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 usingagricultural fertilizer and some chemicals, including diesel fuel. Afterparking the car, he got out and walked toward his getaway car, a yellow MercuryMarquis.

 

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 ordamaged 324 buildings within a 4-block radius. 86 cars were either burned ordestroyed, and a large section of the Federal building had been reduced torubble. News crews were shocked when they first viewed the damage from theirhelicopter.

 

Inside the building, 163 people were killed. Additional

casualties were one person in the nearby Athenian building, one woman in aparking lot across the street, two people in the Oklahoma Water Resourcesbuilding, and a rescue worker who was struck on the head by falling debris. Intotal, 168 people died that day. 19 of those were children. Almost 700 otherpeople 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 aconversation I had with her just recently about what she’s up to recently. I’lljust 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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