There were some anxious moments for Chandra Womack Monday morning as  she awaited word from her son at Virginia Tech. "I was shopping at  Wal-Mart when I heard about the shootings at the school, and I was so  upset that I couldn't find my car in the parking lot there.

But much to her relief her freshman son, Craig Keyes called her shortly  after 11 a.m. to tell her he was okay. Keyes is in the school's  engineering department and has classes in the building behind Norris  Hall, although his classes are in the afternoon. Keyes told his mom  during their 11 a.m. conversation that he had passed the Ambler Johston  Dormitory where the first shootings took place and noticed police  there, but really thought nothing of it until he later heard the news.

Yesterday Keyes called the newspaper to say that one of his friends had  been shot in the arm, but was recovering fully. However, another of his  friends, a girl, was still unaccounted for. "We went to the hospital  last night (Monday) and looked for her, but she wasn't there and she  has not been listed among the fatalities. We just don't know where she  is," Keyes said worriedly.

But the good news from Keyes was simply that all the students he knows  of that come from Halifax County were all safe and accounted for.

That was the same message that another local student had conveyed to  his mother Monday morning. Chase Weddle, a sophomore at Tech, called  his mom who is a guidance counselor at the Middle School to tell her  that he and all the students he knew from the local community were  safe.

According to Weddle's younger brother, Hunter, his mom knew nothing  about what had happened since power was out at the school and she  hadn't seen the news. In a later conversation with his parents, he  seemed "really shaken up," his brother said.

Cathy Conner, whose daughter Holly is also a first year engineering  student at Virginia Tech also had some anxious moments. But she was  relieved to know that her husband, Wayne, was in Blacksburg at the time  of the massacre.

Holly, she said, was in class in the building behind Norris Hall when  the shooting took place and officers came to that building and told all  the students to leave at once. "But they did not tell them what was  happening nor did they tell them where they should go," Mrs. Conner  said.

"I'm a little disturbed about how it was handled. It would seem to me  that with two people killed earlier they would have put the school on  lock-down right away. I just don't think they acted quickly enough.”

.Mrs. Conner said her daughter will come home for a few days since  classes have been canceled for the remainder of the week.

Halifax County High School Assistant Principal Debbie Griles said on  Tuesday, "we were all very concerned because of the large number of  our students who attend Virginia Tech. Parents were calling siblings to  advise them of the safety of their brothers and sisters," she said.  Some teachers allowed their students to use their cell phones to try  and reach their siblings at Tech.

The shooter, who finally turned the gun on himself, has been identified  as 23 year old Cho Seung-Hui, an English major whose writings were so  disturbing to his teacher, that he was referred to the school's  counseling service. News reports reveal that he arrived in the United  States in 1992 from South Korea and grew up in the surburbs of  Washington.