Major bridge near me collapses

Glirk Dient

Glirk Dient

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The I-35W bridge that crosses the Mississippi river has collapsed during rush hour. The collapse happened at 6:10pm central time and I am watching the news as various reports come in. The bridge was under construction for the past month and that seems to be the main cause for the collapse. So far there have been numerous casualties reported and many people are being taken to the hospital.

Among the vehicles that went down with the bridge was a school bus full of kids. The rescue effort is still going on and fires are still being put out. Turn on any major news channel and watch. This is scary because this is so very close to me. I already know people that were affected by this as people they knew were involved.

Here is an article that explains what we know so far. Mind you this has been released a couple of hours after it happened
http://wcco.com/local/local_story_213191448.html
 
t1home.2021.minn.irpt.jpg


:(

Damn man... Here's hoping for the best.
 
Yeah I have been watching it as well. My brother actually was just up there visiting a friend who lives ~ half mile away from the bridge. He left their place about noon today and got back home sometime in the afternoon but everyone there called wondering if he made it home safe.

The on ramp right at the river was closed to the interstate so he took the bridge just to the west of this one to get home (before this event).

7 dead atm. Numbers always go up as the rescue crews get in there. :(
Was a storm coming in as well my bro said.
Hope many have made it out OK.
 
People are reporting a major storm coming in. It just passed over me and I got very heavy rain and I didn't even get the worst part. This is going to make rescue efforts much more difficult.
 
Man that sucks :(
Hope everyone else makes it out ok!
RIP to those that have died :(
 
As I listen to the news more and more people are being reported missing and the death toll just rose from 1 confirmed to 6. Despite what you see on the news it is now very dark here. I have seen many clips looping and it makes it look like it is still day here. Nope, it is now dark and that is going to make finding more people very difficult.
 
A little off-topic, but why is there people standing on the edge of the bridge in that pic FoxDie posted? Doesn't seem like a very smart thing to do on a bridge that just collapsed, the rest of it could go, right?

On-topic - That's terrible, how old was the bridge? If it wasn't an old bridge, something else must've happened.. But, again, might have been some sort of accident with the construction..


EDIT: Another off-topic question - What is with all the depressing threads this week?
 
I've heard they think it has to do with the metal support. Wasn't the construction dealing with concrete or re-surfacing?

There was a train under the bridge as well (empty?). And I thought I heard someone say there was construction equipment and propane under one side of the bridge?? Dunno.
 
Considering that it was rush hour traffic and that around 50 or so vehicles went in the water, the fact that the death toll hasn't reached double digits is actually pretty good.

Judging from the footage I've been watching on CNN, I'd have thought the death toll would be at lot higher.
 
That is either the best image I've ever seen or the best image I've ever seen.
 
It's not the most terrible thing in the world. Bridges get swept away all the time in India, with more deaths too. Nobody seems greatly upset by those incidents not even people I know from India.
 
A True Canadian said:
Considering that it was rush hour traffic and that around 50 or so vehicles went in the water, the fact that the death toll hasn't reached double digits is actually pretty good.

Judging from the footage I've been watching on CNN, I'd have thought the death toll would be at lot higher.
Click to expand...

The problem is that most of the vehicles fell into the river. It takes longer to find a drowning than someone that died from the fall. The other problem is that it's a river, bodies that drowned can be carried away and won't be found for a while.

Dan said:
It's not the most terrible thing in the world. Bridges get swept away all the time in India, with more deaths too. Nobody seems greatly upset by those incidents not even people I know from India.
Click to expand...

The odd thing is that it isn't an old bridge, I believe its around 30-40 years old. They also do safety checks and there wasn't anything that was alarming or any reason to close it. It is scary that a bridge we believed to be completely safe collapsed in the middle of rush hour.
 
First; this sucks :( Looks like it could have been worse though.

Second; lol @ car monster

Third; Foxnews says death toll is likely to rise :(
 
You're gonna have some connection problems in the future.
 
I saw this in the news just before I went to bed last night, looked a bit tragic. I suspect a lot of the unconfirmed fatalities are still in their cars at the bottom of the Mississippi waiting to be found by divers.
 
Was watching this unfold on Sky news last night, looked like complete and utter carnage. The worst part was seeing a school bus on the bridge, although it was in good condition the kids must've been shitting bricks.

Given the circumstances though there is a lot of scepticism as to how and why the bridge collapsed. Can't say I'm surprised.

Also LOL @ Geogaddi
 
Yeah I heard about this when I was listening to Red Dragon.

Pretty shocking.
 
This thread fills me with sadness and lol (by geogaddi) D:
 
Glirk Dient said:
The odd thing is that it isn't an old bridge, I believe its around 30-40 years old. They also do safety checks and there wasn't anything that was alarming or any reason to close it. It is scary that a bridge we believed to be completely safe collapsed in the middle of rush hour.
Click to expand...

qfe, i wonder why exactly it collapsed.

and lol@geogaddi :laugh:
 
I've been across that bridge countless times going to Shriners hospital. )_)
 
This is the reason I'm always scared to DEATH of going over any bridge!
 
That is awful :( . I can imagine that wearing your seat belt would of also stopped you from going through the roof of your vehicle in this case, when the bridge hit the bottom.
 
Really shocking. I've never heard of this happening out of the blue like this in my lifetime.


edit: ahahaha @ geogaddi
 
30 people are still missing.

I'd say the odds of finding them alive after 20 hours are pretty slim.
 
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