I am in complete shock! This bridge is only a few miles from my home and I have travelled across it a thousands times and now it's gone! It's such a shock to see this on national cable television and to know it's something that is happening just miles from my home! The bridge went over the Mississippi River and connects the University of Minnesota area (where I live) with downtown Minneapolis. Both Vic & I are fine, and to our knowledge so are our friends and family and co-workers. My heart and prayers goes out to all the victims and their family and friends.
Here's some local articles. If you haven't seen it on TV, you must check out the pictures--they're horrific and amazing both at the same time.
This is from the local paper, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: I-35W Bridge Collapses; At least 6 Dead
A Interstate Hwy. 35 bridge that spans the Mississippi River collapsed during Wednesday evenings rush hour, sending dozens of cars plummeting into the water and crashing along the banks and roadways below.
This is a catastrophe of historic proportions for Minnesota, Gov. Tim Pawlenty said.
At a City Hall press conference Wednesday night, Mayor R.T. Rybak said six people were dead. Several dozen were injured, including six critically, Dr. Joseph Clinton, emergency room chief at Hennepin County Medical Center.
Authorities said Wednesday night the cause of the collapse was unknown.
All but one of the construction workers who were working on the bridge at the time were accounted for, said Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan.
Rescue efforts continued in the night as people spilled into the streets and watched from vantage points in and near downtown Minneapolis.
What they saw was the aftermath of a horrific scene that unfolded as motorists crawled bumper to bumper across I-35 toward the end of rush hour.
They felt buckling and swaying and heard a crunching.
Then came the unthinkable: The 40-year-old bridge collapsed, dumping an estimated 50 vehicles into the water and onto land below. That was followed by scenes of frantic, bloodied motorists and rescuers who converged on the scene.
Many vehicles, including at least one semi-trailer, were on fire. People were reported to be floundering in the river. Rescuers rushed to help people escape cars trapped in the V-shaped hollow where the bridge had caved in.
A school bus, filled with 60 children, ages 5 to 17, returning from a day camp was on the bridge when it collapsed, injuring at least two children and two adults seriously, according to one of the children. We collapsed, said Ryan Watkins, one of the children.
He said the bus bounced twice and then stopped. He and others escaped out the rear door of the bus because the front door was wedged against a concrete traffic barrier. The kids were returning from a day of swimming and are members of the Waite House summer program based in Minneapolis.
Some kids had blood on their faces, but thank God, everybody could move, said Jay Danz, 45, of St. Paul, who had just driven under the bridge. Everybody seemed OK.
Crumpled wreckage lay on the east bank of the river, and a huge section of concrete roadway lay on the west bank. Down below in the river gorge, rescue workers scrambled to help people get out of the water.
Fire and black smoke rose from the wreckage.
Memorial Blood Centers and the American Red Cross put out immediate calls for blood donors. A center for families who were affected was set up at the Holiday Inn Metrodome.
Catherine Yankelevich, 29, was on the bridge when, she said, it started shaking, cars started flying and I was falling and saw the water.
Her car was in the river when she climbed out the drivers side window and swam to shore uninjured. It seemed like a movie, it was pretty scary, said Yankelevich, who is from California and survived the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
I never expected anything like this to happen here, she said.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff issued a statement Wednesday night saying there was no indication of terrorism.
About 20 construction workers employed by Progressive Contractors Inc. was about to begin night shift work on the bridge when it collapsed, company officials said.
The company has been working on the bridge repair for about six weeks, said Mike McGray, president of the company. Progressive is based in St. Michael, Minn., and is one of the states major road and bridge repair contractors.
In 1990 a construction worker fell 90 feet to his death when a concrete arch span on the Lake St.-Marshall Ave.Bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River. In 1960 a bridge over the Minnesota River at Hwy. 41 in Chaska collapsed during construction. No one was killed in that incident.
Hospitals swing into action
Construction workers had been repairing the bridges surface as part of improvements along that stretch of the interstate. There were a large number of construction workers who went into the water, said Maj. Michael Asleson of the Minnesota State Patrol.
Two people were taken to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale and five others arrived by ambulance at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. One underwent surgery for a broken arm, according to a hospital spokesman.
We have no idea about number of victims, number of fatalities, but its fair to say that there will be multiple, Asleson said.
A staging area for the injured was set up near the Stone Arch Bridge.
Marcelo Cruz, 26, of Crystal, who has used a wheelchair since being paralyzed in a shooting in South Carolina several years ago, was driving his van across the bridge toward downtown when he felt it began to wave up and down. He steered into the concrete railing to stop himself from driving into the river, and saw many cars on the bridge fall into the water.
His van came to rest steeply inclined toward the river and several onlookers ran and told him to get out. He said he needed help and the onlookers carried him out of his van in his wheelchair to safety on the riverbank.
Im lucky to be alive, he said over and over again.
Berndt Toivonen, 51, of Minneapolis, was on his way home from a painting job when the bridge collapsed beneath his car.
The bridge started to buckle, he said. It went up and it came down. I thought I was going to die. Charles Flowers, 36, of Dewy Rose, Ga., was waiting at Metal Matic, at SE. 2nd St. and 7th Av. SE, to pick up a load of tubing to haul to Mexico when he and several others felt the ground shake and ran from the building and saw the bridge had collapsed.
They scrambled down the river bank where, Flowers said, he saw cars floating in the river, injured, bleeding, dazed people asking for help. He said he pulled a woman he presumed dead of the water. I never thought Id see anything like this, he said.
Peter Siddons, a senior vice president at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, was heading north over the bridge toward his home to White Bear Lake when he heard crunching.
I saw this rolling of the bridge, he said. It kept collapsing, down, down, down until it got to me. Siddons car dropped with the bridge, and its nose rolled into the car in front of him and stopped.
He got out of his car, jumped over the crevice between the highway lanes and crawled up the steeply tilted section of bridge to land, where he jumped to the ground.
I thought I was dead, he said. Honestly, I honestly did. I thought it was over.
Ramon Houge of St. Paul was on his way home from work and was on the bridge when he heard a rumbling noise and cars in front of him began to go down.
He said cars that could backed up, turned around and drove toward safety.
Baseball game added to congestion
Danz was driving to the Twins-Kansas City game and took West River Parkway under the bridge just before it collapsed.
I heard it creaking and making all sorts of noise it shouldnt make, he said. And then the bridge just started to fall apart.
There were cars behind him on the parkway, but he didnt think any of them were under the bridge when it fell.
John Joachim of Taylors Falls, Minn., took I-35W to the Twins game and said traffic suddenly slammed to a stop he neared University Avenue.
I didnt know what was going on but a huge cloud of dust rose in front of us, he said. After the game, traffic were being rerouted away from the collapse, routes that also were being used by theater patrons leaving the Guthrie.
This afternoons Twins game has been postponed, along with scheduled groundbreaking ceremonies for the new baseball park that had been scheduled for this evening.
'Five feet from the edge
Louis Rogers, 28, of Roseville was driving home from work listening to music in his Chevy Blazer when the bridge gave way just feet in front of him.
It just disappeared; it made no sound whatsoever, he said. It was pretty much like a thud, not too loud of a thud. The next thing I know, cars were dropping and there was smoke. My car was no more than five feet from the edge.
Rogers tried to help some of the people in cars that had fallen into the river and stopped on the bridge. I saw a lady in a car and I screamed, but I got no response, he said. I grabbed my bag and started signalling cars to get out of there.
Ryan Murphey, , 30, Minneapolis, went to the scene to see if he could help out. It looked like a terrorist attack, a complete catastrophe, Murphey said. But everyone there was very calm and organized.
He helped remove two victims from the east side of the bridge on stretchers, including a woman in her late 50s with a bloody face.
Jane Marshall, 27, of Minneapolis, and her sister were behind Rogers on the highway and were on their way to the Twins game. They were driving toward the bridge when it collapsed.
I still cant believe it, she said an hour after the bridge collapsed. We were so close. If we hadnt stopped to get gas, it might have been us there.
The two called their parents right away to let them know they were OK, as did so many people that cell phone service throughout the metro area was sporadic at times.
The Twins decided to play Wednesday nights game, but only after the public address announcer alerted the crowd at 7:08 p.m. of the bridges collapse. A moment of prayer followed. It was then announced that the game would go on so emergency crews could perform their duties without the added pressure of having 20,000 to 25,000 people scrambling in swarms from the Dome area.
Note from Es: You could see the Dome from that bridge; that's how close it is.
The arched bridge had risen about 64 feet above the river before its collapse at the end of rush hour, when cars were bumper to bumper in traffic.
Area law enforcement, including the Hennepin County Sheriffs Office, had launched at least three boats to help with the rescues.
Unbelievable, said Audrey Glassman of Minneapolis, who left her work shift at nearby Spoonriver restaurant to survey the scene. Youll never cross a bridge again without thinking about this.
This is from one of the local TV stations; KARE 11:
6 Killed, Dozens Injured in Bridge Collapse
The Interstate 35W Bridge that MnDot has been working on all summer has collapsed into a pile of twisted metal and concrete.
The Holiday Inn Metrodome has become a gathering place for people waiting for information about their loved ones who are missing.
Emergency Crews wanted one place for people to get information so families didn't get bad or erroneous information.
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.
At least 50 cars, along with tons of concrete, metal and were sent crashing into the Mississippi River.
HCMC doctors are treating at least 28 and Dr. Joseph Clinton said at least six people were killed. All he could tell reporters was that one person had drown. He said he didn't know any more about the deceased as far as gender or age.
Dr. Clinton said he thought there were more victims of drowning at the scene, but he didn't have specific information or numbers.
Six of the 15 people being treated are in critical condition.
Mayor R.T. Rybak called this event one of the most tragic events in Minneapolis history.
He said the area is now controlled and all available resources are on site.
He asked that only those who need to use their cell phones use them and all others stay off their cell phones as emergency personnel need to use all available airwaves.
Mayor Rybak said all survivors that were on the bridge had been removed from the collapsed structure.
He added that all construction workers that were on the bridge were accounted for, except for one.
Minneapolis police chief Tim Dolan said water rescue and recovery would continue. He said the main concern right now was keeping the area secure. He said his officers were checking other bridges as a precaution, but added that foul play was not suspected.
He said the bus full of kids had been taken to safety or hospitals as need and those who were not physically injured were released to their parents.
Governor Pawlenty called this a disaster of historic proportions for the state of Minnesota.
He said he'd been in touch with state, federal and county officials and all were helping were needed. The DNR and National Guard are also on the scene.
"I was on site earlier this evening. It is obvious a catastrophe. We are doing everything we can," said Pawlenty.
There about 100,000 cars a day traveling over this bridge according to MnDOT and it is believed there were at least 50 cars on the bridge when it collapsed.
Water Patrol crews are coming from all over the area, including St. Croix, to help Hennepin County Water Patrol. Divers were in the water shortly after the collapse looking for survivors or the deceased.
As of 10 p.m. they had shifted their focus to recovery.
Firefighters and other rescue personnel initially had a hard time reaching all the injured because of the debris and the location of the collapse.
Kent Barnard of MnDOT is on the scene and he says he has never seen anything like this in his life. "The more people who stay away from the area, the better it will be for emergency personnel."
The detours being suggested Highway 280 and Interstate 94 or 694.
Bernard compared the damage to a California earthquake.
Cars were crushed under the debris and some who survived the fall were swimming to the nearest bank.
Pieces of the bridge are on the parkway, which was filled with bikers and pedestrians.
One driver who was on the bridge during the collapse said bumper to bumper traffic filled the bridge and road construction crews were slowing things down when all of the sudden the bridge dropped right 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.
Parents told Fryer that some of the kids were injured and others were ok.
Two teens talked to reporter Greg Vandegrift and said they helped carry a pregnant woman off the bridge and to an ambulance. They said they helped get three others to safety as well.
They were absolutely shocked when got to the scene. They said they lived nearby and heard the collapse and just ran out to see if they could help.
HCMC is in full emergency mode. The hospital has declared this an emergency situation and that means other hospitals in the area will be dedicating resources to help HCMC. They have seen 22 patients with non-critical injuries, 6 with critical and 1 fatality.
North Memorial in Robbinsdale has at least two patients.
The University of Minnesota Medical Center says they have received five patients via ambulance and that another 25 have walked into to the ER.
Metro Transit says it will offer additional bus service from its north metro park-and-ride locations Thursday morning to help reduce congestion resulting from the Interstate 35W bridge collapse.
Metro Transit says 25 extra busses will be put into service from six until nine tomorrow morning to supplement existing transit service from the park-and-ride locations.
Here's some local articles. If you haven't seen it on TV, you must check out the pictures--they're horrific and amazing both at the same time.
This is from the local paper, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: I-35W Bridge Collapses; At least 6 Dead
A Interstate Hwy. 35 bridge that spans the Mississippi River collapsed during Wednesday evenings rush hour, sending dozens of cars plummeting into the water and crashing along the banks and roadways below.
This is a catastrophe of historic proportions for Minnesota, Gov. Tim Pawlenty said.
At a City Hall press conference Wednesday night, Mayor R.T. Rybak said six people were dead. Several dozen were injured, including six critically, Dr. Joseph Clinton, emergency room chief at Hennepin County Medical Center.
Authorities said Wednesday night the cause of the collapse was unknown.
All but one of the construction workers who were working on the bridge at the time were accounted for, said Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan.
Rescue efforts continued in the night as people spilled into the streets and watched from vantage points in and near downtown Minneapolis.
What they saw was the aftermath of a horrific scene that unfolded as motorists crawled bumper to bumper across I-35 toward the end of rush hour.
They felt buckling and swaying and heard a crunching.
Then came the unthinkable: The 40-year-old bridge collapsed, dumping an estimated 50 vehicles into the water and onto land below. That was followed by scenes of frantic, bloodied motorists and rescuers who converged on the scene.
Many vehicles, including at least one semi-trailer, were on fire. People were reported to be floundering in the river. Rescuers rushed to help people escape cars trapped in the V-shaped hollow where the bridge had caved in.
A school bus, filled with 60 children, ages 5 to 17, returning from a day camp was on the bridge when it collapsed, injuring at least two children and two adults seriously, according to one of the children. We collapsed, said Ryan Watkins, one of the children.
He said the bus bounced twice and then stopped. He and others escaped out the rear door of the bus because the front door was wedged against a concrete traffic barrier. The kids were returning from a day of swimming and are members of the Waite House summer program based in Minneapolis.
Some kids had blood on their faces, but thank God, everybody could move, said Jay Danz, 45, of St. Paul, who had just driven under the bridge. Everybody seemed OK.
Crumpled wreckage lay on the east bank of the river, and a huge section of concrete roadway lay on the west bank. Down below in the river gorge, rescue workers scrambled to help people get out of the water.
Fire and black smoke rose from the wreckage.
Memorial Blood Centers and the American Red Cross put out immediate calls for blood donors. A center for families who were affected was set up at the Holiday Inn Metrodome.
Catherine Yankelevich, 29, was on the bridge when, she said, it started shaking, cars started flying and I was falling and saw the water.
Her car was in the river when she climbed out the drivers side window and swam to shore uninjured. It seemed like a movie, it was pretty scary, said Yankelevich, who is from California and survived the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
I never expected anything like this to happen here, she said.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff issued a statement Wednesday night saying there was no indication of terrorism.
About 20 construction workers employed by Progressive Contractors Inc. was about to begin night shift work on the bridge when it collapsed, company officials said.
The company has been working on the bridge repair for about six weeks, said Mike McGray, president of the company. Progressive is based in St. Michael, Minn., and is one of the states major road and bridge repair contractors.
In 1990 a construction worker fell 90 feet to his death when a concrete arch span on the Lake St.-Marshall Ave.Bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River. In 1960 a bridge over the Minnesota River at Hwy. 41 in Chaska collapsed during construction. No one was killed in that incident.
Hospitals swing into action
Construction workers had been repairing the bridges surface as part of improvements along that stretch of the interstate. There were a large number of construction workers who went into the water, said Maj. Michael Asleson of the Minnesota State Patrol.
Two people were taken to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale and five others arrived by ambulance at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. One underwent surgery for a broken arm, according to a hospital spokesman.
We have no idea about number of victims, number of fatalities, but its fair to say that there will be multiple, Asleson said.
A staging area for the injured was set up near the Stone Arch Bridge.
Marcelo Cruz, 26, of Crystal, who has used a wheelchair since being paralyzed in a shooting in South Carolina several years ago, was driving his van across the bridge toward downtown when he felt it began to wave up and down. He steered into the concrete railing to stop himself from driving into the river, and saw many cars on the bridge fall into the water.
His van came to rest steeply inclined toward the river and several onlookers ran and told him to get out. He said he needed help and the onlookers carried him out of his van in his wheelchair to safety on the riverbank.
Im lucky to be alive, he said over and over again.
Berndt Toivonen, 51, of Minneapolis, was on his way home from a painting job when the bridge collapsed beneath his car.
The bridge started to buckle, he said. It went up and it came down. I thought I was going to die. Charles Flowers, 36, of Dewy Rose, Ga., was waiting at Metal Matic, at SE. 2nd St. and 7th Av. SE, to pick up a load of tubing to haul to Mexico when he and several others felt the ground shake and ran from the building and saw the bridge had collapsed.
They scrambled down the river bank where, Flowers said, he saw cars floating in the river, injured, bleeding, dazed people asking for help. He said he pulled a woman he presumed dead of the water. I never thought Id see anything like this, he said.
Peter Siddons, a senior vice president at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, was heading north over the bridge toward his home to White Bear Lake when he heard crunching.
I saw this rolling of the bridge, he said. It kept collapsing, down, down, down until it got to me. Siddons car dropped with the bridge, and its nose rolled into the car in front of him and stopped.
He got out of his car, jumped over the crevice between the highway lanes and crawled up the steeply tilted section of bridge to land, where he jumped to the ground.
I thought I was dead, he said. Honestly, I honestly did. I thought it was over.
Ramon Houge of St. Paul was on his way home from work and was on the bridge when he heard a rumbling noise and cars in front of him began to go down.
He said cars that could backed up, turned around and drove toward safety.
Baseball game added to congestion
Danz was driving to the Twins-Kansas City game and took West River Parkway under the bridge just before it collapsed.
I heard it creaking and making all sorts of noise it shouldnt make, he said. And then the bridge just started to fall apart.
There were cars behind him on the parkway, but he didnt think any of them were under the bridge when it fell.
John Joachim of Taylors Falls, Minn., took I-35W to the Twins game and said traffic suddenly slammed to a stop he neared University Avenue.
I didnt know what was going on but a huge cloud of dust rose in front of us, he said. After the game, traffic were being rerouted away from the collapse, routes that also were being used by theater patrons leaving the Guthrie.
This afternoons Twins game has been postponed, along with scheduled groundbreaking ceremonies for the new baseball park that had been scheduled for this evening.
'Five feet from the edge
Louis Rogers, 28, of Roseville was driving home from work listening to music in his Chevy Blazer when the bridge gave way just feet in front of him.
It just disappeared; it made no sound whatsoever, he said. It was pretty much like a thud, not too loud of a thud. The next thing I know, cars were dropping and there was smoke. My car was no more than five feet from the edge.
Rogers tried to help some of the people in cars that had fallen into the river and stopped on the bridge. I saw a lady in a car and I screamed, but I got no response, he said. I grabbed my bag and started signalling cars to get out of there.
Ryan Murphey, , 30, Minneapolis, went to the scene to see if he could help out. It looked like a terrorist attack, a complete catastrophe, Murphey said. But everyone there was very calm and organized.
He helped remove two victims from the east side of the bridge on stretchers, including a woman in her late 50s with a bloody face.
Jane Marshall, 27, of Minneapolis, and her sister were behind Rogers on the highway and were on their way to the Twins game. They were driving toward the bridge when it collapsed.
I still cant believe it, she said an hour after the bridge collapsed. We were so close. If we hadnt stopped to get gas, it might have been us there.
The two called their parents right away to let them know they were OK, as did so many people that cell phone service throughout the metro area was sporadic at times.
The Twins decided to play Wednesday nights game, but only after the public address announcer alerted the crowd at 7:08 p.m. of the bridges collapse. A moment of prayer followed. It was then announced that the game would go on so emergency crews could perform their duties without the added pressure of having 20,000 to 25,000 people scrambling in swarms from the Dome area.
Note from Es: You could see the Dome from that bridge; that's how close it is.
The arched bridge had risen about 64 feet above the river before its collapse at the end of rush hour, when cars were bumper to bumper in traffic.
Area law enforcement, including the Hennepin County Sheriffs Office, had launched at least three boats to help with the rescues.
Unbelievable, said Audrey Glassman of Minneapolis, who left her work shift at nearby Spoonriver restaurant to survey the scene. Youll never cross a bridge again without thinking about this.
This is from one of the local TV stations; KARE 11:
6 Killed, Dozens Injured in Bridge Collapse
The Interstate 35W Bridge that MnDot has been working on all summer has collapsed into a pile of twisted metal and concrete.
The Holiday Inn Metrodome has become a gathering place for people waiting for information about their loved ones who are missing.
Emergency Crews wanted one place for people to get information so families didn't get bad or erroneous information.
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.
At least 50 cars, along with tons of concrete, metal and were sent crashing into the Mississippi River.
HCMC doctors are treating at least 28 and Dr. Joseph Clinton said at least six people were killed. All he could tell reporters was that one person had drown. He said he didn't know any more about the deceased as far as gender or age.
Dr. Clinton said he thought there were more victims of drowning at the scene, but he didn't have specific information or numbers.
Six of the 15 people being treated are in critical condition.
Mayor R.T. Rybak called this event one of the most tragic events in Minneapolis history.
He said the area is now controlled and all available resources are on site.
He asked that only those who need to use their cell phones use them and all others stay off their cell phones as emergency personnel need to use all available airwaves.
Mayor Rybak said all survivors that were on the bridge had been removed from the collapsed structure.
He added that all construction workers that were on the bridge were accounted for, except for one.
Minneapolis police chief Tim Dolan said water rescue and recovery would continue. He said the main concern right now was keeping the area secure. He said his officers were checking other bridges as a precaution, but added that foul play was not suspected.
He said the bus full of kids had been taken to safety or hospitals as need and those who were not physically injured were released to their parents.
Governor Pawlenty called this a disaster of historic proportions for the state of Minnesota.
He said he'd been in touch with state, federal and county officials and all were helping were needed. The DNR and National Guard are also on the scene.
"I was on site earlier this evening. It is obvious a catastrophe. We are doing everything we can," said Pawlenty.
There about 100,000 cars a day traveling over this bridge according to MnDOT and it is believed there were at least 50 cars on the bridge when it collapsed.
Water Patrol crews are coming from all over the area, including St. Croix, to help Hennepin County Water Patrol. Divers were in the water shortly after the collapse looking for survivors or the deceased.
As of 10 p.m. they had shifted their focus to recovery.
Firefighters and other rescue personnel initially had a hard time reaching all the injured because of the debris and the location of the collapse.
Kent Barnard of MnDOT is on the scene and he says he has never seen anything like this in his life. "The more people who stay away from the area, the better it will be for emergency personnel."
The detours being suggested Highway 280 and Interstate 94 or 694.
Bernard compared the damage to a California earthquake.
Cars were crushed under the debris and some who survived the fall were swimming to the nearest bank.
Pieces of the bridge are on the parkway, which was filled with bikers and pedestrians.
One driver who was on the bridge during the collapse said bumper to bumper traffic filled the bridge and road construction crews were slowing things down when all of the sudden the bridge dropped right 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.
Parents told Fryer that some of the kids were injured and others were ok.
Two teens talked to reporter Greg Vandegrift and said they helped carry a pregnant woman off the bridge and to an ambulance. They said they helped get three others to safety as well.
They were absolutely shocked when got to the scene. They said they lived nearby and heard the collapse and just ran out to see if they could help.
HCMC is in full emergency mode. The hospital has declared this an emergency situation and that means other hospitals in the area will be dedicating resources to help HCMC. They have seen 22 patients with non-critical injuries, 6 with critical and 1 fatality.
North Memorial in Robbinsdale has at least two patients.
The University of Minnesota Medical Center says they have received five patients via ambulance and that another 25 have walked into to the ER.
Metro Transit says it will offer additional bus service from its north metro park-and-ride locations Thursday morning to help reduce congestion resulting from the Interstate 35W bridge collapse.
Metro Transit says 25 extra busses will be put into service from six until nine tomorrow morning to supplement existing transit service from the park-and-ride locations.
