Blocks Away from Boston Marathon Explosions: Lake Elmo Woman Recounts 'A War Zone'

Chris Hess-Withbroe was just blocks away from the finish line at the Boston Marathon when two bomb blasts went off Monday.

“Everything was going normal, I had just finished the race, got my participant bag and was heading toward the family reunion section to meet up with my son,” said Hess-Withbroe, a Lake Elmo resident. “All of a sudden I heard two huge blasts—and everything went silent. Next thing I knew I saw people running hysterically through the streets. Then the sirens started.”

Thankfully Hess-Withbroe immediately found her son Bailey, a member of the Stillwater Area High School varsity cross-country team. They checked Twitter to learn what was going on and tried to figure out where to go and what to do next.

“We’re staying downtown at the Sheraton, which was pretty close to the blast,” she said.

Hess-Withbroe and her son started walking to the hotel when someone told them they may not want to walk that way.

“We sat on a street corner while it was being swept by bomb-sniffing dogs,” she said. “It’s a war zone.”

Eventually their hotel was cleared and they were allowed to go back to the room.

As of 6:30 p.m. EST Hess-Withbroe said there were Blackhawk helicopters circling the skies of Boston. She had just seen a line of 20-30 ambulances lining up to transport people from the scene.

While sitting in their hotel room, Hess-Withbroe said she and her son are looking at photos on the Internet and listening to EMS scanner chatter about businesses being evacuated, more than likely due to residual fear from the blasts.

“It seems surreal,” she said. “It’s like we’re living in Israel where you never know what is safe. I was raised in this city—and now I’m afraid to leave my hotel room.”

Hess-Withbroe said the plan was initially to visit Boston University with Bailey tomorrow, but with uncertainty of public transit, plans may change.

When police start letting people start traveling freely through the city again, she said they the plan is stay with friends in a suburb of Boston until they can catch a flight back home.

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