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Crystal Manning, holding baby blanket, and Michael Stoner Wis. Couple's Jeep Sank in CollapseBy Jenn Rourke
MINNEAPOLIS - Crystal Manning and her fiance, Michael Stoner, had just experienced one disaster, which led to a near second.
 Manning's 2-year-old daughter Emmalene had fallen down the stairs at their home, and the couple was rushing to a Minneapolis hospital where the little girl had been flown for treatment of a concussion.On the way, they crossed the I-35W bridge and heard a horrible roar. "It was just this unreal rumble," said Stoner. "I've never heard anything (like it). It's just, that first metallic bang, and then it just, it sounded like an earthquake." In seconds, the couple said, they saw the far end of the bridge buckle and drop, sending dozens of cars ahead of them tumbling over the edge. Then they felt the bridge give way underneath them, too. They were in a free fall above the Mississippi River. Stoner said it was a good 15 feet between the bridge surface and the water where they hit. They landed upside down in the river. The car quickly sank, with dark, cold water enveloping them and gushing through their broken windshield. "I actually felt the Jeep settle on the bottom of the river," Stoner said. "I actually felt it stop sinking... and I was trying to get out, trying to get out, and it got to the point where I was uncontrollably inhaling water." Just before they had crossed the bridge, Stoner had rolled down his window, which may have saved them, giving them an escape route. They swam to the surface and then toward the crumpled bridge. Floating on the surface, they found the baby blanket they were bringing to comfort Manning's daughter. Manning said she swam by the blanket and grabbed it. She still can't believe she found it.  "Even at the hospital I kept asking, I'm like, 'Is that blanket around here somewhere?'" She was constantly reassured that it was. "So I kept it on my chest the whole time." They had to wait on bridge debris for a rescue. As they did, they stared into the water, where they knew others had not made it out. "I did notice there was a lot of air bubbles in different spots, I'm assuming, where cars were down there and people were trying to get out," Stoner said. "I thought it was Armageddon really," Manning said. |
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