Heightened level of awareness at Metro Airport after Flint stabbing

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There is a heightened level of awareness by security personnel at Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus.

That feeling is especially the case in the unsecured areas like check-in and baggage claim.

"I always felt like up north, Flint, Saginaw, nothing will ever happen there because it's smaller, nobody will ever attack it," said Hamada Alghulbi, who lives in Saginaw. "But apparently not everyone is safe."

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While security is keeping a closer eye, travelers are too.

"Traveling with two kids is never fun especially when hearing something like an attack," said Stephanie Cahill, flying to South Carolina.

"I don't think it makes me nervous," said Nina Farahanchi. "It makes me nervous if it happened anywhere, I think it doesn't matter where it happens."

More people watching for suspicious activity before the TSA checkpoint.

"The baggage claim area, the ticket areas, the passenger off-loading areas, those are wide open and those are very soft targets," said Andy Arena, executive director of the Detroit Crime Commission.

Homeland security specialist Andy Arena says although it will take more time, money and manpower, these are the areas that could use more security.

"I think that the bad guys, groups like ISIS, they're always probing, they're always for ways in. We've got to stay one step ahead of them," Arena said. "We can't sit back on our rear ends and wait for these things to happen."

But with the use of social media, he says, the locations of radical acts are tough to predict.

"It's a very difficult task," he said. "Particularly the guys being radicalized online by Isis. The message goes out, they get it, and they act. It's hard to stop that."

Still it's not stopping flyers at Detroit metro.

"You've just got to live with it, hope for the best and watch out for signs," said Alghulbi.

No incidents or suspicious activity reported at Metro. The most common thing I heard from travelers, if you let things like this stop you from flying, you let terrorism win.