The Bridge

Here earlier this evening I was driving home from getting my spunky new haircut, pretty content with my day. Then on the radio station they start talking about a bridge collapsing and the evening took a turn from there.

I know CNN has had coverage all night on this, along with the local channels, and it seems to be the lead headline on all the main web pages tonight, so maybe you've all heard all about this (my mom's friend from Houston called already, so I guess people are hearing about it). Basically, one of the main bridge thoroughfares here in the Twin Cities collapsed during rush hour tonight. The video and photos are frightening. The bridge was packed and just suddenly shuddered and collapsed - they say at least 50 cars went into the river.

Luckily I was nowhere near the area, while I've crossed the bridge plenty of times I don't head downtown all that often. But I'm hoping that everyone else I know is ok - most of the family and friends I know who work downtown take the bus, and there hasn't been any word (that I've seen anyway) of any of the city buses being involved. But I'll check in with people more tomorrow - most of my dad's family lives in the St Paul area and a lot of my contacts from my marketing world days have offices or clients in Minneapolis, and the bridge is a main crossing between the two cities. And of course there was a Twins game tonight, and the bridge collapsed at exactly the kind of time many people would have been heading to the Dome (and the bridge is right by the Dome).

I really get emotional watching these kinds of things - where I really lose it is seeing the school bus that was on the bridge when it collapsed. It had 60 kids in a summer program heading home from a field trip. Thank goodness the counselors on-board and many bystanders rushed to get the kids off the bus - which is good, because it was right next to a crushed semi-truck that soon started on fire. Many of the kids apparently were from minority families, and many of the parents were down by the site trying to figure out where they needed to be to reunite with their children but had a hard understanding the information they were being given. It frightens me to imagine my child being in the midst of that. I will say I've really never been a fan of kids having cell phones, but I am really starting to see the logic.

Anyhow... though it amazingly sounds like there have not been the number of fatalities and injuries I'd have expected given the scope of the incident (2,000 feet of bridge collapsed), I worry about what will develop overnight and into the morning as they transition from "rescue" to "recovery."

So, I'm thinking not only of my family and friends hoping they're ok, but you other Minnesota blogging families - hope you're all ok too (and your families and friends of course).