Larry Kline
Havre Daily News
lkline@havredailynews.com
A Havre couple were among those evacuated from the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday after a small aircraft breached the security zone over Washington, D.C.
Kevin and Cindy Keim had just left the Capitol when armed guards rushed on the scene and urged people to get away from the building.
"We started walking across the plaza and all of the sudden these guys were yelling 'Move, move, move.' Everyone started running," Cindy said. "When someone with a gun is yelling at you, you tend to do what they want. No one knew for sure what was going on, but it was amazing how quickly everybody got out."
Soon after, the couple were able to see fighter jets patrolling the skies above Washington, she added.
The officers "were very much on top of things," Kevin said. "They were intent on getting people away and out of the Capitol building as quickly as possible. It was a profound experience. For about 15 or 20 minutes, we were wondering if it was real. The first thing you think about is 9/11. The amount of urgency the officers were showing - whatever was going on was pretty serious." "I just kept waiting for something to crash into the Capitol building," Cindy said. "It was just a really different experience."
"Something like this just doesn't happen in Havre," Kevin said.
The couple were in Washington so Kevin could meet with congressional representatives. He works at the Havre office of Edward Jones Investments and is the state chairman for the Edward Jones Grassroots Task Force. He met with Rep. Denny Rehberg to express the organization's support for making the 2003 dividend and capital gains tax cuts permanent.
