good afternoon, just before 2:00 p.m. this evening, notified of a bridge collapse at this location, southwest 8th street and 109th avenue. as units arrived with miami police and fire, we observed several vehicles involved as a result of the collapse. at the time, it shifted into a search and rescue effort. what we are asking the public to do is please assist us by avoiding the area of southwest 8th street between southwest 107th avenue and southwest 11 pth avenue undefinitely as the process goes on. thank you. good afternoon, i m juan perez. as the director, first and foremost, all thoughts and prayers go to those affected at
if you can cooperate with that, you know, that would truly, truly appreciate it. thank you. we re going to go spanish, all right? and one thing, please don t ask numbers. nobody here is going to give you numbers, okay? the phone number we ll give. what we re going to do is post on social media. we will give it to you, our pio is going to give it to you. it s 305-348-3481. i ll repeat it later in spanish and we ll give it to you, the social media as well. okay. while they keep going there, we re going to check in with nbc s correspondent on the scene, gabe gutierrez. gabe, what do you know beyond what we just learned from police department on the scene? reporter: hi there, nicolle. good afternoon. we re here just next to southwest 8th street. if you can see in the distance, that is where that bridge is collapsed. people have been gathering here where the road has been closed. we ve been speaking to witnesses that just describe a scene of
utter horror here. they say they had been there just minutes before the bridge collapsed. some had driven just underneath it. some are walking passed it. people riddle gathering here to see how the extent of all this damage. as you have been reporting, as we ve been hearing all afternoon, this was a bridge that had just been installed several days ago, so many questions from some of the people here on the scene whether it may have been rushed for some reason or perhaps whether all the safety checks had been in place. now, what we can tell you is that it is a police presence that is still underway right now. this all happened just before 2:00 p.m. this afternoon. the witnesses that we ve been speaking with on the ground said that it sounded like an explosion almost. they just say it was a loud sound and it quickly came down on a row of stopped vehicles because the traffic light was red. now, nicolle, this is southwest 8th street, a huge artery here right next to florida international
southwest 8th street yesterday for many hours and it was a bitter sweet moment, you re happy for the dawn of a new era and possibility of democracy perhaps having an opportunity to flow. but at the same time, sad that there was the price after 57 years of a brutal dictatorship, that s been so much tragedy and loss of hul an life. even gonzalez had violent acts, including the drowning of his mother trying to bring him to freedom in the united states. when we look what s happened over the last couple of years in cuba, one would have hoped that the agreement with the united states and cuba would have brought in an ushered in an opportunity for democracy. but what we see is ladies in white are being attacked even more than ever before. dissidents even today are being taken from their home to undisclosed locations and families are told if they leave
terrorism and the economic destruction of a once thriving and successful country. people know that his death will not have an immediate impact on life in cuba. many people see it as the beginning of the possibility of bringing democratic change to the communist island. that is what they want to see here. although, many people also tell you that until raul castro is no longer in power or has also died, that those changes that they have been wanting to see here for decades aren t likely to come about. here, in the heart of little havana, southwest 8th street known as ocho, the versailles restaurant where they have debated the politics of the day, whether it be u.s. or cuban. on this day, when this