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Yeo wrote: Search for the missing under way in Minneapolis bridge collapse


Searchers in Minneapolis combed the Mississippi River Thursday looking for victims of an interstate bridge collapse that killed at least seven people.

Officials said at least 62 people were injured in the Wednesday evening rush-hour disaster. Twenty people were missing, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and 30 to 50 cars remain in the river, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Security camera video showed the Interstate 35W bridge's center section collapsing into the river in less than four seconds. The northern end of the span appeared to drop first and the southern end followed.

CNN obtained the video from a source who asked to remain unidentified since they were not authorized to distribute it publicly.
Watch bridge collapse video » ( http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/02/bridge ... nnSTCVideo )
Fire Chief Jim Clack said he expected the death toll to climb and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune was reporting nine confirmed deaths.

"We've been where we think survivors could be, so far," Clack said. "It is possible that ... we may locate somebody else that is a survivor, but the likelihood is getting fairly slim."

Search operations on the river were halted around nightfall for safety reasons.

"This particular section or freeway was under repair," Clack said. "We don't know yet what caused the collapse. We do not believe at this point there was any terrorism or nefarious activity -- it was just a structural collapse."

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security agreed, saying it saw no indications of terrorism.

The White House has been in touch with local officials and a federal investigative team has been dispatched to the scene.

The city's Minnesota Twins baseball team has canceled a game scheduled for Thursday afternoon and the club is considering calling off a weekend series against the Cleveland Indians.

Dennis Winegar told The Associated Press he was among the many motorists on the bridge at the moment it collapsed.

"I slammed on my brakes and saw something in front of me disappear and then my car pointed straight down and we fell," Winegar told AP.

Also on the bridge at the time was a school bus filled with more than 50 children who were returning from a summer field trip.

Kristy Jenkins credits staff member Jeremy Hernandez with saving her 12-year-old daughter Nina Jenkins.

Hernandez "busted open the backdoor of the bus" and "told everyone to get out from the back of the door," the girl said. "We jumped on the highway and then jumped on the sidewalk."

"It was scary. Terrifying. There were a lot of people who got hurt."

Hernandez said he was just happy the kids were reunited with their parents and was "glad to be alive."

"If it would have been a second later, any second before we would have been in the water or under the pavement," he said.

Tony Wagner, the president of a local nonprofit social services group that organized the trip, said eight of the kids, ages 5 to 14, were hospitalized.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty said the bridge was inspected in 2005 and 2006 and no structural defects were found.

Mark Lacroix, who lives on the 20th floor of an apartment building near the bridge, told CNN he saw the last seconds of the collapse.

"I heard this massive rumbling and shaking basically and looked out my window," Lacroix said. "It just fell right into the river."

The bridge was undergoing nonstructural re-decking work, U.S. Transportation Department spokesman Brian Turmail said.

There were eight construction workers on the bridge at the time of the collapse, and one of them is unaccounted for, said Mike McGray, president of Progressive Contractors, the company doing the repair work on the bridge.

A 2001 study conducted by the Minnesota Department of Transportation found "several fatigue problems" in the bridge's approach spans and "poor fatigue details" on the main truss.

The study suggested that the design of bridge's main truss could cause a collapse if one of two support planes were to become cracked, although it allowed that a collapse might not occur in that event. But, the study concluded, "fatigue cracking of the deck truss is not likely" and "replacement of the bridge ... may be deferred."

About 100,000 cars a day travel over the bridge, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/02/bridge ... index.html