Oklahoma City Murrah Building Bombing

[ljbab728]

I'm surprised that Saturday went by without even a mention of this here. Let's never forget.

19 years after bombing Oklahomans gather hoping never to forget | KFOR.com

[Mel]

I feel bad that I did not remember this until I drove around Downtown around 1600. There were folks there for the Memorial, Folks there setting up the Art's Festival and folks setting up Thunder Alley for the Game. I will remember the sould from the bombimg in my prayers tonight. I have to say downtown was a bit busy today.

[ljbab728]

I feel bad that I did not remember this until I drove around Downtown around 1600. There were folks there for the Memorial, Folks there setting up the Art's Festival and folks setting up Thunder Alley for the Game. I will remember the sould from the bombimg in my prayers tonight. I have to say downtown was a bit busy today.

There was obviously a lot going on today with the Art's Festival and the Thunder game. None of it was nearly as important as the bombing though. I caught the ceremonies on TV this morning and it was as moving as always.

[Mel]

I slept late and honestly did not remember until I drove around that area.

[Eddie1]

I did not live here when the bombing happened in '95. But I did live through and actually watch the second plane hit building #2 in '01 so I understand the devastation of this event. A partner of mine the other day had said he could hear the explosion in Norman at that time. Is this true? What was the farthest away you all could actually hear that explosion on that morning? Was it sunny? Calm winds that day. I remember in NYC it was absolutely beautiful that morning.

[Easy180]

I did not live here when the bombing happened in '95. But I did live through and actually watch the second plane hit building #2 in '01 so I understand the devastation of this event. A partner of mine the other day had said he could hear the explosion in Norman at that time. Is this true? What was the farthest away you all could actually hear that explosion on that morning? Was it sunny? Calm winds that day. I remember in NYC it was absolutely beautiful that morning.

I was at a banking center in Midwest City and it sounded like the air conditioning unit on the roof exploded.

[ljbab728]

I was at work at NW Expwy and Rockwell and thought there was a car wreck outside.

[gjl]

I heard it clearly inside the Lucent Technologies factory on Reno and Council. Sounded like a huge clap of thunder.

[Prunepicker]

I was a few blocks west on 8th street near St. Anthony. I felt the blast
and the floor in a century old church building. I was tossed back and
forth in a hall way and the floor was undulating because of the shock.
I thought it was a car bomb.

[TAlan CB]

I was a few blocks south working in the Crystal Bridge ... I ran down to the north facing circular window in time to see a mushroom cloud go up... it was from the collapse of the north face of the structure. In those days there was no Devon tower and there was a clear view to the west side of the Murrah complex. You could see across the parking lot (no above grade parking structures yet) and up the street.

[RadicalModerate]

I heard it all the way up in Guthrie. It sounded like a loud clap of thunder, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

[Urbanized]

My desk was about six feet away from a north-facing floor-to-ceiling window on the SW corner of Robinson and Reno. I was standing, talking with someone, and the concussion shoved us back a foot or so, and I had to run away from the windows as they shattered and cascaded to the floor. I thought a car was running through the front of our building. I'm super-fortunate the windows were so large. Smaller ones would have sprayed me with glass rather than simply flex violently and fall out of their frames. I'm also very lucky to have not been at my previous job inside the Journal-Record Building.

When I looked north I saw the mushroom cloud Alan mentioned. We also saw what looked like glitter in the cloud, and it took a minute to realize that it was typing paper. That was the first realization that people must have died.

Our windows had always deadened the sound outside almost entirely; even sirens going past the front of the building remained mostly unheard. That changed immediately when the windows came out. Back then sensitive, noisy car alarms were super-common, and every car alarm downtown was simultaneously activated by the blast. The sound was surreal coming through our broken windows; it's difficult to really describe. Then the rescue vehicle sirens started up and lasted for hours. And then the injured began streaming through our doors with blood streaking their faces asking to use our telephones to call loved ones (cell phones not very common back then and phone system out/overwhelmed in the CBD).

A group of us walked in the direction of the blast to see if we could help in any way. We couldn't get very close to the Murrah Building, but were able to watch/assist a few people crawling out of the YMCA building before the bomb scares started. After that I spent a week or so volunteering for the Red Cross at their makeshift distribution center, taking donations and delivering supplies to the Murrah site. FritterGirl was there too. It was an incredible thing passing checkpoints on the streets of my own city manned by soldiers with rifles slung over their shoulders.

The whole episode was so incredibly surreal that today I look back on it and it seems like a dream. Indirectly the event was responsible for me getting so involved with Automobile Alley, which many people might not know was heavily damaged in the bombing. In that role I got to meet and become friends with many of the people whose names are inscribed on the survivor wall at the Memorial site, a number of whom also got involved with Automobile Alley's revitalization. Reading the names of those people, many of whom would never personally refer to themselves as "survivors" or "victims" is also very strange to me. None of them let that event define them. The outcome of the bombing demonstrated how truly tough and resilient this city and the people therein truly are.

In a way, I suppose the bombing helped chart the course for my life after that, though I've never really thought about it like that until posting this. But there is no question that even though I had worked and volunteered downtown for a few years prior, this event gave me a resolve to stay involved with downtown's redevelopment thereafter.

[rezman]

Back in the mid 80's I worked for a company that provided replacement pneumatic damper controls for the HVAC systems in the Murrah building. I worked on every floor replacing the old units with new ones.

On April 19, 1995, I was working for my current employer over by NE 63rd & I-35 when the explosion occurred. I was in the shop and we felt two booms, one right after the other that shook our building ... Some say the second boom we felt was a shock wave, or from the pancaking building. One of our workers was testing outside testing a piece of equipment that we had just built so we immediately ran outside looking for him thinking something happened to the machine. When we saw that he was ok, looked around and to the southwest we saw the mushroom cloud rising up from downtown. My first thought after that was natural gas line explosion? After going back in the shop, we turned our radios up, and the first reports started pouring in.

[ljbab728]

I've never attended a memorial service for this tragic event before but this is one time I'm going to be there.

Former President Bill Clinton will speak at 20th Anniversary Remembrance Ceremony | NewsOK.com

Love Clinton or hate him, his visit to OKC and speech was a tremendously appropriate and moving experience for this city shortly after it happened. I'll have all of those affected deeply in my thoughts.

[mmonroe]

I was sent a link to a movie entitled "A Noble Lie". Has anyone seen this documentary?

[Urbanized]

I haven't. I need to check if out. I did want to post a link to a radio documentary by KOSU/KGOU, released this past week. It's brilliantly done. I was asked to participate, thinking at the time that it was mostly because of my involvement with the post-bombing economic recovery of Automobile Alley. Most of my lines that made the cut, however, ended up being related to what I heard and saw in the immediate aftermath as a downtown worker.

I'm a little bit self-conscious about my involvement in the doc, because I feel like my experience was pretty insignificant in the grand scheme. But that's in part what they were going for; they wanted to include everyday members of the community to reveal how they saw the events unfold. Anyway, I was honored and humbled to be included in what turned out to be an incredible piece. FritterGirl's volunteer experience is included too. As I've mentioned previously she and I volunteered together for a number of days, and I know she carried on her involvement for quite some time after that.

Here is a link to the KOSU page where you can stream the (53 minute) documentary: That April Morning: The Oklahoma City Bombing | KOSU

[mkjeeves]

One of the common experiences reflected in at least one of the above stories, in my own experience, my wife's experience, who was in a different location, was the initial thought following the boom and shock wave that whatever happened was in the immediate vicinity. I was seven miles away and thought it was at a manufacturing facility next door.

[Teo9969]

Is there a place to watch the ceremony that was held at the memorial this morning?

[Mel]

This is all I could find on you tube. https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...a+city+bombing

I'm sure this morning's ceremony will be rebroadcast at some point soon. 20 years and it still hits like a train when I think about it.

[positano]

I did not live here when the bombing happened in '95. But I did live through and actually watch the second plane hit building #2 in '01 so I understand the devastation of this event. A partner of mine the other day had said he could hear the explosion in Norman at that time. Is this true?

Yes.

[ljbab728]

Here is Clinton's complete speech.

?We should all live by the Oklahoma Standard?, President Bill Clinton remembers April 19, 1995 | KFOR.com

[Slimjim]

I hope those sons of bitches that are still alive and in witness protection have torturous nightmares about the 168 people lost including 19 children plus the youngest who weren't even born yet and the evil they wrought upon this city for there is no place for them except a white hot coal in the deepest recesses of hell

[trousers]

I was sent a link to a movie entitled "A Noble Lie". Has anyone seen this documentary?

I haven't seen it, but only because it's an Alex Jones movie. That pretty much kills any credibility with me.

[ljbab728]

I always thought a movie would be made about this and I'm surprised that it took this long.

http://kfor.com/2017/04/13/oklahoma-...-into-a-movie/

[stile99]

I'm sure there was more said, and the paragraph that contains "I probably wouldn't change anything" is a combination of that and a poor selection of words, but I definitely would change something. Without hesitation or reservation.