Calls to Alfred Morando's glass repair business in Palm Springs have been frequent in the hours and days following a powerful explosion outside a fertility clinic that damaged homes, restaurants, hotels, a hospital and other buildings, some of which were blocks from the blast site.
Boards cover many of those buildings' windows Monday, two days after they were shattered by the force of the car explosion in the clinic's parking lot. The FBI estimated over the weekend that the blast radius extended for at least 250 yards, about two and a half football fields, in the Riverside County community about 100 miles east of Los Angeles.
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"In my professional experience, the shockwave of the bomb is what rattled the buildings, took out the windows," Morando, the owner of Executive Glass, said. "They give way with pressure."
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SIGN UP The car bomb exploded in what is usually a busy area with homes, Desert Regional Medical Center and businesses. Windows at the Velvet Rope Hotel were blown out two blocks from the site of the explosion.
"Shattered glass everywhere. I don't think there was a room that wasn't impacted, from doors to windows to ACs," said David Rios, the hotel's designer and owner. "The roof, the (air conditioning) condensers, as well, and that's metal. The impact from the car, the debris came through the wood to the metal and through the windows."
The hotel has been open for about a year, but Rios said he is not sure when repairs will be complete. As of Sunday, like many businesses affected by the explosion, Rios did not have a timeline for reopening.
At a nearby Denny's on Palm Canyon Drive, shattered glass from broken windows was scattered on the restaurant's booths, floors and tables, some with partially eaten breakfasts still on the plates.
Residents living in the area described the blast as sounding like a thunderclap and feeling like an earthquake. People living half a block to half a mile away said they felt the blast.
"Our apartment complex just went forward and back," said resident Mary Espinoza.
Four people were injured in the explosion, which authorities deemed an intentional act of terrorism. The blast killed the man who detonated the explosive, identified by the FBI as 25-year-old Guy Bartkus, a Twentynine Palms resident. Several law enforcement sources told NBC4 Investigates that Bartkus had a prolific online presence, most tied to video games, but also activity that appears to show his interest in explosives, a belief that the earth needs fewer humans, and experiments with drugs and devices designed to take his own life.
The car was parked in a lot behind the American Reproductive Centers building when it exploded at about 11 a.m. Saturday. The explosion shattered windows, left debris scattered in the street and touched off confusion and uncertainty in the neighborhood.
In a statement Saturday afternoon, the American Reproductive Centers clinic said the vehicle exploded in the parking lot near the clinic building. Aerial video showed what appeared to be a mangled car in the parking lot a few feet from the building.
No employees were injured and the lab, including eggs, embryos and reproductive materials, were secure and not damaged, the clinic said.
