Cross on the way to work, but had arrived very promptly before anything happened (the station was closed, or being closed, but they passed without incident). Now all zone 1 buses are on hold, and the entire tube is shut down.

For now, we're just waiting around and gathering news (online), gearing up for a six-mile walk home when the time comes (update: it'll be a while -- the police are "suggesting" to people going outside that they go back in). But we're OK.

UPDATE: official advice from university officials is to stay put. They're looking into the availability of temporary university housing for those who won't be able to get home.

The view from the 5th floor balcony of our building is something else. The streets are completely deserted except for quite a few police officers at the intersections. Not even the sound of traffic reaches us here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: official advice has been modified: "The current advice from the police is still that people should stay in their place of business. We acknowledge however that staff/students will foresee that getting home or to friends tonight will take much longer than usual, and, notwithstanding the current police advice, if they think it wise to set off earlier than usual they should feel free to do so."

So with that I'll be setting off within the next hour or so; I'm unlikely to add any further updates in the immediate future.

P.S. I (still) am not sure what is going on in the Big Brother house at the moment.

Thursday, July 07, 2005 11:49:28 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Disclaimer | Comments [6] | Tracked by:
"Riding the bike more? A year on" (Confederacy of a Dunce) [Trackback]

Thursday, July 07, 2005 3:01:19 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

We're quite relieved that you escaped harm. Thanks for blogging the situation so we could let out our breath and shake our heads at your relatively close call...

Frank

Thursday, July 07, 2005 3:09:52 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Wishing you all well from across the pond. You all are on our minds and are in our thoughts and prayers.

Sharon

SharoninGeorgia | sharoningaAT NOSPAMyahoo dot com

Thursday, July 07, 2005 4:41:19 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Thanks for the update. It is always good to know when urgent prayers are needed what they were for!!

Love, Ma

Big Mama

Thursday, July 07, 2005 6:34:50 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

What a shock to turn on the TV this morning and hear about the bombings. I'm so glad to hear that you are alright. I've been searching London blogs to try and find some information for my brother. His girlfriend is now living in Covent Garden and going to school near there. It's 2:30pm our time in Norfolk, Virginia and we haven't been able to get any information. We're sure she would have contacted us by now if she could. Have any names been released? Unfortunately she's not an American citizen, so we haven't been able to use the number that was set up earlier for information. Do you have any information that I might be able to use. I feel like I'm looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack...... Her name is Cristina Tutino.

Megan McKee | megan-mckeeAT NOSPAMcox dot net

Thursday, July 07, 2005 7:54:47 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Glad to hear you both are all right. Thanks for the emails, and the interesting blog. Hope you keep us posted.

The Sister

Thursday, July 07, 2005 9:52:12 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

hello!
thanx for blogging the situation and my condoleanses to all the londoners!
anouar from casablanca (moocco)

anouar | alamiAT NOSPAManouar dot org