Almost 10 months after the tragic Hard Rock Hotel collapse in New Orleans, the remains of one of the two construction workers that have been trapped inside the ruins of the hotel, Saturday.
As his family watched, the body of 36-year-old Quinnyon Wimberly was lowered with the use of a crane and platform from the complex. According to ABC 7, relatives of the deceased huddled around the site to see the remains of their fallen family members as New Orleans Fire Department Chief Tim McConnell and Mayor LaToya Cantrell stood in the sidelines. m
Meanwhile, the remains of the other construction worker identified as Jose Pince Areola has not been recovered yet. The crew, however, has not given any information yet as to when the body of the 63-year-old worker would be recovered. According to them they still have not reached the 8th-floor area where the body is expected to be situated.
In addition, Angela Magrette, the twin sister of one of the victims during the collapse in October of 2019 also joined the family of Wimberly on Saturday at around 10:45 in the morning as they watched his remains being lowered from the structure. Magritte's twin brother Anthony Magrette's body was removed from the structure on the day of the collapse.
Magrette said that they have already made Wimberly's family like their own, thus, she wanted to be there for them. She described that the tragedy felt like torture and that they live every day like it is still October 12th, while people have still not been held accountable for the lives of their loved ones.
The plans to extract the bodies of the fallen workers have been delayed for quite some time. According to WDSU News, representatives for the project owner, 1031 Canal Development stated that they have had problems with finding insurance. They also added that they have difficulties finding a contractor for the demolition work and the inclement weather did not help as well.
In view of this, authorities have stated that once the last body is removed from the site, they plan to immediately demolish the building. This is because hurricane season is fast approaching. Officials also added that they are hoping to completely bring down the structure by October this year, around a year after the initial collapse. However, investigation to determine the reason behind the collapse that took the lives of Magrette, Wimberly, and Ponce Areola, is still ongoing.
Meanwhile, the Mayor and Fire chief told reporters that the days of extracting the body of Wimberly was a difficult day but it ultimately turned good as his remains were given back to his family.
In addition, Cantrell tearfully stated that the journey of recovering the bodies since the collapse had been long and dreadful for everyone. However, she emphasized that the families who have been impacted by the collapse have suffered through a long journey, as it was intolerable to wait for the recovery of a family member's remains 10 months after the incident.
Cantrell and McConnell also stated that the next step that would be taken is to recover the remains of Pince Areola, but noted that it would be a more difficult process than the extraction of Wimberly's body.
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