35W Bridge collapsed…many feared dead!

[xiinfaniin]

Xaaladu ma fiicna. this is a true disaster. I hope and pray all the mn nomads are ok. Dadka waxyeeladu kasoo gaadhay allah u sahlo.

[xiinfaniin]

cnn

 

bbc

[xiinfaniin]

^^So far six dead...50-100 cars in the Missisipi river.

[Khalaf]

Any word on somalis?

[xiinfaniin]

^^saaxiib, so far i have not heard about any somali casualties. Allaah ha ka badbaadiyo.

 

watch some pics of the collapsed bridge

[Tahliil]

This is tragic...May allah save the missing...And hopefully as always our MN pple will come out in droves to help their fellow brothers and sisters who are suffering from this tragic incident today

[xiinfaniin]

^^Tragic indeed! And aamin to your ducaa.

[Khalaf]

isnt the freeway 35W close to cedar? Allaahu ka badbaadi. Amiin.

 

salaams,

[Jacpher]

^My worry is that school bus going down with the children.

 

I drove over the bridge just 2 hours before it collapsed. It was bumper to bumper so I can just imagine how many cars went flying into Mississippi. Ironically, about two weeks ago, a friend I was riding with saw a hole open through the bridge to the river and mentioned how scary it was to drive over a bridge under construction. Allow na badbaadi.

 

Summer in Minnesota will get much worst with the most busiest bridge in the heart of the city being out. As the old saying goes, there're two seasons in Minnesota: Winter and Road Construction, my fifteen minutes commute to work is now well over an hour.

 

3 dead as Mississippi River bridge falls amid rush hour in Minneapolis

 

(CNN) -- At least three people were killed when an interstate bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapsed Wednesday evening, plunging cars and chunks of concrete into the Mississippi River below.

 

There were "lots" of injuries, the state Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department said.

 

Local hospitals put the number of people hurt at 37 so far.

 

The accident occurred shortly after 6 p.m. (7 p.m. ET). There were 50 to 100 cars on the bridge at the time, according to early estimates. Witnesses described a "dust cloud" as the bridge collapsed. Photo See photos of the disaster »

 

Lt. Amelia Huffman of the Minneapolis Police Department told CNN affiliate KARE it was "not clear at this point what caused the collapse" of the Interstate 35W bridge near University Avenue.

 

"We have personnel there in the rescue effort," she said. "I have never seen anything remotely like this before."

 

Mark Lacroix, who lives on the 20th floor of an apartment building near the bridge, told CNN he saw the last seconds of the collapse.

 

"I heard this massive rumbling and shaking basically and looked out my window," Lacroix said. "It just fell right into the river." Video Watch Lacroix describe the collapse »

 

He said there had been construction work on the bridge in recent weeks.

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* I-Report: Are you there? Share video, photos

* KARE: I-35W bridge near University Avenue collapses

 

Construction took place on the bridge Tuesday night and was to take place again Wednesday night, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

 

The highway would have been restricted to a single lane in both directions from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. both nights.

 

The bridge was undergoing redecking work, but nothing structural was being done, U.S. Transportation Department spokesman Brian Turmail said.

 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security had no indication that terrorism played a role in the disaster, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minnesota, told CNN.

 

Coleman said Gov. Tim Pawlenty had told him the 40-year-old bridge was inspected and "given a clean bill of health" three years ago.

 

The nearby University of Minnesota Medical Center received "just a handful" of injuries from the accident, spokesman Ryan Davenport said.

 

"One of our hospitals has five patients so far, and the other on the other side of the river has none," he said.

 

Nancy Ebert of Northwestern Hospital said it had received four injured people -- two children and two adults.

 

Dr. Joseph Clinton, chief of emergency medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center, said the hospital is treating 28 injured people, six of them critically hurt.

 

He also said the hospital received one patient who was pronounced dead on arrival. "We have one drowning victim here, and I believe there are more drowning victims at the scene," he said.

 

Two hours after the collapse, a tractor trailer was still burning on the bridge and fire officials were attempting to put out the flames. The vehicle had been cut in half, said Kristi Rollwagen, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

 

Crews have been using boats to help remove people from the water, bringing them up on the river bank, but bad weather moving into the area could hamper the rescue efforts.

 

"I don't know how much more could go bad here, but right now, we've got the perfect storm brewing out there, so we're trying to work as hard as we can to pull people out of there" Rollwagen said.

 

Witnesses told CNN a school bus filled with children was on the bridge when it collapsed, but they also said the bus did not drop into the water and it appeared that the children had all been evacuated.

 

Aerial footage showed the middle of the bridge caved in, lying in the Mississippi River, with cars both on top and submerged in the water. The main part of the collapsed span is not submerged, but the span clearly separated from the land-based sections of the highway on both the north and south ends of the bridge.

 

A witness said it looked like "toy cars" were plunging into the water.

 

"I heard a terrible noise, and then I looked. It seemed like a piece of the bridge was pancaking and going down," said Janet Stately. "I said, 'Did we really see that? Did we really see that?' and it was unbelievable."

 

About 100,000 cars a day travel over the bridge, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

 

Source: CNN

 

 

[xiinfaniin]

^^I am glad to hear you made it saaxiib!

 

Caawa meel walbaa lagaa dayey !

[Pacifist]

My friend called me before this happened and I was in a meeting, she didn't leave me a message. I called back and she didn't answer. The network or phones lines are busy. I also called my family but no luck. Allahu badbaadi umaada. amin

[Khalaf]

Jim, i am watching live coverage now all the children on that bus are accounted for, Alxamdullahi i got hold of fam and friends. Allah uu sahlo reer MN, that area is the somali area. Allahu sahlo.

[Jacpher]

^Alxamdulilaahi, Ilaahey waan inoo naxariistay.

 

Xiinoow, dhowr dheer ayaan wax wacayoo "all circuits are busy right now, try again later" bey igala bixi weyday islaanta.

 

EDIT: It appears City of Minneapolis is doing all it can right now with all kinds of medical, red cross & variety of local law enforcement at the scene. With the cancellation of Twins game tomorrow, it should help ease the traffic congestion.

 

Khalafoow, not that far from Cedar and U of M campus. Wili ma maqal maryooley wax gaareen.

[Pacifist]

Alhamdulilah family and friends are fine. May Allah help all those who were caught in this event. Amin

[xiinfaniin]

^^Xamdan li-Laahi.

 

 

August 2, 2007

Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis Kills at Least 7

By LIBBY SANDER and SUSAN SAULNY

 

An Interstate highway bridge in downtown Minneapolis loaded with rush-hour traffic dropped more than 60 feet into the Mississippi River last night, sending at least 50 vehicles and passengers into the water.

 

Chief Jim Clack of the Minneapolis Fire Department said at least seven people were killed and more than 60 were injured. More than three dozen injured drivers and passengers were taken to hospitals.

 

“This is a catastrophe of historic proportions for Minnesota,” Gov. Tim Pawlenty said at a news conference about three hours after the collapse.

 

The eight-lane bridge on Interstate 35W, part of a major artery between Minneapolis and St. Paul, was being repaired at the time, and a witness told MSNBC that he had heard a jackhammer being used on the roadway just before the collapse about 6 p.m. Witnesses said the bridge, which was built in 1967, collapsed in three sections, sending a plume of smoke 100 feet into the sky. One section of the bridge lay flat in the river, with cars parked on the rolling pavement.

 

The collapsed section of the bridge, which was about 1,000 feet long, had been supported by a steel truss structure. Repairs were being made to the bridge’s concrete deck, guard rails and lights, state officials said.

 

Divers and rescue boats continued to search the river and the twisted wreckage of the bridge, with darkness setting in and rain beginning to fall. The Star Tribune of Minneapolis said some people were seen floundering in the river, calling for help.

 

Leah R. Fulin, 16, of Minneapolis, had just crossed the bridge and was on the Washington Avenue exit when it collapsed behind her.

 

“Most of the cars that were on the bridge went into the river,” she said. “There was a whole bunch of smoke when concrete breaks like that. There were people screaming.”

 

Janet Stately was returning from Duluth, Minn. and decided to take an adjacent bridge to avoid traffic when the collapse occurred.

 

“I heard an awful noise and saw what looked to me like a piece of the freeway just going down flat,” Ms. Stately said. Then she said she saw the road collapse into a V and cars rolling into the river. “I clearly recall horns honking. I was screaming. We were trying to call 911 on our cellphones.”

 

Television pictures showed a school bus on one section of the collapsed slab, but the back door was open and no passengers were visible. Red Cross officials said 60 children were taken off the bus, 10 of whom had injuries that were treated at city hospitals. A column of smoke curled up from a tractor-trailer near the bus. “I saw a lot of crying,” Courtney Johnson of the Red Cross told CNN. “Some of the older children were comforting the younger children.” The children were 4 to 12 or 13 years in age, Ms. Johnson estimated.

 

Berndt Toivonen, 51, of Minneapolis, told The Star Tribune he had been on his way home from a painting job when the bridge collapsed beneath his car.

 

“The bridge started to buckle,” Mr. Toivonen said. “It went up and it came down. I thought I was going to die.” He was uninjured, but he said people around him, some injured, were screaming in their cars.

 

Dr. Joseph Clinton, chief of emergency medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center, said six patients at the hospital had critical injuries and 22 had injuries that were not considered life threatening. There was one drowning fatality there, Dr. Clinton said.

 

“This is a very busy bridge,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, whose home is nearby. “It’s really right in the heart of the city,” Ms. Klobuchar told CNN. “Thousands of commuters use this bridge every day.”

 

According to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the flow on the eight lanes of I-35W crossing the river was supposed to be restricted beginning Tuesday night for the northbound lanes and at 8 last night, about two hours after the collapse, for the southbound lanes. The reason stated on the agency’s Web site was “overlay work,” which refers to roadway resurfacing.

 

A 2001 evaluation of the bridge, prepared for the state transportation department by the University of Minnesota Civil Engineering Department, reported that there were preliminary signs of fatigue on the steel truss section under the roadway, but no cracking. It said there was no need for the transportation department to replace the bridge because of fatigue cracking.

 

Governor Pawlenty said the bridge had an unusual design and was inspected in 2005 and 2006. No structural deficiencies were detected, he said.

 

Senator Norm Coleman, Republican of Minnesota, told CNN that the bridge had received a “clean bill of health” three years ago. Mr. Coleman said the construction work on the bridge was a resurfacing project, not uncommon in Minnesota in the summer.

 

The Minnesota Twins postponed today’s baseball game at the Metrodome. A groundbreaking ceremony for a new baseball stadium was also postponed, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

 

“We’re getting a lot of spontaneous volunteers,” Ms. Johnson of the American Red Cross told CNN. “People are just showing up to help us out.”

 

Cellphone calls in the area were disrupted after the collapse, possibly because antennas were overloaded with calls. As the toll of the injured and missing rose, a woman who was near the scene of the collapse called a cable network desperate for information: "If Janna or Paul hear grandma’s voice, please call home," she begged.

 

The National Transportation Safety Board will send a team of investigators, a spokesman, Ted Lopatkiewicz, said. The board chairman, Mark Rosenker, will accompany the investigators, Mr. Lopatkiewicz said.

 

ny times