Police jump and communities get scared when there's a terrorist threat

BARNESVILLE - It was just before 8 a.m., and J.C. Corley was about to open his tire shop when he saw a duct-taped cylinder with nails, tubes and red wires in his business&#39; garage. <br> <br> A few minutes later, a customer at the Pastime Grill discovered a similar-looking canister stuffed in a flower bed. Other containers appeared at a sporting goods store, a Chinese restaurant, a high school football field. <br> <br> A pipe bomb scare would cause concern anytime. But in a nation jittery about terrorism, it didn&#39;t take long for things to get hectic, even in Barnesville, a rural town of 5,972 that calls itself the Buggy Capital of the World. <br> <br> ``The police chief was the first one here,&#39;&#39; Corley said. ``He said, &#39;There may be nothing to it, but let&#39;s call the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.&#39;&#39;&#39; <br> <br> It wasn&#39;t long before hundreds were evacuated, yellow tape surrounded the entire town, police officers stood guard at every road leading in or out, and businesses were closed on one of the biggest shopping days of the year Buggy Days, an annual arts festival drawing more than 50,000, was the next day. <br> <br> None of the bombs was real. But scares like these have been testing the homeland security of the nation when people panic and an alarm rings through the law enforcement chain of command. <br> <br> Bomb squads arrive on the scene faster. Residents run quicker. And police say they&#39;ve gotten training and equipment to better work together when there&#39;s a hint of terrorism even when it&#39;s in a quaint town 50 miles south of Atlanta whose golden age passed when the automobile arrived. <br> <br> The main difference in an America that&#39;s aware of the potential for terrorism is that everyone reacts immediately and in force, said Lamar County Sheriff Larry Waller. During Barnesville&#39;s scare Sept. 20, at least 11 police agencies and 125 officers descended on the town. <br> <br> ``Everyone&#39;s geared up, everyone&#39;s more hyped up,&#39;&#39; Waller said. ``We did what we had always been trained to do, but after the World Trade Center, everyone was more cognizant of the potential for terrorism.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The main problem police had was communicating with each other through their radios because they all used different frequencies, Waller said. A new communication command post, housed in a 28-foot trailer, will help police talk to each other when the next emergency strikes. <br> <br> Police already know what to do in a crisis. But they need more training about who to call for help and how to use high-tech tools when someone reports a white powdery substance in their mailbox, said Tushar Ghosh, a professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia and co-author of ``Science and Technology of Terrorism and Counterterrorism.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> ``If someone has this knowledge, they can guide the general public in what to do,&#39;&#39; he said. <br> <br> The suspects in Barnesville&#39;s terror alert remain at large. Police say they don&#39;t have enough evidence yet to make arrests. <br> <br> ``Who knows who did it? I doubt we ever will,&#39;&#39; said Paul Schmidt, owner of The Movie Star video rental store, which has a ``God Bless America&#39;&#39; sign clipped from a newspaper in the front window. ``It was a stupid, cheap thrill. It was a very sick joke. It was frightening in this day and age you just don&#39;t know.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Georgia bomb squads have gone through the same drill several times when there have been threats. In Hampton, 25 miles north of Barnesville, the bombs were real. <br> <br> These 12 bombs nine hidden in flower pots and three disguised as flashlights were found by a convict&#39;s mother as she was moving them into a mobile home Nov. 4. <br> <br> The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was immediately called and the bombs were exploded using robots, said Hampton Police Chief Bud Smith. An affidavit indicates the bombs may have been intended for use in holding up a bank. About 20 people in the neighborhood were moved for a day. <br> <br> ``Since the terrorism situation started developing, of course anything involving explosives certainly draws your attention much quicker,&#39;&#39; Smith said. ``Everybody was more alert to the potential danger, but nobody got out of line. Everyone was there to assist the police department in any way they could. It&#39;s something a small agency like ours doesn&#39;t encounter every day.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Anne Claxton, owner of The Jewelry Store in Barnesville, said she never got to work that day because downtown had already been roped off. She was left to wonder whether the booms she heard in the distance were the detonations of real bombs or the diffusions of fakes. <br> <br> ``It made me realize how vulnerable we are, even in this small-town setting,&#39;&#39; she said. ``Terrorism is in the back of everyone&#39;s mind. It was a serious situation, to have the town barricaded and to hear the explosions.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Even after the fake bombs were disposed of, the townsfolk were left with the feeling that they&#39;re not so safe anymore, said Debbie Johnson, an assistant manager at the Pastime Grill. Next time, the bombs could be the work of real terrorists. <br> <br> ``We were really scared and thinking, &#39;What&#39;s going to happen tomorrow, when you&#39;ve got thousands of people downtown for Buggy Days?&#39;&#39;&#39; Johnson said. ``I think people are more worried, more concerned since then.&#39;&#39;