I have yet to hear of any casualties, but from looking at the damage, it is hard to imagine there not being any. I generally do not head to that part of the Twin Cities.
My Fox Houston is airing live feed of Fox 9 in Minneapolis. BTW, Per Fox 9 in Minneapolis, 6 dead and as many as 50 cars plunged into the water. By morning, the number os dead is almost sure to rise. According to witnesses at the scene, an explosion was head first, followed by a plume of smoke over the south end of the bridge, then followed closely by the same events in the center of the bridge. From there the south end of the 35W Bridge pancaked and the north end twisted like the old Tacoma Narrow's Bridge.
Thank you for the concern me and me are fine. I live less than a mile away from that bridge and drive it often and when it collapsed I actually was on another bridge over the Mississippi. I was biking to the gym and didn't notice the collapse and only heard about it 2 hours later after I got back home. I got back from right around there and couldn't get close enough to actually see the collapsed bridge but passed over the 35W just south of where it collapsed and that is totally empty and can see the rescue vehicles. For those who aren't familiar with Minneapolis I-35 splits into 35W and 35E south of Minneapolis and St. Paul. 35W goes up to and around downtown Minneapolis where the bridge is at is just east of downtown and the Metrodome with the U of MN on both sides of the river on the east side of the freeway. It is likely the most heavily crossed bridge over the river in the Twin Cities. The bridge is normally 8 lanes but construction work has been going on for weeks there and half of the lanes were closed. If that hadn't been the case twice as many cars might've been on it. Oddly enough the bridge had been closed this past weekend for construction. In addition to driving it I've biked on the bike trails below it on both sides of the river and its a fairly impressive site with lots of steel work. On the south bank there is a lock and dam which is now blocked off while on the north side there is railroad and some industrial buildings. Right now on the news they are showing a tanker railcar crushed that is leaking something which hasn't been determined. On the personal side a lot of people are calling, texting and emailing back and forth to see if everyone is OK. So far most of my close friends and my family that are in Minneapolis are OK. I still haven't heard from a lot of other people but I'm can't think of who I know might be on 35W there at the time. Just some more info while I'm rambling. The bridge was built in 1967 and was inspected in 2004 and the U of MN dids some testing on it in 2001. While there was some cracks noted none of the assessments indicated anything serious. The main theory right now is metal fatigue and there is no indication that this might be terrorism. I will try to post some more updates as I can and if I get the chance some pictures in the next few days.
Just to add anyone who wants to help please go to the Red Cross site. I've got a link in my sig. There will be a link to the Twin Cities Red Cross chapter there.
/\/\/\/\/\ Thanks for the info, actually a friend of mine was telling me that he drives over that bridge at least 3 times a day as part of his job. He called in sick today... What are the odds?
Just to followup for those who want to help the direct link to the Twin Cities Red Cross chapter is: http://www.redcrosstc.org
That is just the craziest thing. It's hard for me to imagine that it didn't shake for a while, or give any warning... just went all at once. Any engineers here to explain how this could have happened? (my dad would have figured it out if he were still around ) The Louisiana and Florida Keys bridges are longer, but if I remember right they're low and supported by lots of columns, so they're a lot less likely to buckle; if they did, it would be one small segment, and it's lower to the water so at least you wouldn't have as far to fall.
CNN has video of the collapse: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/02/bridge.collapse/index.html#cnnSTCVideo
That's amazing to see it happen and only a few fatalities result. I agree with Isabel about how it just collapsed out of no where. Nobody saw it coming. Maintenance couldn't pick up on anything loose or missing. It's like wherever you go, there you are. Except for this bridge.
