WI - 35W bridge in Minneapolis collapses!

[cheko1]

sorry if I am asking dumb questions or things you all have discussed. I have been able to watch zero news coverage and am trying to catch up.

I heard today that they highly doubt it is from water erosion.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

Bush quibbles and vetos every bill that is going to cost money, except when it comes to paying for the war. He's OK with that. He's going to veto the Homeland Security Appropriation Bill because it is $5 Billion over what he wants it to be. $5 billion is a week and a half in Iraq.

geez, this isn't a political thread... or is it?

 

[cheko1]

I am so surprised that the death toll is not higher, but this still doesn't make the few deaths that did occur any better
I just saw a bit on CNN about one of the victims who died. He daughters were adopted. They and her husband were on TV talking about what a great woman she was

this is so sad

The death toll is supposed to go real high.

My daughter was talking to a LE & he told her that lastnight it was horrible to be near there. I guess that as night started falling the headlights from the vehicles started coming on & the car alarms started going off. Made LE sick because they didn't know if it was someone trapped or what.

Also some of the vehicles in the water lights came on too. Totally freaked LE out.

 

[kazzbar]

It's going to be significant when the totals are in. But the fact that so many survived is pretty amazing.

I have been watching this on television here. It maybe that the death toll will not be very high due to the wonderful work done by your rescue organisations and people who just pitched in. My heart just about broke when I saw that school bus as I turned on the t.v...then I was so relieved to know that all the kids were saved.
I know it is early to speculate but I think structural failure is going to be at play here and that someone is responsible for not seeing the red flag..
I hope that there are not to many fatalities.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

it's so funny that everytime there is a tragedy, it's the government's fault or Bush's fault, lol.

Sorry folks ... you can't blame everything on the government or Bush.
This bridge had problems before Bush even took office.

But enough with the politics here, please! Some of us are trying to actually find out about the bridge, what made it collapse and how people are doing.

There are people dead and injured, why must people play the blame game right now?

 

[SieSie]

Sometimes ordinary becomes extraordinary when people are confronted with the impossible. They do need to honor all the heros in this disaster. It is always the silver lining to see people come together to save lives at the risk of their own. Gives you faith the good in this world still exists! : )

:clap: :clap:
It is great to hear these heroic stories and know there is still good in the world. It's sad and tragic, but I like to look for the "silver lining", too.

 

[panthera]

I was reading about that problem not too long ago; cheap steel was being used in fasteners, rivets, etc in critical areas of construction--if you remember a ship called the Titanic, it had cheap rivets and they all popped and the side of the ship was opened like with a can opener--that was one of the fatal errors. They've forunately caught some of these befiore they have caused problems on very large critical projects.

I think what you've mentioned might have played a big part in the collapse. I also heard this morning on CNN that one engineer believes the extreme weather contributed to steel expanding while they were also working on the road surface (both things contributing to the bridge collapse) and the heavy trucks. I'm also wondering if the train tracks below shook it too much? Someone else commenting mentioned this as a possibility.

 

[kazzbar]

:clap: :clap:
It is great to hear these heroic stories and know there is still good in the world. It's sad and tragic, but I like to look for the "silver lining", too.

Me too... there are a lot of good people out there, that do care.

 

[JBean]

I heard today that they highly doubt it is from water erosion.

oh thank you cheko. I only thought if it because it has played a part in other bridge failure.
I wonder if it has ever been damaged by a passing ship. I know that can cause undetected flaws as well.
Personally I think it is going to come down to carpy ingredients in the infrastructure.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

Larry King is on right now and they are discussing the age of bridges. A guest was speaking about the checks that go on with structures, such as bridges and buildings. There are a lot of checks in place.

 

[JBean]

:clap: :clap:
It is great to hear these heroic stories and know there is still good in the world. It's sad and tragic, but I like to look for the "silver lining", too.

You know SieSie this is so true. Whenever I see people working together to help people they do not know, it truly brings a tear to my eye.

 

[JBean]

Larry King is on right now and they are discussing the age of bridges. A guest was speaking about the checks that go on with structures, such as bridges and buildings. There are a lot of checks in place.

I guess they were checking the wrong places.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

they aren't going to know what exactly caused this collapse for some time. What made thie bridge collapse while others all over the nation are still standing.

CNN says it's not terrorism but they are treating the area as a crime scene.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

I guess they were checking the wrong places.

Do you know something the rest of the world doesn't?!?
there's no known cause as of yet to this collapse. There are older bridges that are still standing.

 

[JBean]

Do you know something the rest of the world doesn't?!?
there's no known cause as of yet to this collapse. There are older bridges that are still standing.

lol pfm. I don;t even think this bridge is very old.
I am only saying they checked it and it was ok to go. So my assumption is that they missed something.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

wow, there's a guy on now who is a parapalegic (sp?) ... his van almost fell off the bridge. He slammed on the breaks and turned into the bridge wall to try and stop the van.

Help arrived and he made it out alive.

Wow, these stories are making me choke up

 

[KR2tonenow]

Abviously, "Bridges just don't fall...", stated today on CNN. "It may be a few weeks before we know anything" Fox News reported.

Probably be more like a few years, after it gets shoved under the rug and another disaster takes its place.

 

[Buzz Mills]

they aren't going to know what exactly caused this collapse for some time. What made thie bridge collapse while others all over the nation are still standing.

CNN says it's not terrorism but they are treating the area as a crime scene.

They are treating this the same way they would an air crash. That's why the NTSB is iinvolved; they'll try to lay out all of the pieces they have and try to find the initial failure. The resurfacing company was also supposedly working on the joints; it could easily be a combination of a lot of different factors coming together at one time.

 

[cheko1]

oh thank you cheko. I only thought if it because it has played a part in other bridge failure.
I wonder if it has ever been damaged by a passing ship. I know that can cause undetected flaws as well.
Personally I think it is going to come down to carpy ingredients in the infrastructure.

No ships in Mn either jbean!
The biggest thing they'd have on the Mississippi is a barge. The river is actually very narrow up here.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

another lady is on CNN talking about the "sound" of what it was like right before the bridge collapsed. She had driven underneath the bridge and wasn't harmed.

A few people have talked about how eerily silent it was for about five minutes after the bridge had collapsed.

Damn, these pictures are unbelievable. I couldn't imagine seeing this in person.

Tonight was Paula Zahn's last night on CNN. Her first night there was on September 11, 2001.


They were showing images from 9/11 too. It's just amazing to see all of this on TV. I can't imagine seeing this there, in person.

141,000 vehicles traveling over that bridge daily. Just amazing.