When it was over, local, state and federal officials began meeting.
The next morning, officials began trying to help any victims among their customers.
On April 22, officials began to survey the land that was to be built upon.
Officials are already beginning to compare the threat to the bad old days of 1964-65 and 1980-81.
Officials are also beginning to plan how to spend $591 million in security money the authority recently received from the federal and state governments.
Western officials are beginning to question who will chart China's military strategy in the next century.
Local officials, from the Mayor down, are beginning to panic.
That is what some officials are beginning to think, and they have more than mass transit in mind.
In reality, American officials had already begun planning for war.
Officials cannot begin to predict how much of their work will have to be repeated.