News Story #4

                Mindy Rosenau, a sophomore at Putnam City High School in Oklahoma, was in keyboarding class when she felt the effects of the Alfred P. Murrah building explode during the Oklahoma City bombing.

            The computers flashed and then went off, the entire school shook. Mindy was confused because earthquakes didn’t occur in Oklahoma. A half hour later the principal came over the intercom and asked students who had parents working in Oklahoma City to come to his office.

            Mindy was curious, although she had some idea that being called there was related to the shaking she’d felt, why she was being beckoned. She noticed her teacher receive a phone call and then seem nervous after it.

            Mindy’s principal explained that there had been an explosion downtown Oklahoma City and if students wanted to call and try to reach them they were welcome to use his phone; Mindy was unable to reach her mom.

            It was then that Mindy returned to her keyboarding classroom and spent the rest of her school day and watched the news unfold the facts of what actually happened in Oklahoma City that morning. At first reporters speculated that a gas line had burst and caused the explosion, and then as more news became available it looked like the explosion had been a deliberate act of terrorism. Mindy returned to her home after school and tried calling her mom again. It wasn’t until 6 p.m. that she got through to her because of phone lines being knocked out due to the explosion.

            Mindy soon found out that 168 people were killed, 19 of which were children in a daycare center.

            Mindy felt connected to the incident because of being only 17 mi. away when the building was bombed and looked for ways to lend her aid. Putnam City’s student council requested that students volunteer for blood donations and also to help pick up hard copies and equipment at the journalism building-which was right across from ground zero. Mindy went to help with a group of students from her school and in the process found clothing and children’s shoes in the debris.

            Mindy recollects this event as though it happened yesterday. The impacts of such events sometimes can be truly life changing; this was true in Mindy’s case.