University of Texas officials defend timeliness of campus evacuation

Sept. 17, 2012
School officials waited more than an hour after receiving bomb threat to warn those on campus

From The Austin American-Statesman: University of Texas officials are defending their decision to wait more than an hour before evacuating the Austin campus last week after a bomb threat. The university received the first threat around 8:35 a.m. from a man who said he belonged to al-Qaida. The caller said bombs placed throughout campus would go off in 90 minutes, but administrators waited more than an hour before blaring sirens and warning people in emergency text messages to immediately "get as far away as possible” from campus.

Earlier...

Twitter updates from @UTAustin: "All activities except classes will resume at 5 p.m. Buildings may be reentered at noon. Today's classes are cancelled." 11:40 a.m. CDT.

"Time specified in phone threat has passed but we have not yet cleared all buildings. Decision to resume operations & classes will come shortly." 10:45 a.m. CDT.

"Buildings being checked/cleared. Stay away from buildings. No decision on afternoon classes/activities." 10:25 a.m. CDT.

EARLIER:

From University of Texas web site: "The University is still under emergency conditions. Please remain away from buildings. As additional information becomes available it will be updated on this site." 11:31 a.m. CDT

From the University of Texas: All buildings at the University of Texas at Austin have been evacuated because of a security threat.


From the school web site: "Evacuation due to threats on campus. Immediately evacuate ALL buildings and get as far away as possible. More information to come."

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