Harvard Club of Oklahoma City representativeThomas P. Howell '73 was also upset by thebombing. Howell works in an office building threeblocks from the destroyed federal office building.

Although he "heard an extremely loud boom andsaw a black cloud of smoke," Howell said he had noidea of the extent of the destruction until hewent outside with a co-worker.

"Looking at [the building] from a differentvantage point, you would not think there was asingle survivor. You can see right through it,"Howell said.

Unlike other students who expressed surpriseover the incident, Tulsa resident R. Kyle Jones'98 said Oklahoma City made an easy target.

"Normally you think of my area of the countryas nice and secure. [But] when you think of it, itmakes sense," Jones said. "There is less securitybecause that sort of thing isn't expected."

"We like to think of Oklahoma as a nice, safe,secure state with higher morals because it is inthe Bible belt, but I guess we have our share ofcriminals too," Jones said.

C.R. McFadden contributed to the reportingof this story.