Oklahoma City Bombing Survivors Outraged

Survivors of the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma are outraged.

After the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the government set aside over $10 million in relief funds, or so they claimed. The survivors of the incident say they haven’t seen enough and it’s hard to even request.

Deloris Watson’s grandson, P.J. Allen, was severely injured in the bombing and comments on the so-called funding:

“They tell us that there are all these restrictions.”

Deloris Watson said she was led to believe the money was gone because of the difficulty in getting access to it. In 1996, the Oklahoma City Disaster Relief Fund had been created for such a purpose as the one Deloris Watson says the survivors need it for, and can’t understand why the government is holding it back.

In an interview with NBC News, Deloris Watson said:

“It’s been horrible. It has been absolutely horrible. I try not to reveal that to P.J., the struggle, the attitude, the lack of respect.”

P.J. Allen, at the time 11 years old, needed major surgery on his trachea in 2005. Deloris Watson became his sole guardian after the tragedy, and has said the Oklahoma City Community Foundation turned down her request for aid, suggesting Medicaid instead:

“Why would the state of Oklahoma have to take money from taxpayers when money’s been donated to the bombing fund to meet the medical needs of the children?”

Gloria Chipman lost her husband in the bombing. Chipman said that her son was given tuition money for college, yet her daughter was denied due to her grades not being good enough. She said she’s tried so many times, and just given up.

Tim Hearn’s mother was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing, and he had leave school to raise his siblings. He tried to go back to school, but the government said he was too old:

“They can’t put a time limit on when a person wants to go to school. They don’t know my situation. You know, if they lost someone through a bombing or anything like that, they’d feel what I’m talking about.”

Nancy Anthony, president of the foundation, says there’s a side of the story they’re not seeing. Anthony says that the money can only do so much.

The disgruntled survivors have come together as the Survivor Tree, a group fighting for the benefits they believe they are owed due to the bombing in Oklahoma City.

What do you think about the outraged survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing?

NBC News @nbcnewsOutrage in Oklahoma as bombing victims say they’ve been snubbed by relief fund for years… fb.me/2yJrSBk81

— Stephen Hendrickson (@StephenHendric1) March 1, 2013