Aug 1, 2008 11:49 am US/Central
Bridge Survivor: 'I Called My Wife To Say Goodbye'
(WCCO)
Andy
Gannon, a survivor of the I-35W bridge collapse was in a great mood the in the
time just before the bridge fell, but he was a little ticked off that some
drivers had cut in front of him on the road. One even drove through some
construction barrels to get ahead of him -- a move that may have saved his
life.
"I was
going to a co-worker's father's wake. I never met the man, but she is a
wonderful woman and I was going to support her. I generally leave work at 5 or
5:15 on average," said Andy Gannon, an I-35W Bridge collapse survivor.
On Aug. 1,
2007, Andy left his downtown Minneapolis
office a little bit late. To the delight of his boss and his co-workers, he'd
closed a major deal and was wrapping up the paperwork.
"It
takes time to process everything, and that's what created me leaving the
building later -- half hour, 45 minutes later than I normally would have,"
he said.
When he was
done, Andy jumped on 35W North to be by his friend's side.
"I
went from the best moment of my professional career ... to the worst moment of my life," said Andy.
"I heard a loud boom -- the bridge moved lateral. It dropped a little. I
just assumed that a barge had run into a beam in the water," he said. "Seconds
after ... the north end -- which I was heading towards -- buckled up to 40, 50
feet in the air. Slab by slab coming at me and all the rest of us. We were
actually moving sideways and that's when I thought it was an earthquake."
Andy didn't
think he would survive what was going to happen next. In a panic, he called his
wife.
"Grabbed
my cell phone, basically I called my wife to say ... basically say goodbye. I
just assumed that was it," he said.
Andy's call
went to his wife's voicemail. On the recording he can be heard saying:
"Kim ... Kim, I'm on the bridge! It collapsed. People are in the water!
People are screaming. We need help. Call 911!"
He jumped
out of his car to make a run for it and quickly realized that he would survive.
He was on a section of the bridge that collapsed over River Road, rather than falling into the
water.
Andy didn't
suffer physical injuries, but he has psychological wounds: survivor's guilt,
difficulty sleeping at night and a sensation of falling.
Going back
to work was hard too.
"Taking
15 minutes to do a 2 minute job, taking literally a half hour to figure out
something that takes 5 or 10 minutes, losing focus... the position I had was up
on the ninth floor so being up high and not trusting things to stay in place. ... I still had that feeling of dropping and
that was hard because I had to take time to go outside to get my bearings and
composure," Andy said.
One year
later, he says that he's a different man in a good way as well.
"I am
way more patient, way more understanding. I think when things like this happen
you can take it many ways, but I think it is hard not to not sweat the little
things. ... We waste so much energy getting angry and worrying about the little
things when you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. So why put that
energy into it?"
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