Julie Hanahan had just checked into a hotel along in Barcelona’s, when she heard shouting and sirens, during a terrorist attack.

What to do if your vacation is disrupted by a terrorist attack

Julie Hanahan had just checked into the Citadines Las Ramblas, an apartment hotel along Barcelona’s famous La Rambla pedestrian mall, when she heard shouting and sirens.

“People were running by and screaming,” says Hanahan, who flew to Barcelona from Chicago last week with her husband and two children to board a Mediterranean cruise.

Only seconds before, a van had plowed through pedestrians on the tree-lined thoroughfare, killing 13 and injuring 100. Hanahan’s daughter watched the aftermath from her hotel balcony. “We were on the back of the hotel, thankfully, so she did not witness the van going by,” Hanahan says.