On her first day, driver was headed back to Amazon warehouse when disaster struck

By Janelle O’Dea

Click here for updates on this story

    EDWARDSVILLE, Illinois (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) — Cranes pulled apart sections of the collapsed Amazon warehouse Saturday morning as rescue crews searched for possible victims of Friday night’s tornado. Employees and friends watched tow trucks remove dozens of damaged vehicles, some crushed under the collapsed portion of the building.

For Gina Wills, among those who gathered Saturday morning along Gateway Commerce Drive outside the collapsed building, the experience was overwhelming.

Wills, 27, said she was working her first day as a delivery driver for a third-party Amazon delivery service partner, finishing her last delivery in Florissant when she heard sirens.

Wills said she had started her day at 9 a.m. and worked into the evening. As she headed back to Amazon, her dispatcher encouraged her to make haste to beat the tornado, she said.

But then another driver was locked out of their van, and Wills was called to help, she said. Were it not for that call, Wills said she would have been at the facility when it was hit. Soon after, Wills’ supervisor told her not to return, so she went back to her home in Cahokia Heights — Amazon Prime van, and all.

She returned Saturday morning to retrieve her car, grateful to see it in one piece. But she had to wait, as employees’ vehicles were moved from the damaged warehouse’s parking lot to a nearby lot. She couldn’t have reached her car late last night, anyway, she said — the exits to Pontoon Beach from I-255 were jammed.

“It was chaos last night,” she said.

A representative for the third-party delivery service answered a call from a Post-Dispatch reporter on Saturday, but said they couldn’t speak to the media and hung up.

The number of casualties at the facilities was still unclear more than 12 hours after the building’s collapse. At a press conference early Saturday, Edwardsville Police Chief Mike Fillback said there was “more than one fatality … at least two” at the facility, and two people had been taken to hospitals in St. Louis.

Later Saturday, officials confirmed that at least six had died at the facility.

Amazon provided the following statement by email: “We’re deeply saddened by the news that members of our Amazon family passed away as a result of the storm in Edwardsville, IL. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their loved ones, and everyone impacted by the storm. We also want to thank all first responders for their ongoing efforts on scene. We’re continuing to provide support to our employees and partners in the area.”

Wills said she found her job on indeed.com, and said it pays better at $16.50 an hour than her previous gig at a Kohl’s warehouse. It was a first day she won’t forget.

“I was frustrated with the deliveries and packages and everything,” she said. “And then it got dark. And then I heard the sirens going off, and I’m like, ‘OK!’ — but I keep thinking, that could have been me inside that building.”

Terry Martin, a 63-year-old retired Air Force veteran, said he works at the fulfillment center across Gateway Commerce Drive from the damaged building. On Saturday, he sat outside the collapsed building to see what was going on.

Though he wasn’t working Friday night, a friend of his, Briana Davis, 22, was scheduled to work, he said. Davis, during a FaceTime call, told him she was scheduled to start her shift at 1:20 a.m. Saturday, but received a robocall at 11:44 p.m., telling her to stay home.

Martin also received a text from a friend who was at work, who said employees were huddled together in the restrooms, shoulder-to-shoulder, when they heard about the damage to the neighboring Amazon building.

“This is a bad part of the year to be hit,” Martin said. “It’s what we call peak season.” He’s been working 50- to 60-hour weeks recently, he said, and he said he has participated in several emergency drills for tornadoes and severe weather.

“This will affect a lot of people’s Christmas,” Martin said.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.