Bridge Collapse

If you haven't heard, the I35W bridge that spans the Mississippi River just north of downtown Minneapolis collapsed just after 6pm (CDT). Current reports have the death toll at 7 and the injured somewhere in the 50-60 range. My family and I are all present and accounted for.

I actually turned on the local news at about 6:10, just before heading out to frisbee practice. As I was leaving the house 20 minutes later the first video images were just starting to come in. When I got to the practice fields, the 6 guys who were there hadn't yet heard about the bridge. They checked their cell phones, and it turned out that the wife of one of my teammates was on some part of the bridge (I'm not sure which part) when it collapsed. He had three voicemails waiting for him, basically saying that she had been on the bridge but was now safe.

If you haven't seen the images yet, go to any news site (the Star Trib will have local coverage). It looks like a major earthquake hit the bridge. This is one of the most heavily trafficed bridges in the metro, carrying over 140,000 cars a day. Beyond the infinitely more important loss of life, this is going to affect traffic in the cities for years.

At this point I've watched somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 hours of coverage on this today. What a crazy night. If I get the chance to go downtown tomorrow I'll try and post my own pictures.