Description of collapse: Surprisingly quiet, but my entire warehouse apt shook quite a bit. Bridge fell so very slowly - poof. Yelled and yelled but no one answered. Only a handful of ppl in water, all got out ok and then began to help as well. Ran into woman who thought school bus was trapped on east side in fold of highway. Couldn’t confirm it or get to the other bank to help.He also says that within 20 minutes everyone was saved who could have been. Video (from CNN) is here. One positive from this is that the Twin Cities got a real time test of disaster preparedness and all reports seem to show that they did quite well. A small positive, I know.
There was some bad reporting last night. Despite local(!) and national descriptions, there was no pedestrian or bicycle traffic on this bridge. It was an Interstate and only had motorized vehicles. The collapse could have gotten peds and bikes at either end but no one would have been 'thrown into the water'. I can understand national news reporters not knowing this, but this was a major road for the area and any local media who made this mistake should be ashamed (I'm looking at you, Cindy Brucato).
I've driven over this bridge hundreds (if not thousands) of times. It's where my first car accident was. It's hard to believe that it's gone. The FP Gal and I were talking about how we won't really believe it until we see it.
Our prayers go to the hurt and their families.
3 comments:
The best was from the Strib:
'Baseball fans leaving tonight's Twins game should find alternative routes home.'
Patrick Reusse and reporting like this. Who could ask for anything more?
This is unbelievable. I was like James, too. I used to check out downtown everytime I crossed the bridge. The view is distracting. When I was in college I used to see how fast I could go in my Scirocco on the off-ramp going onto University. One time I was doing 80 at the start of the off-ramp and was able to stop at the light. A Hans personal best.
It's upsetting to say the least to see it down...
I just saw that video on TV on Fox and saw something that I didn't see before - right around the time that the woman is walking in front of the camera there is a person walking on the fallen section of the bridge, less than five seconds after the section fell, from the north side toward the south. You can see it in the CNN video (same video, but smaller) if you look closely. There is a black dot that moves on the fallen section from the north side toward the south. Could someone have survived, gotten out of their car, and walked away that fast? I haven't heard anyone else say anything about it on TV. Amazing.
Last night, I was quite grateful after getting home to realize it had been a good idea to NOT go to a barbecue in Victoria scheduled for 7:00, because I would have been on the bridge at the wrong time.
As it is, I can hardly believe that it's gone either.
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