Bridge Collapse

[nocones77-vw at yahoo.com (nocones77-vw@xxxxxxxxx)]

Yeah, I saw it all on the news last night. I'm about 15 miles south of there, or so. I used to live very near there, and worked just a few blocks away. But these days I don't go there very often. Don't think Spewy or I mean to sound ungrateful for your concern at all, but I agree with what he was saying about how it is really odd that so many people are really worried about anyone they know who lives in the area. I had friends from New York, Virginia, and other places urgently calling/texting within minutes of the accident to see if we're OK. Not trying to make anyone feel bad for being concerned or anything...but it just feels weird when you get asked.

All that aside, I'm completely amazed at how many people seem to have survived mostly OK. Most people even walked away with only relatively minor injuries. I'm sure the death count will go up, but there are "only" about 20 people unaccounted for and only a couple deaths so far. Even if all 20 end up being declared dead (hopefully not!), I'd still be darn impressed that only ~25 people died. Judging from the video footage, that was just one big tangled mess of concrete and steel. Not saying I wouldn't have been screaming my bloody head off myself, but it clearly must have collapsed in at least a slightly controlled manner.

On that same highway, there's an even taller/longer bridge over a much wider river not far from me on the southern side of the metro area. At first I thought they were talking about that one. Maybe not as much traffic, but a much bigger drop, all concrete (i.e. big crash instead of a relatively slow collapse of steel) and more likely to have been carrying myself or someone I knew.

Neal

----- Original Message ----
From: Spewey <spewey@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: scirocco-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, August 2, 2007 1:44:48 PM
Subject: Re: Bridge Collapse

Chris Bennett wrote:
> Do we have any listers in the twin cities?

Yes, two.  Me and Neal.  Parker lives 100s of miles away.

> If so, have we heard from them?

No, I didn't think you guys cared.

> My heart goes out to the victims.

Thanks.  We're all still wondering who they are.  Most people walked 
away but a few cars are still under water and dive recovery is tricky in 
that spot (current, wreckage, etc.)

It's a metro of 3 million and with about 300 people possibly involved, 
the odds of knowing someone are pretty low unless you have 10,000 close 
friends.  Even so everyone is getting and sending msgs to folks they may 
not normally communicate with just in case.  Yes there are still people 
I haven't heard from but hey, ya gotta believe the odds.

I almost never use that bridge because it's not oriented in a direction 
that was ever useful to me but it is the busiest river crossing in the 
Cities and very centrally located.  Commutes will be a problem for years 
for all of us now.

Graphic of collapse, more coverage on main page:
http://www.startribune.com/10072/rich_media/1338795.html

many more first hand stories and links:
http://www.metafilter.com/63458/I35W-collapse

our nation's infrastructure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awItLI0umg0

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