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Shortly after it was clear Tuesday morning that the World Trade Center tragedy was no accident, a stomach-dropping reality sunk in to Chicago workers that a Loop skyscraper could be just as vulnerable.
And those workers didn't wait to see how close to home terror would strike.
Even before a second hijacked jet slammed into the World Trade Center in New York, local workers streamed out of the even taller Sears Tower and into the streets, a response that began as an office- by-office decision but quickly became a building mandate.
Employees in neighboring buildings followed suit, some evacuating voluntarily, some by orders of management. Not long after, most downtown buildings shut down as well, sending a river of spooked but mostly non-panicked workers to packed train stations and rapidly emptying parking lots.
"I'm probably overreacting just like everyone else in the city," said Tom Leahy, a Chicago lawyer who closed his law offices at 77 W. Washington St. "My daughter called from school very upset and she wants me to pick her up. She's 12 and she doesn't appreciate how remote the danger is."
The city did not treat the danger as remote, even though Mayor Richard M. Daley, police Superintendent Terry Hillard and FBI officials all said they received no credible information that Chicago was an intended target of a terrorist attack. The city clamped down, guarding its water filtration system from sabotage, ordering all on- duty police officers to wear their uniforms, moving slow cars along and doing their best to guard against disaster.
"We are...