THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 23, 1995 TAG: 9504210190
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Ten miles from the center of town, Catherine Burke heard the boom. At first, she thought a neighbor's house had exploded. But when she ran outside her home in northern Oklahoma City, quiet had returned to her neighborhood.
It would take another 20 minutes before the first reports were televised of the tragedy unfolding in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, where a car bomb had demolished the building, killing men, women and children.
Burke's husband, Andrew, is the former director of economic development in Virginia Beach and last fall became a vice president with the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, located six blocks from the bombing site.
Andrew Burke was in Phoenix, Ariz., at the time of the blast Wednesday, but Catherine Burke took a moment to relate how the community as she has come to understand it has coped with the tragedy.
``I had all the television stations on trying to learn more about it, and I think I reached overload when I saw a firefighter carry out a teddy bear from the building,'' she said in a telephone interview. ``Right then, I had just had enough.''
The community, she said, is suffering terribly.
``They're just standing around, not being able to think clearly of what's next. When Andy and I moved here, we never would have expected that this area would be hit by something like this.
``This is something you can think of happening in Miami, or New York City or even Beirut. But not here. These are Godly people. This is one of the most Christian communities I have lived in.''
Hours after the blast, Burke made her way to the downtown area and donated blood at a Red Cross station.
``There was a line of people two blocks long,'' she said. ``They had filled their blood supply to capacity and were only calling for rarer types. I went to a second Red Cross station and they were overwhelmed, too. People here just jumped. They did not wait to be asked.''
She said dozens of her friends and relatives called her from Virginia inquiring about the family's well being, which she found gratifying. But her thoughts quickly turned to the perception that Oklahoma City would ever be the site of a terrorist attack.
``I can't imagine a less likely target,'' she said. ``I heard someone say that this is the nation's Bible belt. I wasn't sure about that. I thought North Carolina was. But Oklahoma City is the buckle. I don't think there is a church in the community that did not have a prayer vigil (Wednesday night) and will again tonight.
``I'm just delighted that Andrew was out of harm's way.'' BILL REED COLUMN/ 7 by CNB