Grounded flights
All airlines nationwide were grounded following the four hijackings and subsequent terrorist crashes.
In Luverne, that meant local travel agents weren't booking flights.
"We have been extremely slow today. Nobody wants to fly or even think about flying," said Stacy Mente at Roundwind Travel.
"I've just been concentrating on who I have flying now and figuring out how to get them to their destinations."
Sue Hoffman at Great Planes Travel, Luverne, helped Luverne residents Tom and Sandy Klein arrange for a rental car to drive home.
The Kleins were returning home from San Antonio when their flight was grounded in Kansas City Tuesday morning.
"It was pretty scary," Sandy told the Star Herald when they returned home Tuesday night.
"Our flight left San Antonio at 7:15 like it was supposed to, and an hour and a half later, the captain came on and said there had been a national emergency, and they were advised by the FAA that all planes needed to land at the nearest airport.
"The nearest airport was Kansas City, so we were diverted there.
"...You could see out the window other planes circling around waiting to land, and we were pretty lucky because we were one of the first to land."
Klein said heightened security at the airport was very obvious, and police squad cars manned all entrances and exits.
She said they stood in line for two hours waiting for a rental car, and the only reason they got one was because they called Roundwind in Luverne to have one reserved.
Despite the long waits for luggage and rental cars, she said no one complained. "Everyone was so happy to be on the ground, knowing what was going on."
She said people were working together to carpool to get everyone home. In fact, the Kleins carpooled with a man from Minneapolis, who took the rental vehicle on with him after they retrieved their van in Sioux Falls.
At the Sioux Falls airport, she said the entrance was blocked and they had to persuade the police officer to let them get their vehicle.
"We're going to wake up tomorrow and it's going to seem like such a dream," Klein said.
She added that all their hassles in getting home seemed like a small price to pay, considering all the families mourning for victims on the East Coast.
Local effects
The East Coast terrorism was felt across the country as major centers of population were shut down, including the Mall of America in Bloomington and the Empire Mall in Sioux Falls.
Hardwick native Deb (Bruynes) Fick works for the Minnesota Department of Transportation building in St. Paul.
She e-mailed her sister, Sue Bruynes, Tuesday, about how the East Coast terrorism has affected the State Capitol.
"I can't believe there is another terrorist attack," she wrote. "Always makes me a little nervous to be working in a government building right by the Capitol!"
She and her co-workers spent much of the day Tuesday in a security lockdown with no access to current news via television or radio.
"All of our offices have been locked to the outside world, and security has been called in to all entrance points," she said via e-mail.
"Visitors are not allowed unless they are escorted by a Minnesota Department of Transportation employee."
In Rock County, schools and government offices were open as usual.
According to a spokesperson with the Minnesota National Guard, heightened security had been ordered at training and community centers around the state, but Army and Air Force Guard members were not placed on special notice as of Tuesday.
Some churches in the community held prayer services Tuesday night, including one organized by the Rock County Ministerial Association in the Christian Reformed Church.