‘We were pretty fortunate’: No one hurt after downtown Birmingham wall collapses

By Ayron Lewallen

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    BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (WVTM) — Clean up after a wall collapsed on several cars on Friday in downtown Birmingham from strong winds during severe weather.

WVTM 13 talked to two people, one who said she normally parks where the wall fell, and another who was involved in organizing painting what’s left of a downtown mural. Both are just glad no one was hurt.

“About an hour before all of this happened, I’d come out walking the dogs and notice that the wall had partially fallen,” Kim McCann, who lives near the parking lot where the wall collapsed, said. “I even saw that and thought, ‘Wow, that’s crazy.’”

McCann and her husband live in a nearby apartment complex, and usually park in the parking lot.

“I usually park beside the dumpster that obviously was just demolished,” McCann said, “so it was kind of nice that that spot was taken, and I had to park elsewhere.”

A minor inconvenience saved her car from being damaged.

“Lots of people did have some damage,” McCann said, “so we were pretty fortunate.”

Meghan McCollum helped organize what’s left of this mural at the intersection of 19th Street and 2nd Avenue. Feeling several emotions after seeing it destroyed, she describes her involvement in the “Say Their Names” project as bittersweet.

“Seeing it happen and come down is just kind of like a dagger in the heart,” McCollum said. “No one did it on purpose, but it’s also kind of a celebration because we thought it was going to be there for three months.”

Nearly three years later, people who live and work in the area and park their cars in the parking lot found pieces of the tribute to the Black Lives Matter movement scattered on their cars. Both women were grateful no one was hurt but equally grateful the damage wasn’t worse.

“It’s awful that it damaged property,” McCollum said. “That’s a hard time for anybody, but to think of this as a kind of a renewal of this is an opportunity … to tell new stories.”

McCollum said she would love to come back with more artists when the damage is cleaned up to get some paint on the building again.

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