Woo's blog: "Steph's Musings...."

he Interstate 35W bridge that MnDot has been working on all summer has collapsed. The entire span of the 35W bridge collapsed about 6:05 p.m. where the freeway crosses the river near University Avenue. Traffic in both directions was affected. Much of the bridge is in the Mississippi River. Firefighters and other rescue personnel are having a hard time reaching all the injured because of the debris and the location of the collapse. HCMC is in full emergency mode. KARE 11 reporter Trisha Volpe says ambulances have already begun arriving. The hospital has declared this an emergency situation and that means other hospitals in the area will be dedicating resources to help HCMC. Cars are crushed under the debris and some who survived the fall are swimming in the water. At least one vehicle, believed to be a semi truck, is on fire. Pieces of the bridge are on the parkway, which was filled with bikers and pedestrians. Bumper to bumper traffic and road construction were slowing things down and all of the sudden the bridge collapsed said a man who was in that traffic around 6:00. That motorist told Joe Fryer that there was shaking from jack hammer and then the bridge just dropped. He said a school bus was on the bridge, but it appeared all the kids on the bus were carried off. They were injured but he thought most of the kids on the bus got off. Medical personal from around the city is arriving on the scene, but there so many people injured.