General Chat

Dear BrianW and all

Hello

I remember that day well.

At work, we had been talking with excitement about London being awarded the Olympics.

Then the radio was turned on and the news bulletins came through, confused
and vague.

This continued but just after lunchtime, we realised what had happened.

The mobile telephone network had been disconnected.

When I got home in the evening, I remember seeing the carnage and devastation caused on the news. It was unbelievable.


Sincere wishes
Elizabeth, EOS
xx

I know exactly where I was when the news came through here in NZ. Some of my family members were in the lounge talking with my husband. I had gone up to the bedroom to watch something on TV and the program was interrupted to show it all. I went down to tell them what had happened.

When 9/11 happened my daughter was working for the BBC in London and she saw it all straight away on their screens but the news team were away at a meeting. She was in the marketing research side. After that, they had security searches every day.

Thankfully none of our family worked in London at the time. However, we do live in the Commuter belt where many people do.

The head teacher of the secondary school called an emergency assembly to tell the staff and students what had happened. The girl I was with became frantic with worry especially as she couldn't contact her parents by phone. Did they take the mobile phone service down or was it just overloaded?

A collegue's 20 year old son was going to meet a friend who was travelling in from E Anglia for the day. He was going to use the tube to cross London. She was also desperately worried when she couldn't get hold of him.
Those of us who don't live there only really know the tube system. Put us above ground and we're lost. This is what happened to him. Despite the confusion, a police car going that way very generously took him back to Victoria.

In a time of chaos and crisis, there are so many untold examples of kindness and generosity.

For many years afterwards friends and collegue's were nervous when either they or a loved one had to use public transport.

Like Kense I am not sure it was a deliberate lie. I think the power surge theory was what they thought immediately after the first incident. That story was corrected pretty quickly. You have to remember that 10 years ago most people didn't really think that this could happen in London and terrorist attack is not the first thing anyone would have thought of.

Guinevere, how appalling that anyone on here should have been abused for her concern for her husband.

My memory of that day is of trying to remain calm and carry on normally while waiting to hear if my daughter was OK. She had to go to London that day and would have been on the tube in the relevant area at the right time. We were lucky - she was OK and managed to get through to her husband around 1 pm so we didn't have to wait nearly as long as some people. She eventually managed to get home around midnight.

My heart goes out to those families whose loved ones never returned.

As I remember it, from breaking news items, the power surge story was only there after the first incident. A power surge was consistent with the effects that would have been noted in the control room.

Once details of the other tube explosions had occurred, power surge was not an official line. The bus explosion was an hour later by which time it was obvious what was going on.

I'm surprised that you're surprised that they lie, Brian.

A GR friend was very worried about her DH who worked in the city and couldn't be contacted. She got a load of abuse on here. That's my main memory of that awful day.

Atrocities are still part of everyday life in many countries.

It was ten years ago this week.
I was working in Fitzroy Square, close to Russell Square where a bomb went off on the underground and Tavistock Square where the bus was bombed.
What I found scary was the lie put out by the authorities that it was a power surge that had caused the explosions.
Oh yeah! Three underground lines and a bus hit by a power surge?
It destroyed my faith in official information channels.