The wind here is insane and seems to have blown in chaos and mayhem.

Shortly after I got to work this morning, we got a campus-wide email telling us there had been a shooting in one of the dorms and instructing us to stay put. Our building manager sent a message telling us the outer doors had been locked.

Not so good.

But, most of us weren’t too worried because we’d just done this about six months ago when an escaped criminal was loose in the area. I figured it was probably some enraged boyfriend who went after his girlfriend, which is bad but didn’t seem real scary to those of us on the other side of campus.

I took TempGirl (who will be filling in for me during my leave and who started today) around the building for a tour, and by the time we got back half an hour later, one shooting and one victim and one shooter had turned into multiple shootings, multiple vicitims, and probably multiple shooters. A guy down the hall was getting emails from someone listening to a police scanner who heard 31 dead. Another guy’s relative at the local hospital said they were packed with incoming patients. Another person’s friend at a hospital a bit aways said they were sending ambulances to help out.

It’s weird. Being in the middle of something horrible as it unfolds. I was reminded of 9-11 and how even though I was sitting watching the towers fall, it didn’t seem real. A bunch of us kept reconvening in the hall to share the latest rumors, and it just didn’t feel like across campus people were dying. In the background, all the researchers seemed to keep going about their day as if nothing unusual was happening.

We were all hungry as lunch time approached. My group was supposed to take TempGirl to lunch, so I didn’t have much to eat. Coworker P. had a stash of oatmeal and applesauce; R. had two cheese sticks; I had some grapes; and S. had a few bagels. There was a sort of playful mood as we all contemplated how we would divvy up these things to keep the building fed.

Finally around noon an email went out telling us to start evacuating. After the last event (escaped criminal) when things were a bit hectic and we had gotten mixed information about whether we should leave or stay, many people were a bit hesitant to go outside this time. Even when we got the official word, some people didn’t seem to be interested in leaving. Some because they didn’t trust the news and others because they had work to do.

As I waited in line to exit campus, I looked around for sinister-looking men hiding in the trees and realized things must be under control if they let us go. Still, seeing the state police directing traffic while carrying machine guns, I had to peek around in the trees a few more times. On my way out of town I heard on NPR that the shooter was indeed dead.

Hopefully this wind will calm down soon.