When officials of Virginia Tech University found themselves initiating emergency alerting procedures in response to an on-campus shooting recently, it could only have been a grim reminder of the tragic event of April 2007 where a gunman killed 33 people on the campus.
Using Twitter, text messages and e-mail, as well as a website alert, this time officials immediately announced a complete campus lockdown, which continued every 30 minutes until the lockdown ended later Thursday evening.