A hoax, but UT students had questions

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Yes, classes were canceled on Friday at the University of Texas due to a bomb threat, then officials said all could re-enter the buildings as of 5 p.m.

Police swept buildings on campus and found no weapons.

A sigh of relief to thousands -- despite criticism about how long it took officials to send out that emergency text telling people to evacuate.

The caller said the bombs would go off in 90 minutes, but people didn't get the text message about needing to evacuate buildings until 15 minutes before the supposed time of detonation.

"We're all just kind of waiting around for the text to release us and say that everything's OK. Hopefully, it is," said student Cheyenne Hanson.

Taking direction from a text message was all students and staff had to go on.

"It said that there was a threat on campus and to evacuate all buildings," said student Catherine Tsao.

Tsao and Hanson followed a herd of UT students south on Lavaca Street, many of whom who carried umbrellas in the rain.

"We just heard all the sirens go off, and we were kind of freaked out. Normally, that doesn't happen," Hanson said.

The had few updates and fuzzy details.

"Our teachers emailed us and said to maybe come to a later section [of class]," explained one student.

"I was talking to my TA, and he didn't even know what was going on," said another student.

"Thousands of people on the street right now, knowing nothing," a male student observed before the all-clear was given.

They turned to the only thing with answers.

"Everyone's on their phones right now, texting, Tweeting, Facebooking," Tsao said.

"No. I don't really want to freak my parents out," Hanson said, who said she hadn't contacted her parents. "I just texted a couple of friends and asked if they got off campus and if they're OK."

"We've got no word yet. This is really close to campus. If we can just keep going down this way, we'll be better off," said another male student who was helping to direct the crowd, since many were unsure where to go.

"He just said to go as faraway from MLK as possible, because it's still kind of close to campus and that we should walk toward the Capitol building," Hanson said.

A half hour went by and the crowd finally found out why they had evacuated. When asked if they knew that it was because of a supposed bomb threat, the students were surprised.

"Oh, wow -- I kind of just want to go home now," Tsao said.