My heart goes out to my fellow Minnesotans and any one directly effected by this horrific collapse of the almost 2,000 foot bridge that I have travelled many times, which collapse on August 2nd, 2007 around 6pm.
I was in NYC at the time when I recieved the first phone call, asking if I knew where someone was and that the bridge had collapsed. I quickly tried to reach out to anyone I knew that might have been effected. Everyone so far that I have had contact with was not involved.
My thanks goes out to all that got a hold of me to find out if I was ok. Moments like these remind you of how precious family and friends are. My heart sinks thinking of what those people went through, falling 64ft in som places, plunging into the Mississippi river and having to escape.
So far, from news reports I am completely surprised and pleased that so few people lost their lives, but can’t help but feel an overwelming sense of fustration that those that have lost their lives or injured have suffered at the hands of a completely unpredictable event. Things like this hits you so hard, since you can’t really blame anyone. It just happened, there was nothing anyone could have done to prevent it.
Sure there were signs it was deteriorating, maybe a design flaw in the lack of redundancy, but there was nothing, no warning signs to the impending collapse, nor was there anyway to have stopped it.
Hopefully the recovery process will happen with record speed and a new bridge will be put in its place in amazing speed. The collapse of the bridge has divided a major highway but in this tragedy, connected “Minnesota Nice” with the world. I am amazed at the first responders / heros that sprung to action to save all the people they could. My hat is off to all those who helped in the rescue and recovery process.
I think we all now drive over bridges a bit differently after what has occured. Hopefully we can learn from this event and fix those bridges that have the signs the i35w bridge did and prevent this from ever happening again.