AP: Sherwood man recalls surviving Oklahoma City bombing at 'ground zero'
Sherwood man recalls surviving Oklahoma City bombing at ‘ground zero'
By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK - A Sherwood man who survived the Oklahoma City bombing remembers the darkness and silence immediately after the blast that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building 15 years ago.
Eric McKisick, then an Oklahoma City resident, was at work in the Social Security Administration's office on the first floor of the building - "ground zero," he called it - when Timothy McVeigh detonated an explosive-filled truck in front of the building on the morning of April 19, 1995.
The worst incident of domestic terrorism in the nation's history killed 168 people.
"The bomb blast came right into our reception area windows. The truck was located right outside our doors," McKisick recalled today after taking part in a commemorative ceremony at the Clinton presidential library.
The explosion temporarily deafened McKisick, and a debris cloud plunged the office in darkness. He began feeling his way around and discovered ceiling tiles and heavy light fixtures had collapsed all around him, though he received no serious injuries.
"People on either side perished, but I was fortunate enough, blessed enough, to survive," said McKisick, who had worked at the office for about a year. "We lost 16 employees at the Social Security Administration, and even more customers perished."
Soon McKisick was able to hear the louder screams around him, and within a few minutes his hearing mostly returned.
"I was able to hear voices of some of the people in the building that needed help, and I helped them get out of the building," he said.
An employee eventually found and opened an exit door on the east wall, letting in sunlight, and everyone headed for the light.
McKisick wasn't the only member of his family who had a close call that day. His then-2-year-old daughter, Sheridan, would have been at a daycare center in the building, but she and McKisick's wife, Sherrie, were both at home sick.
"Her illness saved her," McKisick said today.
Several hours passed before McKisick was able to get word to his wife that he was safe. Sherrie McKisick, who attended Monday's ceremony along with her husband and daughter, said it may sound strange, but during those hours she was "very calm and collected."
"I thought, ‘If there is something wrong or if he had died, I would feel that and I would know it, and I don't feel that,'" she said.
She had a bad moment when her husband finally came home that day, covered in dust and smeared with blood, but he assured her the blood was not his.
Though she got through the day without panicking, Sherrie McKisick said the experience had a lasting affect on her, not only because of her family members' brushes with death but also because of the children and daycare workers she knew who died. For some time afterward she was reluctant to leave home or meet new people.
She said she is better now, though she doesn't think she will ever feel the way she did before the bombing.
"What I have been told is that instead of trying to go back and be the person that you once were, this is a new you," she said.
Her period of being mostly homebound wasn't all bad, she said, noting she read the Bible from beginning to end. She also said she has learned to appreciate life more.
Eric McKisick said the experience taught him that "I am not in complete control of my life. God is the one in control."
McKisick moved with his family to Central Arkansas in 2005 to accept a district manager position with the Social Security Administration. Today he joined staff members and volunteers of the Clinton Foundation, students of the Clinton School of Public Service, family members of bombing victims and a rescue worker to read the names of the bombing victims at the Clinton library.
Also today, the Clinton School sponsored a talk by the designers of an outdoor memorial at the bombing site in Oklahoma City. An exhibit about the bombing and then-President Bill Clinton's response to it, "Leadership in a Time of Crisis: President Clinton and the Oklahoma City Bombing," is on display at the Clinton library through June 1.
