15 years. It's hard to believe that it's been 15 years. It feels like yesterday. You see, I lived and worked in Oklahoma City, at the NBC affiliate KFOR-TV, when the bombing occurred. This diary is to tell you about that day. The bizarre, the helplessness and the brave. I've never put this day down in words before, so please excuse me.
I had an appointment that morning in my office, which is about 10 miles from the Murrah building. A student from a local college getting filled in on marketing and national spot sales, which was my job. At 9:02am the station shook - like an earthquake makes the earth shake. I immediately thought that the fuel tank next to station for the station's helicopter had exploded. I excused myself and asked my assistant to check, in case we needed to evacuate the building. Tammy came back less than :30-seconds later and told us to follow her. We followed her into the conference room where we watched a huge cloud of smoke, debris and flames coming from downtown.
My second thought? A gas line explosion. KFOR-TV was then known as Oklahoma's News Channel. I turned on my TV but the reports were sketchy.
Something, deep in my soul told me what had happened was past horrible. I don't know why, but I immediately picked up the phone and called my counterpart in New York City, Ken Perin. I told him about the explosion, that it was bad, to watch the news, and that we would, most likely, loose communication very shortly and to reach me on my cell phone. Then, the line went dead. I wasn't able to connect with Ken for about a week. We couldn't call out, we couldn't receive calls. The only way to communicate with my national sales team was through a KWIX machine.
My parents, from Cedar Rapids were visiting. My dad, who was disabled at the time, was literally shaken out of his bed and onto the floor. We lived about 15 miles north of the Murrah building. At my husbands work, about 15 miles away, in a different direction, he grabbed his keys and told his boss they should go downtown to help. Tracy immediately nixed the idea.
As the news reports came in and it became clear what had happened the shock and disbelief set in. The weeks following the bombing everyone at KFOR-TV went into news mode. Almost all employees were available to the news department. Fielding telephone calls, transporting news crews from around the world and trying to do our normal jobs.
Our son was stationed at Whiteman AFB in Missouri and somehow commandeered a special line to call me at the station. He gave me a list of names of people on Whiteman who had family in OKC - could I check up on them and call him back with both the good and the bad news. Our daughter, in Corpus Christi, was panicked. It took her 4 days to get through.
I learned some very, valuable, valuable lessons that day. That work is not that important. It's family that counts and that has remained with me to this day. The 16 hour days stopped, the high share of revenue became less important. That deadline really didn't matter that much. Being able to kiss my husband and talk to my children were, and remain, the most important things to me.
I learned that their are saviors and angels in most everyone. To every person that was pulled out of the Murrah building alive, the first hand they saw and the first voice they heard was that of an angel. I learned that help comes in all forms. I learned that the strength to open your eyes the next morning comes from the people who extended a kindness to you the day before.
I don't fear terrorism, domestic or international. I fear that there may not be a savior or angel to help.