Wooster alumnae who were present at the bombings reflect on their experiences when the blasts went off
Ian Benson
News Editor
At the Boston Marathon on Monday, three people were killed, including an 8-year-old boy, and more than 170 were injured from the what are now being called terrorist attacks. Seventeen of those injured were in critical condition and 41 were in serious condition as of Monday.
Two blasts occurred in quick succession near the marathon’s finish line Monday around 2:50 p.m. Details about the motives behind the attacks are still vague. Rampant speculation has ensued, but as of press time Monday, no one had made much sense of the catastrophe. No group, domestic or foreign, has taken credit nor has any suspect been apprehended.
The FBI is investigating the bombing as an act of terrorism. Despite earlier reports that other devices were found, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said there were no explosives found other than the two that detonated.
The scope of the tragedy affected not only those in Boston, but people all over the nation, instilling a sense of fear as the country wonders who is responsible for this violence. Here in Wooster, the campus community was shaken. Students from the area reached out to ensure friends and family were alright while others contacted alums they knew in Boston to make sure they were okay.
“It was the widest range of feelings I hope to never experience again,” said Wooster alum Abby Jensen ’11, who was at the corner of Exeter and Huntington Ave., just over a block away from the explosions. “Blue skies, bells ringing, people cheering and waving signs, and then one boom stopped me in my tracks and I watched everyone else look around. Then a second boom and people started screaming and running towards me as smoke started to fill the street. There were people crying and more sirens and men and women in uniform than I’ve ever seen.”
Jensen attended the event with fellow alum Emily Keizer ’11. “While we were walking past a side street, a block away from Boylston Street, we heard a huge boom, which sounded like a firework,” Keizer said. “My first thought was that it was construction or something happening, but that it definitely had to be intentional. Then the second boom happened, and people seemed to put things together and turned and ran.”
“There was a huge group of people running toward us, and we saw the smoke billowing down the street. It was pretty clear that something serious had happened, and that public transportation wouldn’t be running, so we ended up walking up Boylston Street for quite a ways,” Keizer said.
“There were rumors and speculations flying. I heard that it was gas explosions, or maybe giant cranes that fell, or that the grandstands had collapsed. I had no idea how serious it was until I got back to work in Brighton and saw the news,” Keizer said.
Keizer also mentioned being impressed by the number of people who ran towards the scene as opposed to away from it. “That made it very clear that the person/people who did this are in the minority,” Keizer said.
Fellow graduate and former Voice Managing Editor, Chalkey Horenstein ’10 was also at the scene of the tragedy. “As uninspired as it may sound, the most vivid memory I had of everything was that it was loud. The explosion was loud, the sirens were loud, the people screaming and crying were loud. I remember getting home and thinking the silence felt really nice,” Horenstein said.
“When I was still at Wooster, Coach Dennis Rice would have one race a year that would shoot a cannon at the beginning. The explosion sounded a lot like that at first, so before I turned around I didn’t think much of it. But then when I saw all the blood and people on the ground, my brain started to process everything,” Horenstein said.
“People are telling me it was really dumb to do this, but I refused to leave until I knew all my fellow Woo alum were okay. I was there to cheer on Erin Wiesenauer (née Fortin) ’08 and Alyssa Getta ’11, and until I heard they were both fine I kept following the cops around, gathering more information about where the other runners ended up,” Horenstein said.
Both Horenstein and Keizer spoke of the outpouring of calls from friends to make sure they were okay. “I currently live with Nathan Comstock ’10, Thomas Dwyer ’10 and Alex Ehrhardt ’12, and we were all pretty amazed by the number of other Wooster alums that reached out to us from other states to make sure we were safe,” Horenstein said. “Through both good times and bad, Wooster has really done a great job building a community of life-long friendships.”