Attack prompts Boston alert

By Raphael Lewis and Sean P. Murphy, Globe Staff, 9/11/2001

orkers and residents of some of Boston's high-rise buildings were evacuated this morning, and Logan International Airport was closed in the wake of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

State and city officials sent police into the streets and the MBTA added extra trains to accommodate people streaming out of the city. Boston police were sent to high-profile areas, such as City Hall.

Most of the 55,000 state employees were sent home, and the 1,500 state-owned buildings were locked and secured with extra police, said Vin Cirigliano, deputy superintendent of state office buildings. ''All the buildings are secured,'' Cirigliano said. ''Nobody's coming in.''

A Massport spokesman said the airport was closed to arriving flights at 9:15, and to departing flights shortly thereafter. American Airlings Flight 11, a nonstop to Los Angeles, departed on time at 7:59 a.m. and later struck one of the World Trade Center towers.

The closing of Logan was part of a nationwide shutdown of airports by the Federal Aviation Administration as a security precaution.

High-rise buildings in Chicago, Los Angeles, and elsewhere were also evacuated, and antiterrorism teams were activated throughout the country.

Acting Governor Jane Swift, who was working out of the state bunker, sent all nonessential workers home at 10 a.m., and downtown streets were filled with office workers who had left or been evacuated from high-rise buildings. All of the state courts were closed. Although Swift said she was not acting in response to any threat, she believed it was the safest course to take considering the morning's events.

State officials said no acts of terrorism had been reported in the Boston area by 11 a.m.

Swift was meeting this morning with emergency and safety personnel at the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency's office in Framingham.

Swift planned a news conference at about 12:30 p.m. from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency bunker in Framingham, which serves as an operations center in a crisis.

She ordered that security be tightened around all state buildings, which included adding patrols by State Police and state rangers.

Swift received word of the attack while at her home in western Massachusetts and immediately began communicating with officials from the National Guard, State Police, the Office of Public Safety, and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.

Harron Ellenson, a spokeswoman for Boston Properties, which manages the 52-story Prudential Tower, said: ''We have received no threats. However, we have decided to close the building. We have spoken to all of key tenants in our properties and are letting them make a decision about evacuation.''

About 3,000 people were evacuated from the John Hancock Tower, which at 60 stories, is the city's tallest building.

At Boston City Hall, Mayor Thomas M. Menino was meeting with top police commanders at 10:30 a.m.

In downtown Boston, tens of thousands of people filled the streets, many having left their office and residential buildings. Most evacuations were voluntary.

''We have been in touch with as many security companies as possible, and it is up the discretion of each building to evacuate,'' said Boston police Officer John Boyle.

''We have personnel in key buildings that we think may be targeted,'' he said. He declined to name buildings, but those with federal offices were thought to be at highest risk.

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said the transit agency was adding extra vehicles and train cars to accommodate the masses of downtown employees streaming toward their homes.

''At this point there is no change in operations,'' Pesaturo said. ''We do have some personnel that are on the platform keeping an eye out for anything unusual. Given the circumstances of the day, it's wise to keep an eye out.''

What normally would have been the slow period of the day was expected to turn into rush hour, according to Pesaturo.

State officials reported no closings of the the area's highways, tunnels, or bridges.

Gwen Fitzgerald, 35, of Cohassett, who works downtown and has a 4-year-old and a 9-month-old at the child care center in the federal courthouse, said she got a call early this morning to pick up her children. ''It's disheartening. It's shocking to think there are terrorists out there who did this to other human beings. It's sickening and very sad.''

She said she feels very protected having her children at the center, but ''it makes me think about the security of the airports, if people are hijacking planes and crashing them into buildings.''

Tamar Birckhead of Boston, a public defender who works in Coast Guard buidling nearby, rushed to pick up her 15-month-old daughter. ''It's terrifying,'' she said. ''You can't live your life in fear. You can't let crazy acts dictate what I do with my life.''

William Huang, 27, of Brookline, a businessman evacuated from 125 High St., who works for Verizon, said: ''It's terrible. I couldn't imagine anything like this would happen. I was going to head down to New York this morning, and then I heard about the plane crashes. I guess I'm kind of lucky.''

He went to work instead and said, ''People were not overly panicked but you could see the worry in their faces''

Elsewhere in New England, state government offices were evacuated, federal courthouses were closed, and air travel was halted.

In Maine, the order to evacuate the State House, State Office Building, and other state government offices came at about 10:30 a.m. US Chief Judge Gene Carter also ordered federal courthouses closed in Portland and Bangor.

In Vermont, all flights out of Burlington International Airport were canceled. Federal buildings in Montpelier and Burlington remained open.

Globe reporters Stephan Kurkjian, Shelly Murphy, and Sandy Coleman contributed to this report. Material from the Associated Press was also used.

This story ran on page A3 of the Boston Globe on 9/11/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.