I've just seen that London was hit by four bombs. I wanted to make sure that all of our British friends were all right and that their families are ok. You're all in my heart and prayers.

Yes! Please Please Please! I logged into The Clubhouse and found a message this morning a few minutes ago. I know more of our Brit buds post here. Please let us know!!!

I heard the news of the bombings on my way home from work (about 5:30 am Pacific Time). My thoughts and prayers are with the people in London.

I heard about this horrible, senseless attack when my radio alarm went off this morning. I feel just as sickened and helpless as I did on 9/11. To our British friends, please know that we are thinking of you all. Pleae let us know that you are ok...

I'm OK - have spent the morning browsing every news resource I could find rather than doing any actual work though. I'm over 100 miles from London. It feels like over the course of a few hours I've travelled back in time to the most active days of the IRA though. I think FB is in London. Can't remember where Cep or Ste live... Ronin and Metalliant live as far away from London as I do though.

I'm glad to hear you're ok. If FB is in London, she might not be online for a while (simply because that's the least thing you're going to think about doing, considering that other people are going to be panicking about her as well). Such a terrifying ordeal. And the most I can do is hang around message boards to see if everyone is ok, checking news sites every five minutes or so. Hopefully we'll hear from everyone soon. Take care.

FB works for the police, who are going to be immensely busy. Also she works shifts.

Oh goodness. So we probably won't hear from her for quite a while. I can't imagine working in a situation like this. Edit: It looks like Dei, over at the Yahoo group and lives in London, is all right.

As far away as I am, I'm wishing I could be there to help with this!

Cep and Ste are both North of England so unless visiting should be ok. I am less than a mile from one of the bombs but ok. The public transport network is pretty much crippled, I have no idea how my staff will get in tonight and at present we are trying our best to deal with the aftermath. For those that dont know I am affected on two fronts. 1) I live nearby 2) as Meridian said I work for the Police. I logged in to let people know I am ok before the hell of working tonight. I missed the blasts by 2 hours. I do pray everyone else is well and their families are.

Glad to hear you're ok. I would not want to exchange jobs with you though

Oh thank goodnesss. I'm so glad that you're all right, and shall definitely keep you in my prayers as you go through this tough time. I know it has been and will continue to be rough on everyone in London for quite some time. Thanks for logging on and letting us know about yourself and others. I really appreciate it. Praying for you all...*huggles*

Can someone let Clubhouse know. I cant remember my log in at the moment

Sure will.

Thank you for taking the time to check in Firebird! I know there is so much going on more important right now, but it so eases our minds! And thanks Elvin for the head's up in Da House. Buffy/Regi

Were ok but running out of beer... Just for our non GB people its bad but were not `too` fussed.

Firebird even though you won't see this till much later, you take care tonight. I remember the chaos that was here in NYC when we were attacked. I'm glad so far to hear everyone is okay. We still haven't heard from Ste at the Clubhouse. What about Katse?

Katse's in Canada. I'm betting Ste's okay, but I do wanna hear his voice.

: gets dragged in by Lolabella with Yoyostring around neck : Erk... so... yea. I'm here and okay. : waves : Worry more about Firebird! She's going to be very busy and no doubt exhausted these next couple days with work. : sends support FB's way :

Unties yo you and points to a suprised Askura I found him!! He was a little alarmed when I busted in on him trying on all his new clothes and shoes... Glad you are okay hun! Smoochies Hope to hear from you Firebird when you are rested...

Yay for Askura catching Lola! ^_~ Glad to hear you're ok.

...Can I go put some clothes on now?

Not until I give ya a hug of relief that you are ok and around. My thoughts and prayers go out to all those innocent people and their families, of yet again such a cowardly and despicable act of terrorism. Firebird, I thankyou for taking the time in all this chaos to let us know you are ok. Ive already emailed you and reiterate in here as well, we are all thinking of you and your family, ready to give you whateva support you need , to see you though the harrowing tasks you have to fulfil at work. We are all here for you hon. To everyone who has family or friends in London, my thoughts and prayers are with you all.

This seems that this is all we talked about at work this morning. Every new person that came in we had asked if they heard what had happened. Even though I don't post on here as much as I would like nowadays my thoughts still came to everyone on here that might be over in England. I remember how concerned everyone here was for us in the United States when 9/11 happened and the concern is being shown again. I'm glad to here that everyone who has checked in so far is ok.

rest? what is this alien concept you speak of? and Imi if you remember i tend to post to try to vent so rest aint gonna happen. I also posted a brief overview of my job and what it means I sometimes get involved with. I cant give details but at least I hope it will give an understanding. Right now I am shattered after fitting in 18 hours work into 10 hours and am going to head off to try to sleep before I get calls to work all my days off. Best wishes to you all and for those that wish it a nice game?

Firebird, Asakura, Ronin, Meridian -- all accounted for. Cep probably okay. Who's left on the board? Still waiting to hear about my cousin, but she might be home in Canada for holidays; family reunion is coming up. Either way, I'm not calling her father; I'd probably catch him just as he's trying to not think about it. Meanwhile, I'll go enjoy time with Rocket.

Has anyone seen or heard from Metaliant?

oh! Has anyone heard from Drive She lives North London? I am trying so hard to remember all our UK friends so I am sorry If I missed anyone.

I have just heard from drive via text she is fine and was not near where it happened. She thanks us for thiking of her.

Metaliants not in London, they are in the Black country. (I think)

My daughter has told me tonight that the father of one of her classmates had been on one of the trains, and as of this morning was still unaccounted for. Got to hope for the best for her friend and her family. So, I had forgotten that people far from London still travel there. The bus in particular sounded bad - considering there could not possibly have been more than 100 people on board, it took them a long time to come up with the numbers of dead and injured. That is something I'm trying very hard not to think about.

Meridian, There are 49 dead at present with more to come out of one of the sites on a positive note (if you can call it that) There are people in hospital alive but still unidentified. I am sure they have logged his details with Casualty Bureau and if it helps this generally is what happens. When an incident happens we take reports from hospitals and worried friends/family also from people who have treated others. These are all directly inputted onto the system and then a group of people painstakingly work there way through those records if the person has ID then they send an officer around to let them know they are ok. If they dont they try to start the process of identifying them so they can be reunited. Alas this can take time as you heard first day alone 104,000 calls were taken and unfortunately we do get calls from people wanting travel information etc which prevents worried family members getting through. The first part after giving your loved ones details is the hardest. The wait. All I can say is the detectives work as fast as they can to get news to family members and good or bad this news is always delivered in person. I hope this helps in some way and we all wish the process was quicker. The difficult here has been people walked away from the scene and attended hospital so we had to spend time tracking them down also in order that they too can get after care.

I thankful to the gods that you're all ok, and I pray for the families of the injured and deceased, as well as those working with the essential services, like you FB. Quick question that is completely off-topic--it sounds as if you guys meet elsewhere aside from here and are all actively in touch with each other. Umm...can I come to??? I don't have any of your emails (especially you Imi, you're the closest I have to a best friend and I'm completely sucking at staying in touch) and it's been ages since I've caught any of you in chat--if you frequent elsewhere I'd love to join you, if I'm invited. Namaste Katse

I am so thankful everyone is alright! Ste....I'm glad your little naked bum is safe! Firebird, I can't help but add you to my new list of hero-people. Thank you for all you are doing, and thank you for keeping us updated! I'll pray for your child's friend and their family Meridian. I don't know why I was thinking back to the school play you told me about attending...was it last Fall? Christmas? You know what I'm talking about. I'll be praying. I'll be praying. It's times like these I'm actually thankful for the opportunities to touch that the Internet provides us. It's times like these I can't help but realize how many warm fuzzies I've developed for all of you guys. You all rock.

Eeeeesh. I can't believe how hard ya'll have to work. And it's probably not the most wonderful work in the world. I can't imagine telling someone that their husband or father or wife or mother or friend...anyone...is dead. And yet, you have to. So many injured. So many affected for life. You truly are a hero, FB. That's some hard work. I'll definitely be praying for the young girl's father and her family. And for all affected. Let us know, FB, if there's anything those of us overseas can do to help (reliable relief foundations working over there, be it international or British-based). Off-Topic Reply: There are overlapping members at other Gatch boards (such as birdgo.com, Le Clubhouse Fanfic over at MSN groups, etc). I am a terrible chat-room person, because I don't go there. If I did, I wouldn't get any work done (Not that I do, mind). So I can't help there.

Fortunately I dont give people the bad news. I really am bad at explaining things when tired. I take calls, like many others who are trained on teh system, from distressed family members. After this another group of people try to match all the missing persons with people reporting them as some times we can get 5 or 6 people reporting the same person missing and each of those creates a record. While this group are trying to match reports we will then add on the lists we get through from various places (hospitals, reception centres etc) all of which had police fficers in taking their details so we can try to make an attempt at lowing the list of missing. Next a specially trained police officer (known as a family liaison officer) is assigned to each next of kin who has reported someone missing. These are the people that deliver the good or bad news to the families. They are only assigned to close family because generally speaking friends tend not to be as anxious and to be honest with other crimes going on this people are inundated with work. Some are still working with families affected by the Tsunami. So as you see its not a short term process. I am not a hero just a peson trained to take calls and try to help in some little way. The real heros are those police officers, fire fighters, ambulance crews and ordinary everyday people that risked their lives to pull these people out. As far as helping we have the communities helping us find those who did it. Although we do have sick people still making hoax bomb threats and of course Birmingham was closed down due to a suspect package. All any of us can do is keep our eyes and ears open and report anything suspicious then maybe we can stop these people hurting anyone else. Thank you all and Meridian although the first few days are mad (and incredibly frustrating for the families) in collating all the information. Right about now things should be settling so they will be searching very carefully through the lists to try and give people some news. Alas there are still a few bodies to get out from one of the sites but the are slowly getting at them. In respect of those at hospital unidentified they will use descriptions provided by the families or dentist records etc so they can be reunited. It should also be noted this was not just londoners in the blasts we had a number of tourists hit too so we have to get details of missing from those other countries. Hope all this helps and is a bit clearer. Katse, I tend not to go to chat rooms but I am sure I left my email around somewhere

Firebird, When you have a few free moments, I'd appreciate instructions for us civilians, that would make your job easier next time. If we have loved ones we're worried about, how long should we wait before calling the authorities? What information should we have ready? If we were close but are okay, is there anyone other than our family we should call? Is there anything else we could do that would avoid duplicate work for you and your coworkers? Thanks, Cricket

Cricket, Generally speaking if you believe a loved one is involved call the number published right away. We will want to know the persons name date of birth address, whether you are next of kin (important as they are the ones contacted with information). We also need to know why you think they were involved ie the always get that train/bus etc. Also what they were wearing and any marks and scars they have. If involved in the incident yourself, let your family member knew you are safe ask them to cascade that to others. Then either speak with a local member of emergency services to advise them so they can collate that information in case someone somewhere (we have had calls from people who went to school with ??? and have not spoken to them in 15 years!) reports you involved and we then know you are safe, more importantly so the person involved can get counselling and who knows provide evidence to catch the person concerned. After reporting your loved one If you are next of kin I recommend contacting other family members and asking them to go through you for information. The reason for this is you will be assigned the Family liaison Officer so you will hear things before anyone else does. The only time this differs is if the next of kin is listed as an ex partner or elderly parent wih a medical condition in these cases another close relative will be informed.

Lousy time for my friend Carol to have moved to london for 6 months. Still haven't heard anything. Glad you're Okay FB!!! Hope somebody remembers to bring you LOTS of coffee.

Ashke, Where was your friend going to in London? Most of it was unaffected the only other thing is to check with her family to see if they have heard from her. If not the family or you may have to ring the number for casualty bureau which is published on the news. +44 (0)870 156 6344 although check locally in case a local number has been published.

My cousin Belinda (and Pete, whoever he is; wonder if her Dad's met him yet? Such fun, hazing new boyfriends at these things. The idea is to make sure they know what they're getting into before it's too late.) survived just fine and will be coming home next week for the family reunion.

She actually emailed me the other day. She's cutting her vacation short and will be home on the 20th, after a detour to Paris. Thanks for your assistance and concern FB!!!

I am glad to hear your friends are ok. Currently we are working through all those reported missing to check to see if friends etc have heard from them. Incredibly frustrating when you consider that most of them have been sitting at home since that day and people have forgotten to take the time to call back and say they are safe. So that would be another favour I guess. Please call back when your relative friend is safe. then we can spend more time on those that are still missing.

She's home and in one piece. Says she had a wonderful time. She volunteered to assist at a fundraiser for the New Orleans Disaster, something she's never done before, so I'm guessing her 'close call' affected her more than she'll admit.