Bomb Threat at the University of Texas
Via the Daily Texan: Bomb threat evacuation continues, UT officials have found no weapons so far
UT sent out an emergency alert at 9:50 this morning urging all students, faculty and staff to "get as far away from campus as possible."
According to a statement, "At 8:35 a.m. the university received a call from a male with a middle eastern accent claiming to have placed bombs all over campus. He said he was with Al Qaeda and these bombs would go off in 90 minutes. President Powers was notified and it was decided to evacuate all of the buildings out of an abundance of caution."
UT officials and FBI personell are continuing to clear the buildings and have so far found no weapons. No one is being allowed back into the buildings. UT will continue to send out emergency alerts, though cell phone signal on many carriers is jammed. We’ll post updates here as we have them.
Hopefully this was just a hoax perpetrated by someone who needed the weekend to study for an exam (and hopefully they are caught and charged).
Still: UT is freakin’ huge and an evacuation of the campus, during prime class time, had to have been a nightmare.
I realize they have take these treat seriously, but isn’t sending the entire student body to the middle of the Indian Ocean kinda overkill?
You betcha. It was plenty big at its original size of 40 acres. At 350 acres these days…well, let’s just say I’m glad I live and work in the northern stretches of Austin, almost in Round Rock.
@Stormy Dragon: They didn’t limit it to Earth. This declaration will lead to the greatest minds of Texas building space ships that will take them to the stars.
Or, perhaps some will assume they meant it culturally, and end up hanging out in Paris.
I hope the evacuation goes relatively smoothly, with just enough chaos and turmoil to be a good story for the kids to tell years from now (“We were all scared and frightened, and then nine months later, you came along…”).
Al Qeada does not warn you about the impending explosion. They just detonate the device. Hoax.
@Boyd: Hey I drive by you occasionally 😛