DOWNTOWN STORES were quickly closed. Some have hand-scrawled signs pleading for our understanding.

NorthWest Cable News just finished carrying a live prayer service from St. James Cathedral. The eerie calmness, the serene ritual, was the most calming thing I could find. (The cable channel’s NWCN.com site crashed and was replaced by a simple page of crisis updates.)

Indeed, news websites across North America and Europe have been flooded with hits, and many are out. One that’s not: Yahoo.

I watched the prayer-service coverage with a neighbor whose sister lives in New Jersey and saw the implosion from her (the New Jersey sister’s) apartment window.

Pearl Harbor comparisons are not quite accurate. Pearl Harbor was a sneak attack, but it was an offensive strike against a specifically military target. This was an act of cold cruelty against civilians. If it really is the result of overseas terrorists, it’s the first major attack on the U.S. mainland since the War of 1812.

And it’s an attack with no disclosed motive. Scripting.com quotes NPR commentator Daniel Schorr: “With Pearl Harbor there was a return address.”