Posted on 08/01/2007 4:28:27 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
Just turned on the news. 35W bridge collapsed in the Mississippi River. Cars, trucks, semis.....
Fires burning, tanker trucks, at least one school bus, more than ten cars......
Just now breaking.......
Oh dear Lord.
Prayers for all.
Ok...one more.
http://water.usgs.gov/osw/techniques/bs/BSDMS/Site_Reports/Site58.pdf
I believe this reports shows all the engineering stats on this particular bridge including data on the pilings, information on the bedrock, etc. Much more information than I comprehend.
yup. Now they’ll push us for that 40-percent-of-gas-tax-revenues-toward-mass-transit tax saying “see, our infrastructure isn’t safe!”
6 killed in Minneapolis bridge collapse
PATRICK CONDON, Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS - An interstate bridge suddenly broke into huge sections and collapsed into the Mississippi River during bumper-to-bumper traffic Wednesday, killing at least six people and sending vehicles, tons of concrete and twisted metal crashing into the water.
The Interstate 35W bridge, a major link between Minneapolis and St. Paul, was in the midst of being repaired when it collapsed.
“There were two lanes of traffic, bumper to bumper, at the point of the collapse. Those cars did go into the river,” Minneapolis Police Lt. Amelia Huffman. “At this point there is nothing to suggest that this was anything other than a structural collapse.”
Jamie Winegar of Houston said she was sitting in traffic when all of a sudden she started hearing “boom, boom, boom and we were just dropping, dropping, dropping, dropping.”
The car she was riding in landed on top of a smaller car but did not fall into the water. She said her nephew yelled, “’It’s an earthquake!’ and then we realized the bridge was collapsing.”
Mayor R.T. Rybak said at least six people were killed. There were no immediate reports on the total number of injured, but Dr. Joseph Clinton, emergency medical chief at Hennepin County Medical Center, said the hospital treated 28 injured people — including six who were in critical condition.
Other hospitals also were treating the injured. Clinton said at least one of the victims had drowned.
The arched bridge, which was built in 1967, rises about 64 feet above the river. An estimated 50 vehicles plunged into the water and onto the land below, the Star-Tribune reported.
A burning truck and a school bus clung to one slanted slab. The bus had just crossed the bridge before it crumpled into pieces, and broadcast reports indicated the children on the bus exited out the back door.
Christine Swift’s 10-year-old daughter, Kaleigh, was on the bus, returning from a field trip to Bunker Hills in suburban Blaine. She said her daughter called her about 6:10 p.m.
“She was screaming, ‘The bridge collapsed,’” Swift said.
She said a police officer told her all the kids got off the bus safely.
Dozens of vehicles were scattered and stacked on top of each other amid the rubble. Some people were stranded on parts of the bridge that aren’t completely in the water.
Melissa Hughes, 32, of Minneapolis said she was driving home across the bridge when she went down when the western edge in the collapse.
“You know that free fall feeling? I felt that twice,” said Hughes, who was not injured.
A pickup ended up on top of her car, partially crushing the top and back end.
“I had no idea there was a vehicle on my car,” she said. “It’s really very surreal.”
Many motorist could have been headed to the Minnesota Twins game scheduled not far from the bridge, but the game was postponed, team president Dave St. Peter said.
Ramon Houge told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that he was on his way home from work on the bridge when he heard a rumbling noise, saw the ground collapse and cars go down.
Traffic was bumper to bumper and hundreds of people would have been involved, he said. He said cars backed up as best they could and he parked in a construction zone and was finally able to turn around and drive off the bridge. “It didn’t seem like it was real,” he said.
Local television stations captured video of injured people being carried up the riverbank. There was no official word on injuries, but dozens of rescue vehicles were there. Divers were also in the water.
Workers have been repairing the 40-year-old bridge’s surface as part of improvements along that stretch of the interstate, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported on its Web site.
Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke also said the collapse did not appear to be terrorism-related.
Yikes — 50 cars in the water.
God bless these people.
Amen
“..no reason to believe this has anything to do with terrorism.”
Isn’t it too early to come up with a statement like that?
Thanks, Gideon7 and Aaron Landry. Good to know you’re safe.
50 vehicles in the water per CNN. I expect the death toll to shoot up once recovery begins. This looks awfully fishy. They also had an engineer on who is totally baffled as to how the whole bridge could have collapsed as it did. No reports of any explosions and I don’t see any evidence of scorching from the videos shown thus far.
"Standard statement" would mean whenever there is no particular reason to believe that something was intentional, right?
Would you prefer that the FBI said that *everything* was terrorism, unless proved otherwise? Would that be helpful or valuable in some way?
See, the thing with terrorists is... they like to do things that leave no doubt. They want the big show, with their credit.
Stuff falling down on its own just isn't their style.
The minimum depth of water on the Mississippi River for navigation is 9 feet. Since there is another lock and dam just upstream of the bridge, the depth at this point should be just over that 9 foot minimum.
I had to turn off the news. My six year old was getting stressed. We are now watching the Giant/Dodger game. So I’m getting my updates here.
My loan processing people are all officed about a mile from there.
Wow. I know I kept one of them late in the office tonight
lol. Come on, you got that phrase in a fortune cookie.
It indicates there are at least two actual piers in the River channel, says the flow is constricted and fast, discusses scour.
Medical Examiner Biden on Fox : Scouring (sp?) on bridge common cause of collapse - water under bridge causes it. This was cause of bridge collapse a few years ago in upstate NY.
I’ve done both, and more.
For us laymen, what is scour?
We’re glad you’re safe! How badly will this affect your commute...or will it?
Do journalists take courses in grammar?
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