Morning Bomb Scare at West Campus

We were strolling through West Campus this morning when we came across a gaggle of cops, endless yellow Police Line tape and, of all things, the bomb squad. Rio Grande between 22nd and 24th streets had been sealed off. Word was that some residences had been evacuated as well. Minutes earlier, the ubiquitous post-9/11 "suspicious package" reared its ugly head and was reported to the police.

We stuck around, alongside the small crowd of bleary-eyed thrill seekers assembling at Cane & Able's. After an hour of lights, sirens, and serious faces, the boys in blue started to slap backs and pack it up. The bomb scare was just that — a scare, and nothing more. Austin's dudebrah headquarters, not targeted by Al-Qaeda or any right-wing militia group, will live to see another keg-stand.

A similarly uneventful West Campus bomb scare in 2005 was concluded with the use of what the authorities call a "disrupter." Basically, it's a water cannon that disables handmade bombs by shooting high-powered water bursts at them. We had no such luck today.

Image from GlobalSecurity.Org