'I could just hear people screaming': Victims describe being hit by blast in South Austin building
CHICAGO (CBS) – Three of the victims in Tuesday morning's building collapse in South Austin were taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital.
CBS 2's Steven Graves spoke to two of those victims who said the emotional scars and trauma of what they experienced run deep.
All three have been released from the hospital as of Tuesday afternoon.
Donell Adams was opening the building door when, he said, the explosion blew him into the air.
"It was like raining bricks and window seals, the frames, everything just raining over me and I could just hear people screaming and calling for help," Adams said. "But there was nothing I could do. I was under the car and debris going everywhere. Then it went off again. It was smaller, just traumatic."
Adams said he's in pain from head to toe and walked with a limp as he left the hospital.
He was coming from work, walking home to the apartment building when it happened. The small business owner said he heard two explosions, one that initially hit him, followed by a smaller explosion.
Adams' mother, Melissa Hill embraced her son when he exited the hospital.
"I really thought I was going to hear bad news," Hill said.
Anthonella Wims backed up that claim. She did not live in the building, but was also hit as she stood at a nearby bus stop. Moments before, the 20-year-old woman was dropping off her little cousin at a nearby school.
"I was standing at the bus stop, the bus stop right across the street," Wims said. "So everything that blew up, it came to me first. The cars, glass, just everything. Everything on the top building just blew."
Graves learned the residents of the building are a tight-knit group and many children live there. Thankfully, they were at school.