Helen Marie Repa

Helen Repa prepared to attend the annual Western Electric company picnic. She was one of three nurses selected to staff the nurses' station. Helen planned to travel to the picnic aboard the S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, the second ship to leave on the excursion.

Upon arriving downtown by trolley, Helen made her way to the river's edge and saw the steamer Eastland rolled over onto its side. As she climbed aboard the overturned hull of the ship, the scene was almost too difficult to bear.

"I shall never be able to forget what I saw. People were struggling in the water, clustered so thickly that they literally covered the surface of the river. A few were swimming; the rest were floundering about, some clinging to a life raft that had floated free, others clutching at anything they could reach—at bits of wood, at each other, grabbing each other, pulling each other down, and screaming! The screaming was the most horrible of all."

Around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, eight hours after arriving at the Chicago River, Helen went home, exhausted.