The world watched in horror today as multiple attacks struck Paris. Paris officials say the death toll could exceed 120.
For one Anchorage woman, the tragedy hits close to home.
Caroline Miller is a dual U.S. and French citizen. She just returned from Paris on Monday evening after visiting relatives. From her home in East Anchorage, she’s keeping in touch with her cousins on Facebook.
“So far everybody’s OK. One is hunkered down in a restaurant near where some of this is happening. One is out in the suburbs but she has a lot of friends who are actually being held in the Bataclan, in the nightclub there.”
Miller lived in Paris in the ’80s and ‘90s and she’s been to the nightclub where NPR reports hostages are being held. She spoke to APRN this afternoon, while the siege was still underway.
Later, Miller said her cousin was posting about friends who were at the hospital with gunshot wounds and others not accounted for.
Miller was in contact with another cousin while he was holed up at a restaurant in Les Halles, near the 10th arrondissment, where at least 11 people were killed.
“I said ‘Go home!’ He said, ‘No, I feel safer here right now.’ I think that they kind of just don’t even want to get out, because who knows what could happen next.”
Miller says she and her husband are now reviewing their time in Paris, thinking about the spots where they were vulnerable. Mostly, she says, they just feel awful, as heartbroken as everyone else, whether they’ve been to Paris or not.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
