People across the nation felt scared, or at least uneasy, after Sept. 11. But they thought they were not at risk as long as their building did not enjoy any international fame. The World Trade Center and the Pentagon were easy targets. As bastions of capitalism and American defense, respectively, what terrorist would not aim for these buildings?

However, someone soon used the United States Postal Service, something all Americans use universally, to hit the nation again.

A mailroom worker died in Florida, two postal workers died in Washington, D.C., a hospital worker died in New York, and most recently, an elderly woman died in Connecticut, all of inhalation anthrax.

Anthrax has been found in nine states as well as Washington, D.C., but anthrax scares have also crossed the nation, even hitting home in Madison.

On a Friday in mid-October, Madison emergency crews responded to four separate anthrax scares.

Eight hundred employees were evacuated from American Family Insurance, 302 North Walbridge Ave., when a mailroom employee found a suspicious green powder in an envelope and called Madison police.

At the GEF-1 state office building, two blocks from the Capitol on East Washington Avenue, 14 employees were detained until HAZMAT teams could test the gray powder two employees found at the bottom of a mailing tube.

Workers at the Department of Military Affairs, which houses the Wisconsin National Guard, turned a suspicious package over to U.S. postal inspectors, which also tested negative for anthrax. At Certco, a grocery distributor in Fitchburg, a cashier opening a roll of quarters found a mysterious powder, but the powder also tested negative for anthrax.