The flag atop the White House was lowered to half staff on Tuesday after the arise of what has been termed as the greatest terrorist attack on American soil.

It has brought about a temporary shutdown of all federal buildings, airports and high terrorism target cites.

This is the first time in American history that all flights have been grounded at the same time. All flights nationwide have been stopped at their departure airports, and the Los Angeles and San Francisco International airports have been evacuated.

On the campus of Cerritos College there were some class closures as faculty called in and said they would not make it to class.; seven English classes; two Spanish classes; three arts classes; one photography class, an earth science class and an ESL class were closed.

All around Los Angeles, there was also closures: the Latin Grammy’s, the Madonna concert at the Staples Center, the 2001 Emmy Awards, the Black Crowes concert in the Greek Theatre, Los Invisibles in the Conga Room, the Lion King at the Pantage, the Modest Mouse at the House of Blues and the Stiff Little Fingers concert at the Roxy were all cancelled Tuesday.

Major league sports were cancelled and the Tonight Show was called off for the next two nights.

All California State Universities are under cessation.

The LA Library, Museum of Tolerance, nearly all skyscrapers, federal buildings and city hall has been closed along with Jewish and Islamic schools and Crescent school in Orange County.

The chief of the Los Angeles County sheriffs said the precautions may last at least a week.

From the beginning to the end of these events, all emergency departments will be up and running and health services will be offering assistance to relatives of victims.

FEMA put into effect a plan established for such an event: FBI leads investigations and the Justice Department heads crisis management.

In New York, more than 10,000 rescue personnel rushed to the scene, and lower Manhattan has been evacuated.

The New York port authority said it had closed all bridges and tunnels into the city.

The U.S. stock markets were closed after the New York attack.

Philadelphia landmarks were evacuated. In Chicago, the Sears towers were evacuated and the United Nations in New York were evacuated.

The Center for Disease Control and prevention in Atlanta were evacuated and the CDC was preparing bioterrorism teams in case they become necessary.