215: Amy's office exploded

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) Get every episode ad-free, AND get all the Raw Audio exclusive episodes to binge, by joining the other listeners at What Was That Like PLUS. Try What Was That Like PLUS free: iPhone: at the top of the What Was That Like podcast feed, click on “Try free” Android: on your phone, go to WhatWasThatLike.com/PLUS and click to try it free on any app Sponsor deals: Head to http://Lumen.me/WWTL for 20% off your purchase. Sign up today at https://www.butcherbox.com/whatwas and use code whatwas to get chicken breast, salmon or ground beef FREE in every order for a year, plus $20 off your first order. Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com/WHAT Go to Quince.com/whatwas for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns! Get 15% off OneSkin with the code [WHATWAS] at https://www.oneskin.co/ #oneskinpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices