Narrow escapes and cries for help as bridge fell

MINNEAPOLIS -- As people lay trapped and dying in the wreckage of the collapsed freeway bridge in Minneapolis, they asked rescue workers to say hello — or goodbye — to their loved ones.

"There's people pinned, severely injured," Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan said. "We couldn't move them. It was an obviously dangerous situation with stuff still falling.

"The decision was made to leave them."

Emily Gurnon of the St. Paul Pioneer Press has the story here.

The official death toll stood at four at noon Pacific time, but Dolan and other officials left no doubt that others — perhaps many others — were in submerged vehicles or the above-water rubble.

"We have a number of vehicles that are underneath big pieces of concrete, and we do know we have some people in those vehicles," Dolan said, though he said he did not have a number. "We know we do have more casualties at the scene."

At least 79 people were injured.

Many were led or carried from the crumbling remains of the span by police and firefighters, who arrived within about four minutes of the span's sudden failure. People scrambled from their cars to help others to safety.

The collapse took about four seconds to transform the eight-lane structure from a busy commuter route across the Mississippi river to a mass of wreckage, much of it submerged.

One of the narrowest escapes involved a school bus carrying about 50 children. It is visible to the right in this photo.

The school bus had just crossed the bridge when the entire span of Interstate 35W crumpled into the river below.

Thirteen-year old Jeisy Aguiza was on a school bus operated by Waite House Neighborhood Center. She was with a group of about 60 youngsters who had been at Bunker Beach Water Park in Coon Rapids. They were going south on I-35W when the bridge collapsed.

The bus "just fell," said Jeisy Aguiza, 13. "We were all scared. I opened my eyes and saw rocks. We were all screaming."

She said that she held onto her little brother Ronal, 7.

"I heard a big noise," Ronal said. "I saw little rocks come in the bus."

The bus landed on its wheels on solid ground. Kids in the back opened the emergency door and rushed out to safety.

"We were all just screaming, everyone," she said. "We all ran away from the bus.

Some people dropped with the collapsing bridge into the waters of the Mississippi River and swam to safety, while others leaped from their cars over yawning gaps of asphalt to solid ground.

Survivors and witnesses cried and hugged each other as rescue crews tried to save who they could and gauge the scope of the catastrophic collapse of the eight-lane bridge.

Dennis Winegar of Houston, Texas, said he felt the Interstate 35W bridge start to shake.

"Boom, boom, boom and we were just dropping, dropping, dropping, dropping," said his wife, Jamie Winegar. "I slammed on my brakes and saw something in front of me disappear and then my car pointed straight down and we fell," Dennis Winegar said. He estimated they dropped about 50 feet.

"I just reacted, put my foot on the brakes and started praying we didn't flip over," he said. "When I got out ... there was a car lodged underneath me and one right next to me."

Jamie Winegar, said everyone around them got out of their cars and tried to help one another off the bridge. "There were a bunch of people right around there helping everyone. Angels is what I call them."

Peter Siddons was on his commute home north when he heard "crunching" and saw the bridge start to roll and then crumple, he told the Star Tribune. "It kept collapsing, down, down, down until it got to me."

His car dropped with the bridge but stopped when his car rolled into the car in front of him. He got out of his car, jumped over the crevice between the highway lanes and crawled up the steeply tilted section of broken bridge and jumped to the ground.

"I thought I was dead," said the senior vice president at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. "Honestly, I honestly did. I thought it was over."

A truck driver from Georgia, Charles Flowers, saw the collapse from banks of the river. Instantly, the water was filled with floating cars and people -- injured, dazed -- asking for help, he said.

He and several others ran down the riverbank and he pulled a woman from the water. He said he thought she did not survive. "I never thought I'd see anything like this," he told the newspaper.

Catherine Yankelevich survived the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, Calif., and was on the I-35W bridge when it began to shake. "Cars started flying and I was falling and saw the water," she said. Her car wound up in the river so she climbed out the driver's side window and swam to shore uninjured.

"It seemed like a movie, it was pretty scary," said Yankelevich. "I never expected anything like this to happen here."

Marcelo Cruz, 26, of Crystal, Minn., was on the bridge, headed to a wheelchair-racing class downtown. Cruz said, "The bridge started shaking like an earthquake. I saw the bridge going up and down a little bit."

He realized he had to stop or he would plunge into the water. He saw bridge workers clinging to the side of the bridge, so he waited until he was past them and yanked the wheel to the right to stop himself against the outside barrier.

He was on a section of the roadway that fell onto a freight car.

But Cruz's problems weren't over. He couldn't get out because he can't move from his waist down. He was paralyzed by a shooting years ago. He heard a woman screaming for help and he figured she was hanging from the bridge. "She was yelling, 'Help me, help me.' I couldn't do anything." Then he didn't hear her anymore.

Two men helped him out of his car and carried him and his wheelchair from the car.