LIMESTONE – Life and business returned to normal Thursday at the Defense Finance and Accounting System offices at Loring Commerce Centre after a night of fear, uncertainty and anxiety.

At about 2 a.m. Thursday morning, emergency personnel determined that an orange powdery substance found in a FedEx package Wednesday afternoon was not of a biological or chemical substance that could injure people.

In the meantime, nearly 50 of the 78 workers in the building went through an extensive decontamination process that included several showers, the temporary loss of their clothes and personal effects, including jewelry, held in plastic bags , and being quarantined in the base gymnasium for nearly 11 hours.

Still, life returned to as normal as could be expected Thursday. A maintenance worker was painting outside at noon at the DFAS building’s entrance; the parking lot was full of cars; people walked about, and most of the workers had returned to their jobs. Flags were flying in front of the building, and the sun shone on a beautiful autumn day.

In contrast, the atmosphere Wednesday night was stark. The crispness of a fall night bit the skin of officers at the roadblocks, and anxiety shone in their faces. It was a time of uncertainty.

The area was like a war zone. Police cordoned off a four block area around the DFAS center on Arkansas Road, and people were turned away from the roadblocks unless they lived in former military housing along Tennessee Circle. Identifications were checked, people were questioned and some were told by Limestone police officers and Maine State Police troopers that they should leave the area.

The only sound at the roadblocks were Canada geese floating on Malabeam Lake, just a few hundred yards through the woods from Northcutt Avenue.

It was nearly 11:30 p.m. when military experts from the 11th Civil Support Team arrived in eight vehicles and blew through the Northcutt Road roadblock escorted by a Maine State Police cruiser.

Coming from Waterville, the team was on the road nearly 41/2 hours. It is the closest of 25 such teams in the country.

Twenty-three local, county, state and federal agencies were involved in the situation by the time it ended.

“It was probably very stressful for the employees,” Major Jeffrey Squires, commander of the military team, said Thursday.

Nonetheless, most of the DFAS workers were back on the job Thursday, even though they were told they could take the day off. The affected employees were paid overtime for their forced stay Wednesday night, Larry Conrad, DFAS director, said.

“After a time, I felt scared and anxious about the situation in the world,” Betty Ennis of Caribou, one of the DFAS employees who went through the entire decontamination process at the center, said Thursday afternoon. “The feelings of anxiety in the country were very real.

“We realized it could very well happen here,” said the DFAS accounting technician. “We became even more anxious, tired and hungry as the evening and night wore on.”

She said she still felt some anxiety Thursday after returning to work at the center.

Major Joel Speight, deputy director of the Air Force Element Command at DFAS who also went through the decontamination process, said his military background probably affected his reaction to the situation.

“I wasn’t anxious because I felt we were taking the appropriate actions and precautions under the circumstances,” he said Thursday noon while standing outside the DFAS center. “We were very fortunate in this situation, on a whole lot of fronts.

“It turned out to be harmless, but the response of everyone was appropriate, and it was supportive of us caught in the building at the time,” he said.

Speight said people understood the situation. He called it a “heightened awareness” because of what has happened in the country in the last month.

Conrad also was in the building during the scare. He said he was proud of the reaction of his workers.

“Our folks reacted positively to what was happening to them,” he said Thursday. “Many of them had commitments last night, but they understood the uncertainty we are all living under. They took this rather seriously.

“Today, there is a sense of relief that everything turned out all right,” he said. “During the process, people felt good that others were concerned about their health.

“I didn’t have time to worry about myself, but I was worried for all our folks who were inside the building, as they all tried to contact their families,” he said. “While part of me was saying this couldn’t be real, I understood it really was.”

Arthur Knight, a U.S. Air Force retiree living on the Loring Commerce Centre, watched the situation unfold Wednesday night with near incredulity. He was stationed at Loring from 1987 to 1989 when it still was an air base. One of the roadblocks was 200 feet from the apartment he shares with his wife and a daughter, and the DFAS center is within half a mile of their apartment through a wooded area.

“We left New York state feeling we would be safe here,” he said. “Now I wonder, it [fear and terror] seems to have come even here.

“It could very well be real,” he said watching the situation around midnight as police stopped cars. “I wonder how long this will last.”