by: Casey Smith
Posted:
Updated:
WEBBERS FALLS, Okla. (KNWA/KFTA) — Baltimore’s barge accident had similarities to an incident in Webbers Falls, Oklahoma.
On May 26, 2002, a barge hit the I-40 bridge, causing it to collapse into the Arkansas River — an incident that resulted in the death of 14 people and injuries to 11 others. Jewell Horne-Hall, who was the town’s mayor at the time, remembers exactly what she was doing when she got the news.
“I was getting dressed,” Horne-Hall said. “We were having a fishing tournament here in the park on the river. My phone rings. The gentleman that was the head of the fishing program, he called me and he told me, ‘The bridge is collapsed.'”
It was a scene that Horne-Hall described as “complete chaos,” but also an event “that changed so many people’s lives in just a moment’s time.”
She feared for her son, who told her he was going to Fort Smith, as well as her husband’s family, who was traveling to Webbers Falls from Poteau, Oklahoma, that day. Both were not on the bridge at the time of its collapse, Horne-Hall said.
Horne-Hall knew she had to be there for the town, though.
“You just have to put your emotions behind you,” Horne-Hall said. “You have to do the job that you’re supposed to do.”
That included making sure the bridge was rebuilt in a timely manner. Horne-Hall said the Oklahoma Department of Transportation prioritized rebuilding the bridge, and it reopened in July 2002.
She wanted to give the victims a proper honor, though, having a memorial placed in the town’s park with the names of the victims of the bridge collapse. She also hosts an annual ceremony of remembrance on Memorial Day.
“You put yourself in [the families’] place, and you just try to have compassion for them,” Horne-Hall said. “We’ve just become like family over the years.”
Horne-Hall said she was “shocked” when she heard the news about the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore.
She said the tragedy left a mark on the town.
“We never know what’s going to happen at any time,” Horne-Hall said.
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