WASHINGTON — Sen. Angus King was among the many Mainers anxiously waiting to hear from loved ones – in King’s case, his wife – attending the Boston Marathon on Monday.

Mary Herman, King’s wife, was actually in the grandstands across the street from one of the bomb blasts earlier in the afternoon but had left prior to the explosions. Herman was in Boston to support fellow Mainer and Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson on the 30th anniversary of Samuelson’s record-setting victory at the 1983 marathon.

King said he learned about the bombing while in a committee meeting but was unable to reach Herman right away. He was relieved to learn that his wife was eventually able to get through to his office.

“I had a bad hour because I knew she was down there and I figured she’d be at the finish line,” King said Tuesday. “But she was already gone.”

Herman was at a nearby hotel at the time of the blasts. She and her group had to walk to Cambridge to begin their trip back to Maine because mass transit in the city was shut down.

King said Tuesday morning that he was still waiting to learn more about the bombings, which he has called “deplorable and heinous.” King, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and other members of the Senate Intelligence Committee are expected to receive a briefing on the investigation by senior FBI officials later Tuesday afternoon.

“Anything I said at this point would be speculation,” King said. As for the delicate debate on Capitol Hill about whether to officially label the bombings as “terrorism,” King suggested that was semantics.

“A couple of bombs went off and we need to figure out who did it and why,” King said. “That’s what I’m sure the FBI and the local Boston police and a lot of other people are working on.”