Tales of ‘Angels’ in Minneapolis Bridge Collapse
As emergency crews conduct recovery and cleanup efforts Thursday at the site of the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis, survivors and eyewitnesses continue to relive the terrifying moments of Wednesday afternoon.
One driver, Dennis Winegar, was heading over the bridge with his wife and nephew when the structure began to shake. “I slammed on my brakes and saw something front of me disappear, and then my car pointed straight down, and we fell,” he told the Associated Press.
His wife, Jamie, recalled that as they stumbled out of their car, other victims rallied to help them. “Angels is what I call them,” she said.
Authorities said Thursday morning that four people were confirmed dead, 79 were injured and 20 were still missing after the bridge failed and plunged into the Mississippi River during Wednesday’s rush hour. Those numbers were expected to change throughout the coming days.
Among the dozens of vehicles on the bridge at the time was a school bus carrying some 60 children, all of whom were brought to shore – shaken and crying but safe.
“We were all scared,” Jeisy Aguiza, 13, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “I opened my eyes and saw rocks. We were all screaming.”
Jay Danz, who’d driven under the bridge on the way to a Minnesota Twins game moments before the collapse, helped rescue the children. “Some kids had blood on their faces, but thank God everybody could move,” he said.
One of the adults on the bus, Kristy Jenkins, told CNN that Jeremy Hernandez, a staff member on the summer field trip, saved her 12-year-old daughter, Nina.
Hernandez “busted open the back door of the bus” and “told everyone to get out from the back of the door,” said the youngster. “We jumped on the highway and then jumped on the sidewalk. It was scary. Terrifying. There were a lot of people who got hurt.”
Another survivor, Catherine Yankelevich, found herself in the river when her car was flung from the bridge. “Cars started flying, and I was falling and saw the water,” she told the AP. Yankelevich managed to swim to shore. “It seemed like a movie,” she said. “It was pretty scary.”
Others were not as fortunate. Witness Charles Flowers told the Star-Tribune that he rushed to the river’s edge after the disaster and pulled out a woman he presumed dead out of the water. “I never thought I’d see anything like this,” he said.
Another witness, Brandon Andreen, told the newspaper, “It was the worst thing I’ve seen in my entire life. You couldn’t breathe, there was so much smoke.”
The bridge had been undergoing maintenance work, but according to the U.S. Transportation Department spokesman Brian Turmail, no structural work was being done.
The Red Cross has established a special Web site for survivors to alert relatives of their status. It is modeled after a similar site put in place following Hurricane Katrina.
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