Staff report

Three months ago, Hope Blouin moved from Lewiston to a suburb outside London. On Thursday morning, a friend woke her up with news of the terrorist bombings by using a text message sent over her cell phone.

“It’s been pretty upsetting,” said Blouin, 18. “Everyone goes into the city for nights,” she said. She was in the city just last week.

When 1st Lt. Charlie Washuk heard about the attack, he had one priority: to make sure his people were OK. Washuk, a 1998 St. Dominic’s grad, works in communications at the Royal Air Force Mildenhall Air Force Base 45 miles outside of London. After the morning bombings, the base increased security to “just below highest alert,” he said. That triggered little reminders, like not to wear uniforms out in public and not to salute high-ranking officers on arrival.

“It’s kind of like putting your game face on,” said Washuk, 25.

Blouin, a 2004 Lewiston High School graduate, moved across the Atlantic Ocean and in with a friend she’d met years ago, because she was tired of her retail job here. “I didn’t want it anymore. My one-year raise was going to be 13 cents,” she said.

She spent Thursday checking on friends and was finding that everyone was fine. She wouldn’t be nervous about going back to London, she said: “I think it’s over, I don’t think anything else is going to happen.”

Nerys Bayley of Auburn, who lived in London for years and met her husband, Nick, there, used to take the tube, as Londoners call their subway, to work. “Public transportation is basically your lifeblood,” she said.

No one expects something like this to happen, Bayley said, but with the threats of violence and tension with the I.R.A. in the past, “there’s certainly always been a heightened awareness.”

– Kathryn Skelton

Charlie Washuk is the son of State House reporter Bonnie Washuk.