BALTIMORE — Like many others in Baltimore, Susana Barrios awoke early Tuesday morning to a flood of messages asking if she was okay. She soon learned that the Francis Scott Key Bridge had collapsed into the Patapsco River. As with all tragedies, Barrios, vice president of the Latino Racial Justice Circle, started to wonder if members of her community were affected.

As the news developed over the course of that day, her thought crystallized into fact: six construction workers who were filling potholes during a night shift on the bridge have been presumed dead since Tuesday evening, and on Wednesday, divers found the bodies of two of those men. All six men, plus one construction worker who survived, were Latino, originally from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.

“Once we heard that there were workers on the bridge, and they were missing, we were like, I mean, we assumed that it was gonna be Latinos,” Barrios said. “When they realized there was people working there and those were the people who were missing, that’s when we went to ‘How can we help?’ mode.”

Barrios said that for Latinos, and Latino immigrants in particular, there could be a slew of obstacles to figure out in the wake of a tragedy. For instance, survivors may not have health insurance, though earlier this month, the Maryland Senate passed legislation that would allow undocumented residents to apply to purchase health insurance through the state. Additionally, survivors and family members may face language barriers while attempting to get help and consulates may need to be contacted.

The Latino Racial Justice Circle, which states its mission is to help “eliminate systemic racial injustice and everyday incidents of bias and discrimination towards the Latino community,” took action Wednesday morning by launching a GoFundMe to support the families of the six bridge collapse victims.

Originally, the organization hoped to raise $18,000 to distribute $3,000 to each family. By the time donations were halted early Wednesday evening, the page had raised over $98,000 — over $16,000 per family and over five times the original goal.

“Sometimes we have a hard time raising $10,000 in ten months, so we never expected that much,” Barrios said after a Thursday morning prayer vigil at the Patterson Park Observatory. “But we are so grateful.”

The Latino Racial Justice Circle, which Barrios described as small and volunteer-run, decided to hand fundraising efforts off to the Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs based on the rapid escalation in donations over less than 12 hours. That office is partnering with the Baltimore Civic Fund, which works with city agencies to administer philanthropic funds.

Baltimore Civic Fund Director of Partnerships Rachel Donegan said between 4 p.m. Wednesday and just before noon Thursday, that a new fundraiser had collected nearly $94,000, with the smallest donation at $1 and the largest at $2,500.

Donegan said the fundraiser “absolutely does not compare” with previous ones she’s helped run.

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