Hours After Boston Marathon Explosion: 'It's Like a Ghost Town Here'

By Ronni Newton, Jessie Sawyer and John Fitts 

Kim Cowherd-Iacovazzi said she was feeling a bit claustrophobic near the finish line of Monday's Boston Marathon even before anything happened.

"I got a great spot. I was standing one-person back for about 2 1/2 hours. It was six or seven deep," Cowherd-Iacovazzi, a West Hartford resident, said of the place she staked out to watch her husband, Vito Iacovazzi, complete his first Boston Marathon.

"I had a moment – God forbid we had to get out," Cowherd-Iacovazzi said. Leaving the finish line, she said she told her husband that she really didn't like that feeling of being trapped.
 
Cowherd-Iacovazzi said they were already in the family zone when it happened, and although she didn't hear anything, others told her it sounded like cannons.

"That's exactly where we were standing," she said, when she heard where one of the explosions took place.

Monday night they were at the Hyatt, which Cowherd-Iacovazzi said is only about a half mile from the finish line.

"They're telling us 'don't leave, stay in your hotels,'" she said. "It's a very somber atmosphere, and it's so sad." Cowherd-Iacovazzi said that the police are telling people to stay indoors, and she and her husband are glued to the TV coverage. 

"It's like a ghost town, very eerie," she said.

Collinsville resident Frank J. Mairano participated in the Boston Marathon Monday. His wife was in the bleachers.

"They stopped us from running into the finish once the bomb went off — scary, very scary," he texted to Canton Patch. 

Mairano is the only Canton resident Patch found listed as a entrant. 

All eight Avon runners who ran the Boston Marathon Monday when there were explosions near the finish line are okay, Avon runner Maddy Yopchick wrote to Patch.

Yopchick posted on her Facebook page around 5 p.m. that she and her family are safe and thanked people for their messages checking in on her.

"I finished about 40 minutes before the explosion and we were four blocks away in a Dunkin Donuts," Yopchick wrote to Patch on Facebook. She said that she "didn't see or hear the bombs," but did hear the police sirens and said " the city was in complete chaos!"

Avon runner Fernanda Jacobs, 45, wrote in a statement that she finished the race before the explosion.

"I was at the finish line when the bombs went off — was getting my medal," Avon runner Fernanda Jacobs, 45, wrote in a statement. "Heard the noise and saw the flames and smoke. Sarah Wallace had finished 15 minutes before that."

Wallace, 43, responded to an email from Patch and is also safe and heading home. She is organizing the Avon Road Race at Pine Grove School this year. 

According to Jacobs, Kimberly A. Mancini, 41, started the race before her, so she was likely finished by the time of the explosion, Jacobs said, though that is not confirmed. Runners are sent out in different groupings at the marathon, staggering the start.

Avon residents David W. Cowan, 50, Joel Lehman, 52, Dickson Suit, 46, and Matthew A. Trivella, 29 were also on the marathon entry list.

Yopchick's family checked out of their hotel room a day early to return to Avon. After the explosion, getting back to their hotel was difficult, she wrote to Patch.

"We walked for over an hour trying to hail a cab to our hotel," Yopchick said. "A very kind local school teacher stopped and offered to drive us to our hotel. My kids were crying and I obviously was freezing and tired. She is an angel and I thankfully was able to get her name and address so I can thank her properly! It was a very sad scary day in Boston!"  

Jacobs' friend, Laura Riley, of Simsbury, was still running when the explosion happened, so "she got stopped and taken off the course at mile 25," she said. She knew people "sitting on the grand stands" watching the race and said that "they saw the injuries." 

"Scary end to a beautiful day for running," Jacobs said. 

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