a code green

This afternoon as I was waiting for my next caller, the intercom bursts on with a message from Nancy. She said "this is your site commander - all ERT personel to your muster stations!" Then she announced a "code green". We were all puzzled. I was trying to figure out what a "code green" stood for and other were not even listening. A couple of minutes later she comes back on the intercom and calls the code green again and an immediate evacuation of all employees.

My first reaction? I looked outside and said - what a crappy day to be doing another drill! We had done an evacuation drill a couple of weeks ago and we all remembered standing in the downpour for an hour for the drill to complete. This time it was slightly different. The "fast bells" were triggered right away. We know that slow bells mean "get ready to evacuate" and fast bells mean "get the hell out of there". So I grabbed my stuff and headed towards the stair wells. As we walked a cross the street towards the meeting area - cops, ambulances and firetrucks started pulling up. Wow - they really got the whole 911 crew involved in the drill today!

People were confused, wet and irritated as their day had been interrupted. We all diligently followed the evacuation process and were good little soldiers. The Site Commander finally told us that this WASN'T A DRILL and that there was a BOMB THREAT for the building! OMG! This was a surprising turn of events. There was more confusion and anxiety. Some people had come out believing it was a drill so they had nothing with them. Others quickly called coworkers and family to let them know that all is ok. We stood outside in the rain for over an hour with information being blasted over the bullhorn every now and then. The word was that the police were investigating and sniffer dogs being brought in. They announced that we could all go home. The company bought bus tickets and handed it out to people. No one was allowed to go near the building. They also evacuated our other 2 buildings - just incase. Some people had despair because they only had a shirt on them and nothing. How can you go home if you didn't have house keys?! I wanted to wait out a bit more to see if the building would clear so that I could rescue my car. The thought of going on transit was not appealing.

Too bad - so sad. Another hour passed with no hopes of getting back into the building. I gave up and headed for the seabus. The police had only quarantined off our building. All other businesses in the Quay were not evacuated. Boo! This is my second bomb threat experience at work. That's the "cool" part about working above a seabus terminal - it tends to be a target for such things. :-) I'm sure we'll make the news tonight.