You cannot shake Austin for good

On the morning of Thursday, Feb. 18, I sat in a conference room at Seton Hospital’s Administration offices, learning tips on how to be a better writer. When my cell phone buzzed indicating an incoming message, I almost ignored it.

When I clicked open, there were two messages – one from a co-worker and the other a breaking news alert from the Austin American-Statesman, both telling me that a small plane had just hit a building in Northwest Austin. The next message indicated that the building housed the FBI. (This turned out not to be true; the building actually housed the IRS.) My mind immediately went back to the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. I was attending a conference that day as well. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was a terrorist attack. I very clearly remember the way I felt when I saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center on TV; I felt like someone pulled the rug out from under me. Like my heart had stopped beating. And fear. Unabashed, pure fear.

Soon, I could see others in the seminar checking their phones, then displaying a look of panic. And just minutes later, a few of the communications folks from Seton were called out of the room. We later heard that two patients were taken to one of their hospitals.

Here’s the run down of what we know: A man named Joseph Stack was angry with the IRS and apparently had fought with his wife the night before. His wife & 12-year-old daughter left their house the night before and stayed in a hotel. Stack apparently set their house on fire, then drove to the Georgetown airport, got in his small plane, loaded an extra fuel container on it, and flew the short distance to Northwest Austin, where he purposefully and at full speed slammed his plane into the Echelon building that housed about 200 IRS employees. Miraculously, only two people died and another person was seriously burned on 20 percent of his body. The building has a huge, gaping hole in it and is completely burned out, all the windows are missing, etc. It is truly a miracle that more lives weren’t lost. The FBI is investigating the incident and officials say this was not a terrorist attack.

It may not have been an official terrorist attack, but what Joseph Stack did was terroristic in my book. He obviously had some serious mental issues; I cannot imagine what kind of anger drives a person to make this decision.

I drive past the intersection where the building stands every day on my way to work. It is so surreal that something like this happened in my hometown, just miles from where I live and work.

I’m so thankful that more lives weren’t lost. From all accounts, all systems worked the way they were supposed to. There was a group of emergency personnel from nearby towns in the county who just happened to be training across the highway in a vacant parking lot…they were able to respond almost immediately. There was the glass company guy who used the ladder on his truck to rescue five people from the burning building. The IRS employees were so well versed in evacuation procedures that they immediately started doing so when the crash happened. The building itself had built in safety mechanisms, like sprinklers, which went off immediately and helped curb the fire. The plane crashed into a part of the building, which was mostly vacant. And of course the emergency personnel in Austin responded swiftly and professionally. All these things lined up and helped keep injuries and fatalities down. Thank God. Joe Stack, your plane crash may have shaken us up a bit, but you cannot shake Austin for good.