It’s a day that these two young woman will never forget.
Canadian travellers Tamar Bresge, 23, and Melissa Light, 22, were en route from Nice, France to Milan, Italy when their train started experiencing delays.
What started as frustration quickly turned to gratitude when they found out the cause of the delays - a bridge collapse in Genoa that has killed more than 30 people, according to the latest reports.
#14agosto #Genova #crollo #PonteMorandi Polcevera Morandi @VAIstradeanas @DPCgov @emergenzavvf @Viminale @ComunediGenova @StradeAnas @112_ITALIA pic.twitter.com/SHJpMngAqD
— Polizia di Stato (@poliziadistato) August 14, 2018
It was the 50-year-old Morandi Bridge, on a main highway linking France and Italy, that collapsed during a sudden violent storm, creating a heap of vehicles and rubble some 45 metres below.
"Our train would have gone under it in minutes, like less than five minutes," Bresge said. "We just missed it, like just missed it."
“There was really bad thunder and lightning when it collapsed, so I thought I was just hearing thunder but we were so close that I probably heard something collapsing and just thought it was part of the storm.”
Their train made an unscheduled stop at the airport station in Genoa, which the train staff said was indefinite but refused to give other details on.
#Genova #14agosto Per il traffico locale si consiglia di non percorrere le Autostrade e di fruire della viabilità ordinaria.
— Polizia di Stato (@poliziadistato) August 14, 2018
Si consiglia di evitare le aree limitrofe al #crolloponte per non essere d’intralcio alle operazioni di soccorso. pic.twitter.com/d5jKI9izBc
Bresge said that everyone collectively groaned, thinking it was your typical train delay.
After a bit of time, passengers started to discover what had happened through their phones, realizing the enormity of what had happened just a few hundred metres away.
"We thought at first that it was a train crash. Then we understood a bridge collapsed," Bresge said. "We were stopped so close to the site, we could hear sirens going."
When her dad woke up in Toronto, he called Bresge and played her news of the incident over the phone.
+++ Genova crollo al ponte Morandi su autostrada A10 #repartiprevenzionecrimine #poliziastradale e soccorsi sul posto pic.twitter.com/wvCFMyife1
— Polizia di Stato (@poliziadistato) August 14, 2018
Finally, after a two hour delay, the train moved on into Genoa and the women, along with other passengers, could see the magnitude of what had happened for themselves.
"It was completely severed. There was a completely empty portion," Light said. "It’s crazy. We both feel very grateful that we were on the train before the crash and not underneath it. It definitely feels surreal."
Bresge and Light plan to check into their hotel in Milan, rest up and then try to process what happened and how close they were to disaster.
With files from the Canadian Press.
