Editor’s note: The Herald is republishing this article, courtesy of The Baker City Herald in Baker City, Ore.
Jordan Welch was driving in Baker City, thinking about the next stop on what he called his family’s “once-in-a-lifetime” vacation, when he saw the woman standing on the edge of the Interstate 84 overpass, 15 feet or so above East Campbell Street.
“Her face was in sheer panic,” Welch said. “We thought she was going to jump on our car.”
It was late in the morning on Sunday, Aug. 11.
Welch, 39, who was traveling with his wife, Sara, and their 9-year-old son, Elias, steered the car to the curb beneath the freeway.
He activated the emergency flashers.
Welch scrambled up the smooth, steep concrete embankment and clambered over the metal railing on the east bridge (the westbound freeway lanes).
The woman, who he estimated was between 40 and 50 years old, was standing on the narrow concrete ledge, the only thing between her and the pavement below.
There is a black metal fence, several feet high and topped by narrow posts, attached to the lower railing.
Welch said he was afraid that if he tried to climb the fence, where he could reach the woman, he would make the precarious situation even worse.
So he called to the woman.
“I didn’t want to startle her,” Welch said. “I told her I was here to help.”
Although he was tense he tried to speak soothingly.
He didn’t want to frighten the woman.
“I just kind of opened my heart to her,” said Welch, a Washington state native who owns an electrician business in Blaine, a town near Bellingham just south of the Canadian border.
“I told her she’s not in this alone, and that we could get through it together, that this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be.”
The conversation was difficult due to the noise from traffic whizzing by at 70 mph.
“Between each passing car I was able to speak with her,” Welch said.
He learned a bit about the woman.
She told Welch she was from California.
He said it wasn’t clear how long she had been in Baker City, but his impression was that she hadn’t been here very long.
Welch said she told him she had been living in a motel but was “kicked out,” possibly for using methadone.
He said he tried to forge a connection with the woman.
“I saw a human being in need of help and was compelled to help her,” Welch said. “I kept reassuring her that we could get through this.”
He said he felt, after several minutes, that he was making progress with the woman, that perhaps he could convince her to climb back to safety.
But then she handed Welch her cellphone.
She told him about her family.
She had just three fingers clinging to the fence.
Welch feared she was preparing to jump.
Desperate to show the woman that he cared, Welch remembered that he was still wearing his sunglasses.
The woman couldn’t see his eyes.
He took off the glasses.
Welch said he was crying.
He thinks that moment was the “turning point” in the incident.
“We were able to feel something deeper than just talking,” Welch said. “I think she sensed that I genuinely cared about her.”
He said the woman continued to talk. But she seemed less angry than before.
She cried.
After several more minutes the woman moved back from the ledge.
Welch said his anxiety peaked again as the woman was climbing the fence.
But then she was on the freeway shoulder.
“I engaged in a big bear hug with her until the police approached us and took her away,” Welch said.
He said police, along with a fire truck, had arrived after he had climbed to the overpass.
Welch said he descended the embankment and rejoined his family.
He said his wife told him he had been gone for 30 to 40 minutes.
He had no idea how much time had elapsed.
“It felt like a short amount of time,” he said.
Welch said he wished he could have stayed longer.
He wanted to help the woman in other ways — buy her a hot meal, see that she had a place to stay.
He did get a phone call later from a police officer who told Welch that the woman was thankful for what he had done.
Welch said that although he had never been in a situation so harrowing, he feels he has always believed he was capable of empathy even in difficult circumstances.
Welch said his father was a drug and alcohol counselor, and he thinks perhaps he inherited some of his dad’s capacity for trying to help people who are struggling.
“I do feel like I have been able to help people,” Welch said.
He said his family did make it to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, their destination when they saw the woman standing on the overpass.
They found a couple of Oregon souvenir magnets to add to their collection during a weeklong trip that included visits to Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks and the Bonneville Salt Flats.
It would have been a memorable week regardless.
But Welch said the experience in Baker City, so unexpected and so emotional, “was a moment in life that I will never forget.”
“I feel blessed that I was there at that particular time,” he said. “I was really happy to be there. I am wishing the best possible outcome for her and praying for her full recovery.”
More Information
The incident on the freeway overpass was reported to Baker County Emergency Dispatch at 10:57 a.m. on Aug. 11. Officers from the Baker County Sheriff’s Office, Baker City Police and Oregon State Police responded, along with the Baker City Fire Department.
OSP is the lead agency, said Ashley McClay, public information officer for the sheriff’s office.
An OSP report wasn’t available prior to publication.
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