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http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/215292.html
Posted on Wed, Aug. 01, 2007reprint or license print email Digg it del.icio.us AIM
Minneapolis bridge collapse kills nine
Star news services
Emergency personnel worked to rescue people trapped in cars in the wreckage and in the water.
MINNEAPOLIS | An interstate bridge broke into huge sections and collapsed into the Mississippi River in bumper-to-bumper traffic Wednesday, hurling vehicles, tons of concrete and twisted metal into the water.
Nine people were confirmed dead, 60 were taken to hospitals and 20 people were still missing late Wednesday night. Authorities said they expected the death toll to rise.
Fifty to 60 vehicles were on the bridge when it went down shortly after 6 p.m. Legions of rescue workers and volunteers swarmed to the scene and spent hours sifting through the wreckage searching for survivors.
“This is a catastrophe of historic proportions for Minnesota,” Gov. Tim Pawlenty said.
Workers have been repairing the 40-year-old Interstate 35W bridge’s surface as part of improvements along that stretch of the highway. The arched bridge, which was built in 1967, rises about 64 feet above the river.
One caller to 911 said she could see a construction worker using a jackhammer when the bridge collapsed close to her car, a 911 operator said.
There was no indication that the collapse was an act of terrorism, said Paul McCabe, spokesman for the FBI in Minneapolis.
Crumpled wreckage lay on the east bank of the river and a huge section of concrete roadway lay on the west bank. Down below in the river gorge, rescue workers scrambled to help people get out of the water.
Many vehicles were on fire, and black smoke rose from the wreckage. A truck and a school bus clung to one slanted slab. The children on the bus got out through the back door.
“Unbelievable,” said Audrey Glassman of Minneapolis, who works at a nearby restaurant. “You’ll never cross a bridge again without thinking about this.”
The collapse occurred at the end of rush hour, when cars were bumper-to-bumper in traffic, many trying to get to the Twins game against the Kansas City Royals, scheduled to begin at 7:10 p.m. at the nearby Metrodome.
The Twins decided to play Wednesday night’s game, but only after the public address announcer alerted the crowd at 7:08 p.m. of the bridge’s collapse. A moment of prayer followed.
It was then announced that the game would go on so emergency crews could perform their duties without the added pressure of having 20,000 to 25,000 people streaming from the dome area.
The Twins postponed this afternoon’s game against the Royals. The Twins, Hennepin County and the Minnesota Ballpark Authority also postponed tonight’s new ballpark groundbreaking ceremony.
Peter Siddons, a senior vice president at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, was heading north over the bridge toward home when he heard “crunching.”
“I saw this rolling of the bridge,” he said. “It kept collapsing, down, down, down until it got to me.”
Siddons’ car dropped with the bridge, and the nose of his car rolled into the car in front of him and stopped. He got out of his car, jumped over the crevice between the highway lanes and crawled up the steeply tilted section of bridge to land, where he jumped to the ground.
“I thought I was dead,” he said. “… I thought it was over.”
Catherine Yankelevich, 29, said she was on the bridge when “it started shaking, cars started flying, and I was falling and saw the water.”
Her car was in the river when she climbed out the driver’s side window and swam to shore uninjured.
“It seemed like a movie. It was pretty scary,” said Yankelevich, who is from California and survived the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
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