By GINA TALAMO
Assistant News Editor
Three people were killed and more than 100 were injured today when two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon, but CHS alumni attending colleges in Boston reported they are safe tonight.
CHS alum and Emerson College sophomore Jackie Tempera of Colts Neck said the attacks occurred down the street from where she lives. She and a friend had planned to attend the race before the incident.
“My friend was doing a photography project today, and she had just gotten lunch,” Tempera said. “She stopped in my room first, and we were sitting in my dorm room. We heard sirens; we didn’t actually hear the bombs.”
Updates from outside sources told them that there had been explosions.
“Not something you would ever want to hear,” she said.
Tempera said that her building is on lockdown, meaning that no people are allowed to leave or enter without valid Emerson identification. She said she’d been in her dorm room all day, and that she and her friends have been watching the news in the dorm’s common room.
National security is in place on location, with police officers now guarding the Boston Common, a popular park on Boylston Street.
“We think the whole street’s taped off,” she said.
“They had someone in handcuffs earlier, but it turned out to be nothing,” she said. “They still don’t know who did it, which is kind of freaky.”
Students from Emerson were running in the race, Tempera said.
“They were all fine. A couple of people were watching, but they only got minor injuries. I think they have glass in their legs. They were fine.”
Other CHS alumni experienced the event first-hand. Holland Farkas of Howell, Meghan Kaltenbach of Freehold, Chris Landi of Morganville and Megan Towey of Holmdel had been watching the race from the second floor of the Crate & Barrel on Boylston Street, Farkas said.
“We decided to leave, since we’d been waiting there for a while,” she said. She estimated that they left five minutes before the first explosion. When they reached Newbury Street, they heard the first bomb go off.
“Everyone on the street just stopped and looked around. And then the second one went off, and everyone just started running in different directions. No one had a set direction to run in.”
Farkas said they took shelter in a nearby store, where the owners locked the doors and allowed them to use their phones. After about half an hour, policemen evacuated Newbury Street.
“We could look out the window and there were people running, but others walking like nothing had happened,” Farkas said. “It was really weird.”
They were not all able to re-enter Emerson, as Towey was a guest to the students of the school. Farkas said they found safety at a friend’s apartment in the Cambridge area.
Police have found evidence of other weapons that were not used, including one in the Boston Public Library.
“It really could have been a lot worse,” Tempera said.
Investigation of the incident is still underway.