Tornadoes revive memories for bomb survivors

When Paul Heath heard the tornado warnings, he drove to an unlikely spot for safety -- the building where he had survived a terrorist bombing four years ago.

With his wife, Willetta, in tow, he drove their 1986 blue Chrysler into the underground garage at the Alfred P. Murrah federal building.

There the couple huddled together, sitting out the deadly storm in the makeshift concrete bunker that had remained intact after the 1995 bombing. "I felt safe there," Heath, a Veterans Administration psychologist and vice president of a bomb survivors' group, said. For Heath, the monstrous twisters that churned through Oklahoma revived horrifying memories of the bomb that killed 168 people in the Murrah building. After the blast that April day, the fifth floor of his office broke away from him, but he managed to escape and return to guide others out of the rubble. "You revisit all the unresolved grief," the 62-year-old Heath said, referring to the tornado. "I was teary-eyed. I had several waves of grief come over me ... that I haven't had in a long time." Heath's home wasn't damaged, though he is now helping his older brother, whose house and possessions were destroyed. A condominium owned by his son also was leveled. On Monday evening, when a tornado roared through the southern edge of this city and its suburbs, killing at least 38 people, Heath stayed up almost all night checking on others who made it out with him the day of the terrorist attack. "People are lost and hurt, property has been damaged, like the Murrah building," he said. "I attended over 50 funerals. I probably won't be going to any funerals for these people, but my heart still feels compassion." There's a big difference between terrorism and a natural disaster, but Heath said there's a common bond between both groups of survivors. "These people felt every ounce of fear and emotion that I had," he said. "They felt like they were going to die." Heath has already noticed similar responses in the aftermath to the twisters. One man whose home was flattened by the tornado was in a store with him Tuesday, and had trouble finding his keys. Heath helped him, understanding his anxiety: He had lost his keys 13 times after the Oklahoma City bombing. But Heath also said bomb survivors rebounded, and so, too, will the people who are in despair after losing so much in just a few moments of nature's fury. "These people have more strength and resilience than they know," he said. "And for sure, they will discover it. They'll say, `I'm alive, my family's alive and so are my neighbors.' And that's what's important."

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