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CNN Live Today

Oklahoma Bridge Collapse: Death Toll Rising

Aired May 28, 2002 - 12:35   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The death toll is rising from this weekend's devastating bridge collapse in Oklahoma. And divers today recovered two more bodies that were trapped in the underwater wreckage.

Our David Mattingly joins us from the scene with the latest on the recovery efforts and the investigation.

David, are recoverers still having trouble getting to those slabs underneath the water there?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, rain did slow things down this morning, but divers are expected to get back into the water this afternoon.

Recovery teams are making progress. Last night -- they are now reporting a total of nine bodies recovered, along with eight vehicles. That happened last night. Most of the vehicles, according to authorities, are found at a single area tangled together with debris. It is making for slow, tiring work in and out of the water.

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LT. CHRIS WEST, OKLAHOMA HIGHWAY PATROL: Well, as you can only imagine, because of all the weather, it is quite a mess down there. There's a lot of mud. It's very slippery. The decks on the barges have debris on them. They are having to constantly clean that when they recover vehicles.

Once they are through with that investigative process, they remove the vehicles. There is debris from the riverbed that was brought up with the vehicle. They have to clean the barge. We have individuals that their clothes are getting wet. They're muddy. They're tired. They're fatigued.

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MATTINGLY: More cranes and heavy lifting equipment are being brought in. Authorities have been saying to expect as many as a dozen fatalities.

And that number has not changed, Carol. But they are very curious to pull up that slab of highway you mentioned earlier. They want to look under there to see if perhaps there are more cars and more victims unaccounted for under that slab -- Carol.

LIN: David, I'm just wondering. The recovery effort that is going on now, does that interfere in any way with the NTSB trying to figure out why that bridge collapsed?

MATTINGLY: They are both going on at the same time. If there is any problem, no one is saying anything about that. The NTSB was out on the water this morning before the divers were actually in the water. So, they have been working all along. They are not quite as weather-sensitive as the divers are.

One thing it is having an impact on is river traffic, a lot of that now stopped up due to the investigation and the work that is going on under the bridge.

LIN: All right, thank you very much, David Mattingly, reporting live from Webbers Falls, Oklahoma.

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