DAVID GREENE, HOST:
An important moment this morning in San Bernardino, Calif. The office complex where 14 people were killed in a terrorist attack is reopening. Matt Guilhem from member station KVCR paid a visit.
MATT GUILHEM, BYLINE: A fountain gently splashes in the courtyard between buildings one and two of the Inland Regional Center as Vince Toms describes what began as a routine day on December 2. He'd been on several calls that morning and decided to take an early lunch.
VINCE TOMS: So I walk through the building and I got out the gate, took about seven steps and the fire alarm went off. And I thought, oh, boy.
GUILHEM: He quickly realized it wasn't a fire drill. Toms is a manager at the center and former medic. He says that as he came back into the courtyard he...
TOMS: Turned around, told everybody that this is real. There's a shooting in building three. And I went into the building and I told everybody in this stairwell to get up, shelter in place - it's an active shooter.
GUILHEM: Unfortunately, events like this now aren't completely unexpected, says Lavinia Johnson, the executive director of the Inland Regional Center.
LAVINIA JOHNSON: Of course, there is the memory of it. But these kinds of things can happen anywhere. They've happened in Paris and Africa. That's the world we live in today.
GUILHEM: Terror may have visited the center, but Johnson says many of her 500 or so employees wanted to work in the wake of the attack. The center is the administrative hub for caseworkers and others serving the developmentally disabled across San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
JOHNSON: They expressed that they wanted to go and visit the consumers. By helping other people it helps them.
GUILHEM: Staff worked remotely as cleanup crews removed broken doors and shattered glass. As employees return today, they'll find their offices and the buildings look unchanged. But staff will acknowledge the events.
JOHNSON: Our plan is to have each group of people meet with their managers to talk about their feelings and what they need to move forward to treat the day as a day back - business as usual - but also to take time to reflect on what we do here and what happened.
GUILHEM: Johnson walks out of the center's courtyard and into its empty parking lot. She stops and takes in all the buildings.
JOHNSON: I'm - pretty much accepted what has happened and I'm moving forward with it. I think it's important that I lead the staff in that direction. We can't, you know, wallow with the sadness and the tragedy that's happened. We have to move forward.
GUILHEM: Johnson says counselors will be on site for returning employees. They may be necessary if manager Vince Toms is right in his prediction.
TOMS: I honestly expect those people that even think they're healed are going to come back and they're going to be jolted right back to that day as we go through those processes of grief and loss.
GUILHEM: As the two administrative buildings reopen today, the conference center where the shooting occurred remains closed indefinitely. For NPR News, I'm Matt Guilhem San Bernardino.