Bush’s tiny Texas hometown shuts down and keeps watch

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, September 11, 2001

Associated Press

CRAWFORD, Texas — The tiny Texas town that is home to President Bush’s ranch shut down schools and increased security Tuesday after terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

"If they can’t protect the Pentagon, how can they protect us?" Joyce Smith said. "We’ll just have to sit here and hold tight."

Crawford, a town of 700 people about 20 miles west of Waco, is Bush’s home away from the White House. Children attending the town’s two schools were moved to a community center Tuesday, where they were picked up by parents.

"Our first reaction was to secure the kids. This situation caught America off-guard," said Stan Nagel, owner of the Crawford Station, a convenience store.

The Secret Service refused to discuss security in Crawford. But local authorities increased patrols around Bush’s 1,600-acre ranch, said Capt. Kenneth Vanek of the McLennan County Sheriff’s Department.

Additional troopers were posted and sheriff’s deputies were checking vehicles in and around the ranch, Vanek said.

Mayor Robert Campbell described Crawford’s mood overall as quiet.

"There’s nobody here right now for us to be worried about, but naturally there are some concerns," he said. "As small as we are, it’s kind of easy to tell if somebody doesn’t belong."

Ninety miles south in Austin, Gov. Rick Perry urged Texans to be calm despite the president’s ties to the state.

"I don’t particularly think that Texas is any more" a target than any other place, Perry said.

The mayor had similar thoughts.

"I guess right now we feel as safe as anybody in the United States is feeling. Everybody is automatically concerned because his ranch is out here, but I think the initial trauma about what has happened has people more upset," Campbell said.

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