Bridge Collapse

I have spent a few hours now, watching the Minneapolis bridge collapse coverage. I have a lot of relatives there, mostly in St. Paul, but they certainly might work in or have been on errands to their Twin City. I called the Red Cross number, but they don't have any names at this point. Scared me pretty bad, because I got a call back very shortly afterwards. They wanted to know first names, but we're talking whole families here! Anyway, they said to check on http://www.safeandwell.org/ tomorrow. By then I can call relatives, too. If they are safe and well, I don't want to disturb their rest. Good chance they have lost friends and maybe relatives on the other side of their respective families.

A few good things that may have saved people. Yes it was rush hour, but traffic on the bridge was down to 2 lanes on the collapsed side because of the roadwork. Also, as Randy pointed out, it was summer, so the river wasn't frozen, plus some people may have had their windows down, so if they hit the water they may have been able to get out the window. On the other hand, it may have been the jackhammer activity that caused the collapse and, we're thinking, the freight train below may also have contributed. We think it may have been harmonic resonance that caused it. I'm wondering how many went into the water and if they were on top of one another, that could have complicated getting out of cars. Some people were so in shock that they couldn't immediately understand what was happening to them. There'll be no more news until it's morning there, which would be around 4 or so our time. All I can do is leave the situation and the people in God's hands.