Evacuation

The evacuation announcement came over the loudspeaker at the Beverly Center in the early afternoon - a muffled voice telling shoppers that this was not a drill, everyone needed to leave the mall immediately. Christina Taylor, a high school junior from Florida, had been browsing the racks at Bloomingdale's with her mom - their first stop after arriving in L.A. - when her mom grabbed her arm to get her attention. The two women couldn't make out exactly what the announcer had said, but around them, workers in the store began panicking and running, Christina said.

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's giant Popocatepetl volcano may generate lava flows, explosions of "growing intensity" and ash that could reach miles away, the National Center for Disaster Prevention said Monday. Officials were preparing evacuation routes and shelters for thousands of people who live in the shadow of Popocatepetl, located 40 miles southeast of Mexico City. Officials have created a 7.5-mile restricted zone around the cone of the volcano. Popo, as the volcano is known, has displayed a "notable increase in activity levels" in the last few days, including tremors and explosive eruptions, according to a statement from the federal government.

Two wildfires ravaging Colorado have forced 11,000 evacuations and destroyed more than 200 homes. The Waldo Canyon fire forced the complete evacuation of Manitou Springs over the weekend and evacuations from nearby Colorado Springs and a number of small communities along Highway 24, according to Rob Deyerberg, a spokesman for the firefighters battling the blaze. "We're used to flooding and tornadoes, nothing like this," Amanda Rice of Rock Falls, Ill., told the Associated Press.

Retired Marine Brig. Gen. Gordon Gayle, who received the Navy Cross for leadership and bravery during the assault on Peleliu, one of the bloodiest and most complex and controversial battles fought by Marines during World War II, has died. He was 95. Gayle died April 21 at an assisted-living facility in Farnham, Va., after suffering a stroke, according to the U.S. Marine Corps. As an officer with the 1st Marine Division, Gayle led troops in five key battles in World War II, starting with Guadalcanal in 1942, where Marines, after weeks of fierce jungle fighting, stopped the advance of Japanese troops toward Australia.

LAFAYETTE, Colo. -- A Colorado wildfire that forced hundreds of evacuations west of Fort Collins was about 45% contained by Saturday evening, and officials said residents could soon return home. The blaze started accidentally on Friday, a day of record high temperatures and gusty winds.  Between 750 and 1,000 acres burned near Lory State Park, where one of the largest wildfires in state history destroyed hundreds of homes last year. Several hundred evacuation notices were sent to local homeowners.

Officials evacuated Louisiana State University on Monday after yet another bomb threat forced students to leave a campus. A caller phoned in a vague threat to 911 that was received by the East Baton Rouge Parish emergency center at 10:32 a.m., university spokesperson Kristine Calongne told the Los Angeles Times. University officials blasted out an evacuation notice on social media platforms a little over an hour later, at 11:37 a.m. By Monday evening, law enforcement officials were allowing students to return to dorms and some other facilities while continuing to inspect  the rest of the campus.

The Beverly Center has reopened after it was evacuated Sunday afternoon when a shopper alerted police that his car parked in the shopping center's multi-level garage, as well as a briefcase inside the vehicle, had been moved. Police received the call about 12:30 p.m., and the LAPD bomb squad was dispatched to the scene, police said. About 1,300 shoppers and employees in the enormous Westside shopping center were evacuated. Police located the car and used a remote-control robot to remove the briefcase, which was later detonated, police said.

The Social Security Administration building in Casa Grande, Ariz., was evacuated Friday morning after an explosion, authorities said. A small, simple device exploded and charred the outside of the building's side doors about 8:25 a.m., said Case Grande Fire Marshal Barbara Rice. A car near the entrance appeared to be damaged. “It wasn't a pipe bomb or anything of that nature,” she said. There was smoke damage inside the building and briefly a fire, but no one was injured, Rice said.

San Antonio International Airport officials gave the all-clear Wednesday afternoon after a phoned-in bomb threat forced the evacuation of more than 2,000 passengers and personnel. Some flights were landing again as scheduled, the airport said , after the terminals and nearby parking garages were examined and cleared by bomb squads. Police left the airport to direct traffic, which grew congested as more people tried to leave the area. The incident began just after 2 p.m. when airport officials received a “very specific threat” alleging  that three packages had been left in the basement of the short-term parking garage.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Ten thousand people in and around this mountain city remained under evacuation orders Saturday, a week after the Waldo Canyon fire erupted to become the most destructive in state history. The blaze, which has destroyed an estimated 346 homes and killed two people, continued to burn in a 26-square-mile expanse of mountains near Colorado's second-largest city, but was not growing in size, authorities said at a Saturday morning news conference. More than 150 National Guard troops will be deployed to patrol neighborhoods and man roadblocks  around evacuated areas starting Saturday, freeing up local law enforcement for normal duties, Colorado Springs Police Chief Peter Carey told reporters.

A fast-moving brush fire powered by Santa Ana winds raged out of control Wednesday in Riverside County, forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes and creating a thick pall of smoke that stretched for miles and affected air quality in the region. The Summit fire, which had charred at least 2,950 acres near Banning, spread quickly after breaking out shortly after noon as hundreds of firefighters struggled to create containment lines and protect homes, officials said. The blaze destroyed at least one home and left one firefighter with minor injuries.

A brush fire forced the evacuation of about 200 homes in Monrovia on Saturday as firefighters worked to keep flames from spreading into the San Gabriel Mountains. The wildfire had charred 170 acres of brush and grass on the edge of residential areas in northwest Monrovia, sending up clouds of smoke visible across a wide area of the Southland. By Saturday night its growth had slowed, although fire officials were on the watch for downwinds that can develop in the area. The blaze was 10% contained.

Businesses and residences near a Del Taco in Fullerton have been evacuated while authorities investigate “suspicious packages” in the restaurant's parking lot, police said. The area around Chapman Avenue and State College Boulevard has been shut down since about 8:30 a.m., police said, and the Orange County Sheriff's Department bomb squad has responded to the incident. The incident marks the latest in a string of bomb scares across Southern California this week, following the bombings at the Boston Marathon on Monday.

The caller stood at a pay phone outside a Carl's Jr. in El Monte and warned police: Bombs will explode in two hours, he said. One at Cal State L.A. , the other at UC Berkeley. The reactions of the two public universities, though, were markedly different. At Cal State L.A., administrators sounded fire alarms across campus, evacuated dorm rooms and classrooms and canceled school for the rest of the day. UC Berkeley police officials deemed the same threat "low credibility" and the campus proceeded with business as usual.

The Cal State Los Angeles campus in El Sereno was closed and evacuated Thursday after a bomb threat, officials said. Mike Uhlenkamp, director of media relations for Cal State, confirmed that the campus would be evacuated until further notice. Additional details weren't immediately available, but the school sent two tweets about 12:45 p.m. announcing the closure. "The CSULA campus is closed as of noon, April 18, as a precaution. Those on campus should evacuate immediately," the first message read.

  A bomb squad responded to a second incident Thursday night at Cal State Los Angeles after two "suspicious" objects were reported on campus, law enforcement authorities told The Times. The objects turned out to be a door chime and part of a student's experiment, according to authorities. The door chime belonged to a professor  A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department bomb squad "rendered harmless" the two objects shortly before 9 p.m., authorities said.  The campus had already been evacuated after a bomb threat earlier Thursday that turned out to be a hoax.  Law enforcement authorities said the two incidents appeared to be unrelated.  Earlier in the day, students and faculty were ordered to leave the Eastside campus as police searched the area.  Students and faculty were not allowed back on campus, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

NEW YORK - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the evacuation of about 375,000 people from low-lying areas Sunday and said schools will be closed Monday as the metropolitan area braces for Hurricane Sandy. Bloomberg's announcement came after Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered the city's subway, bus and commuter rail systems to shut down at 7 p.m. Sunday, setting the stage for the nation's largest city to be essentially brought to a standstill for the second time in 14 months. The precautions were the same in August 2011 when Hurricane Irene was bearing down on the city.

Colorado officials on Thursday ordered a mandatory evacuation of about 65 homes in Larimer County as a precaution against the spread of a wildfire that has been burning since Monday. Known as the Hewlett fire, the blaze near Fort Collins, Colo., has grown quickly in recent days from less than 1,000 acres in the Roosevelt National Forest to 5,090 acres. As of Thursday afternoon, the fire was about 5% contained and was being fought by 391 personnel, officials said. Additional firefighters have been ordered, as have two heavy air tankers, one heavy helicopter and one light helicopter.

BOSTON - An hour after the federal courthouse here was evacuated, a man in a blue uniform emerged from it and waved a large green flag. Gary Wente, a circuit executive at the John Joseph Moakley courthouse, came out to tell reporters that the courthouse had been secured.  “We had a bomb threat," Wente said. "The building has been cleared.” Among those reentering were employees and jurors. FULL COVERAGE: Boston Marathon attack Earlier, law enforcement officers had sent young children from a day-care center, employees, jurors and private citizens out of the building.

An estimated 200 people were ordered to evacuate their homes Monday night as a fire whipped by powerful winds scorched brush in mountainside neighborhoods near Fillmore in Ventura County and burned at least two structures. The fire had burned about 170 acres but there were no reports of injuries. The blaze was sparked by a downed power line as winds gusting to nearly 50 mph battered Southern California. The fierce winds toppled trees, swirled clouds of dust across area highways and left thousands of people without electricity from Elsinore to Lancaster, officials said.