An Iowa woman who just returned from London last month says in the past few hours she has been able to track down her boyfriend and former flat-mates who are still in London. Twenty-four-year-old Michelle Cattoor of Des Moines worked in London this past spring and learned of today’s terrorist attack in London at about 6:30 this morning.
“I just panicked immediately,” Cattoor says. “I tried cell phones and land lines both. Both seemed to be busy at times and then I could periodically break through, so I called and got (in touch with) my boyfriend and he, in turn, got (in touch with) many of our friends.”
One of the bombing sites on the London Underground — called “The Tube” by Londoners — is King’s Cross, and Cattoor is very familiar with it. If she were still in London, she might have been on The Tube at the time of the bombing.
“That really scares me and it scares me for all of those people who would have been going to work,” Cattoor says. King’s Cross is a main station on “The Tube” where many of the subway lines in London converge.
“In the morning at King’s Cross it is so busy. It’s packed,” Cattoor says. “You’re just touching every person around you because it’s so full because everybody’s commuting.” She’s watching the news, and periodically talking with her friends in London.
“They said that they went on a walk and it was just quiet there,” Cattoor says. “Even going into a supermarket, they got searched.” Cattoor can conjure up mental images of the places struck in London and is trying to stay in touch with those she knows are seeing the images with their own eyes.
“I email people, but just hearing them say they’re okay is always better,” she says. Cattoor’s name and voice may be familiar to Radio Iowa listeners. She worked as a paid intern for Radio Iowa last summer.