What Was That Like - True Stories. Real People.
On the morning of April 19, 1995, a former US Army soldier
parked a rented Ryder truck in front of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building,
located in downtown Oklahoma City.
Inside the truck was everything he needed to carry out his
plan of terrorism and mass murder. He had a large bomb, which he created using
agricultural fertilizer and some chemicals, including diesel fuel. After
parking the car, he got out and walked toward his getaway car, a yellow Mercury
Marquis.
He ignited a timed fuse, and a second fuse as backup.
Inside the building, in one of the office conference rooms,
the Oklahoma Water Resources Board had just begun a 9 am meeting.
The blast effect was equivalent to over 5000 pounds of TNT,
and could be heard and felt 55 miles away. The blast either destroyed or
damaged 324 buildings within a 4-block radius. 86 cars were either burned or
destroyed, and a large section of the Federal building had been reduced to
rubble. News crews were shocked when they first viewed the damage from their
helicopter.
Inside the building, 163 people were killed. Additional
casualties were one person in the nearby Athenian building, one woman in a
parking lot across the street, two people in the Oklahoma Water Resources
building, and a rescue worker who was struck on the head by falling debris. In
total, 168 people died that day. 19 of those were children. Almost 700 other
people were injured.
My guest today, Amy, was in the Federal Building that
morning. She worked on the third floor, at the Federal Employees Credit Union.
You’re about to hear her talk about what happened to her
that day. But just as amazing is what has happened to her SINCE that day.
And on top of that – this is a Flashback episode. Amy told
this story on the podcast about 5 years ago. So at the end you’ll hear a
conversation I had with her just recently about what she’s up to recently. I’ll
just say this – she’s retired now, but she’s definitely not relaxing.
If you’d like to contact Amy, you can do that through her
website: AmyDowns.org
Full show notes and pictures for this episode are here:
https://WhatWasThatLike.com/215
Graphics for this episode by Bob Bretz. Transcription was
done by James Lai.
Want to discuss this episode and other things with thousands
of other WWTL listeners? Join our podcast Facebook group at WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook
(many of the podcast guests are there as well)
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