Explosions at the Boston Marathon finish line
 

There were 2 explosions at the Boston Marathon finish line about 3 hours into the event. No word yet on how many were injured.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/natio...ns-live/64246/

How terrible!!

We're under a heightened state of alert both at work and in DC itself. Pennsylvania Ave is shut down around the White House and Metro/DCPD are out and about

There's reports that a 3rd explosion occured at the JFK Library. Hoping that it's just gossip and nerves.

Hey guys. GOOGLE has set up a person finder


Google has set up a person finder after Boston Marathon explosions: http://nyp.st/XNDixd

They are saying this was an unrelated fire that started in a mechanical room. Strange timing.

JFK library was a bomb.

Police have a Saudi national in custody. He is denying involvement, so it may just be wrong place, wrong time for that guy.

How you can help
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...-can-help?lite

Last I saw - two dead, over 100 in hospital. It's being treated as a terrorist attack, but no one has claimed responsibility.

:(

It's been confirmed that one of the two people who died was just 8 years old.

So tragic.

(ETA: some of the pictures being added to this article are kind of gruesome)
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/15/us/bos...html?c=&page=1

I'm glad to hear that all the people that I know who were there are safe, but my thoughts are with those who won't be receiving the same news tonight.

Three confirmed dead.

The husband of one of my pledge class sisters was running in it today. He was able to get through to her and let her know he was ok thankfully.

Do you have sources for these?

I can't find anything recent saying that the JFK fire was related.

No one is in custody. They have no leads. All of the information that they had a Saudi national in custody and that the JFK library fire was a bomb are false reports.

:( It seems like only yesterday that we came to GC to share and grieve on 9-11-2001.

They have gone back and now said that it was not connected.

Quote from CNN:
-- Boston police investigated whether a third explosion, at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, was connected to Monday's two bombings at the Boston Marathon, Police Commissioner Ed Davis said. They decided it was related to a mechanical problem. The JFK School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge --- miles away from the library in the Dorchester section of Boston -- was evacuated.

Here's that link: http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/15/us/bos...now/index.html

I too saw those articles- but they were from the NY Post. In my opinion, hardly a reliable source.

Thanks for confirmation. I've been trying to follow the story pretty closely all day and didn't think I missed anything.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/16/us/bos...led/index.html

An article about the 8-year-old who died. He was there to watch his father race.

His mother has had surgery on her brain and his sister lost her leg. My thoughts go out to the family.

Are the Boston area Gcers ok?

They've searched an apartment.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/...t-developments

ETA: This story from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/15/us/bos...ion/index.html

The Saudi national returns. Apparently he is not in "custody" and isn't a "suspect" but they searched his home which he consented to.

MIT's Phi Kappa Theta chapter stepped up to help. If you read down, you'll see pictures of the members. According to the article, their chapter house is near where the explosions occured.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rebeccaellio...-boston-attack

My thought also.

One GCer, alum, was there but is okay!

I just saw this on my facebook and was going to post. Thanks LaneSig and thanks to the MIT Phi Kappa Theta chapter as well as all the others who helped out.

I flew out to Boston on Wednesday night to spend a few days with my daughter and her boyfriend. Walked right by the explosion spot on Saturday. Marathon ran directly in front of her apartment about 2 miles from the end of the race. I flew out home on Sunday night while my best friend's niece and her kids were at the airport at the time of the explosion.

My daughter and her boyfriend were both at work and are both safe. I am still shaking. All weekend there was a high presence of security. Boston did everything in their power to keep everyone safe, from what I was able to see.

DaffyKD

The little boy who was killed, Martin Richard, was the son of a Sigma Tau Gamma alumni.

http://www.sigmataugamma.org/latest-...ichards-family

I'm ok. I'm not in contact with any of the other Boston GCers though:(

Sending thoughts and prayers to all of those affected. What an awful tragedy.

I kept seeing a photo on Facebook, of a young girl who was running with the caption, "This eight year old girl was running for the victims of the Newtown shooting, and was killed during the Boston explosions." The photo is fake, as the only child who died in the explosions was an 8 year old boy who was not a runner. I can't imagine why someone would make that up!

Actually I wasn't there but my daughter was almost. She has qualified to run the 2014 event but this year she was going to jump in at the beginning of Heartbreak Hill to pace a fellow runner. I called her when I heard the news and she was sounding worried so I thought she was at the site. She had no idea what was going on downtown. Fortunately she was worried because she couldn't find her friend and was afraid she had dropped due to injury.

Everyone in her running club was okay and finished before the explosions. but she reminded me yesterday that it was on Patriot's Day 6 years ago when the VA Tech shootings occurred and she lost a former hs teammate.

Me too, and it's stuff like this that drive me absolutely crazy about social media.

It's hard to describe it, but when people "share" a picture like this during a tragedy, I feel like they're basically attention whoring. "Look at me, I care about this issue too so I'm going to make it my profile picture or share it even though I don't know anything about what it means!" It just comes off as so selfish and fake to me. (I know I posted about this in another thread, but this bothered me with the red equality sign too. Changing your picture does not make you an activist.)

I mean, I'm not saying you CAN'T show support through social media, but there has GOT to be a better way than mindlessly passing something along that you saw. Be respectful about it! Stuff like this is just soooo over the top.

In my opinion.

Off my soapbox now...and any use of "you" in the above should be interpreted as a hypothetical you.

Thanks for checking in. I hope and pray the others are ok too of course.

One of my sorors had completed the race just about 10 minutes prior to the explosions. She is ok and accounted for.

Krystle Campbell is the second person to be identified among the dead:

Http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04...yNP/story.html

How awful...

Long time lurker here: We often take the MTA in to watch the end of the race, but didn’t this year. It’s hard to comprehend that the places we walked so many times – never worrying about personal safety –could become so tragic. Our house is at the starting line: after this happened they rolled in the kliegs and cordoned off the town common, still littered with a few left-behind athletic bags.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/04/16/fa...internet-hoax/

Watch out for the fake Family Guy clip going around.

I know a few friends were in the immediate vicinity of the blasts, and one friend that was running. Everyone I know is safe and accounted for.

I had the Sox game on at work when it happened, and had to tell people what was going on since it switched to the news right after.

One of the doctors who was treating the injured on the scene at the marathon is a woman who was a year ahead of me in high school.

Bolingbrook Native, Boston Marathon Medical Tent Doctor Remembers 'True Heroes Of The Day.'

Apparently the police have someone in custody.

http://cnn.org/2013/04/17/us/boston-...html?hpt=hp_t1

^^ CNN has gone back on that statement, saying that no one is custody...

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/17...oston-bombing/

Thanks for the update. How unfortunate.

As one of my friends posted on Facebook earlier:
"Being close only counts in horseshoes and CNN coverage."

However, they do have a suspect.. they just don't know who he is...

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/id...30417?irpc=932