Grays Ferry Shopping Center reopens following deadly parking garage collapse
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The Gray's Ferry Shopping Center has reopened following last week's deadly parking garage collapse.
The Action Cam was there as customers were being allowed back into the parking lot and into the stores on Tuesday morning.
The Office of Emergency Management allowed the reopening of a portion of Grays Ferry Avenue, and shoppers are able to access the stores in the shopping center from 29th Street.
The Fresh Grocer reopened at 9:30 a.m.
The store manager tells Action News they brought in trucks of fresh food for customers after a nearly week-long closure.
Shoppers say they're happy to have their grocery store back, but are still rattled by the tragedy.
"Just happy to see everything is getting back to normal. I'm sorry for everything that happened, but everybody is coming together, supporting each other," said Greg Hancock from Grays Ferry.
Other businesses along the strip reopened for the first time in a week, too.
"We're focused on getting back to business as normal," said Matt Dubaskas, the store manager for HILTl. "There's been some customer frustrations, but dealing with a tragic situation like that, everyone is kind of understanding of what was going on."
A few doors down, Nail Parlor is taking the day to prepare before reopening on Wednesday.
The owner described the last week as "Rough, very rough. Nobody is working. All the employees are home," said Tina Tran.
This comes after the bodies of two Ironworkers who were trapped in the rubble were recovered early Monday morning.
RELATED: Bodies of 2 Ironworkers recovered following Grays Ferry parking garage collapse
A third worker pulled from the site after the collapse also died.
Officials say the site has now transitioned into the next phase of investigation to determine what went wrong.
HSC Builders and Construction was the general contractor for the project.
They issued a statement saying they are devastated by the collapse and "our immediate mission is to do whatever we can to aid the deceased workers and their families."
The company also says it is gathering all relevant information to better understand what caused the failure.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker also signed an executive order directing the city solicitor and law department to conduct an independent, comprehensive investigation into the collapse.
