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American Morning
Bridge Collapse in Minnesota During Rush Hour
Aired August 02, 2007 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. But right now the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
Breaking news.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're so lucky to be alive. On the way down, I thought I was dead. I literally thought I was dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Why did a Minnesota bridge buckle and crumble over the Mississippi River?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a catastrophe of historic proportions.
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CHETRY: Devastating pictures and stories of horror.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And she just told my fiancee, the bridge I'm on is collapsing. I've got to go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know that there was at least 50 vehicles, probably much more than that, on the bridge at the time of the collapse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: A dramatic new iReport pictures and the search for answers on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
And thanks so much for being with us. It is Thursday, August 2nd. I'm Kiran Chetry here in New York.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm John Roberts here in Minneapolis, where about 400 yards behind me is the edge of Interstate 35. That Interstate 35 bridge that fell down with that huge crash last night during rush hour, just after 6:00 in the evening. You can't really see it in the picture now, but let me describe the scene to you. Just beyond the truck lights that you see there, there is another bridge. That is the 10th Avenue bridge. It remains intact.
But just off to the left of that, there should be a bridge deck going across the Mississippi River. A bridge deck that's almost 2,000 feet long. That is now down at the bottom of the Mississippi River Valley.
There has been no recovery efforts overnight. Those were suspended because of the fact that it's so dark and there is so much debris in the water that it's dangerous for those swimmers who are just going in there with wet suits, not even with masks and snorkels in some cases, just trying to search through some 50 cars that are said to be at the bottom of the Mississippi River. Just to dangerous for them to go in overnight.
So what rescue workers are going to do, what officials are going to do is, when the sun comes up, and you can start to see the first slivers of sunlight starting to rise here over the twin cities, they will resume those recovery operations. But it's quickly shifted from a rescue to a recovery operation last night. Officials and rescue workers got as many people off of that bridge deck as they could.
The ones that were left, obviously, had no way of making it. They were either crushed under the bridge deck trusses or they had drown in their cars. So we still do not know the full scope of this tragedy.
Kiran, you were saying that so far we have a count of seven dead. "The Minnesota Star Tribune" is suggesting that there nay be as many as nine people dead. Scores of injuries. As many as 60 of those. And 20 people still missing. So we still do not know the full scope of this tragedy yet.
Kiran.
CHETRY: That's right. And we're hoping to get updated throughout the morning. Actually, it looks like the mayor, RT Ryback, will be meeting with reporters at a news conference 6:00 a.m. local time. So we're looking about an hour from now.
We're also expecting updates from police, fire and emergency officials. They are set to do that about an hour after the mayor has a chance to speak. And then a general media update is what they're calling it about 30 minutes after that because there certainly is a lot for us to become updated on.
The fate of 20 people who are still missing as of last night, late into the night, when, as you said, John, they had to suspend these rescue efforts because it was just too dangerous. It was dark. There was debris everywhere and the rescue workers were unable to make their way around without fears from their standpoint that people would get injured and that it could end up being a worse situation than it already was.
But as we talked about this morning, nine people confirmed killed from "The Minneapolis Star Tribune." That number is slightly higher. We've been able to confirm seven fatalities right now and 60 people in local hospitals.
We want to try to show you, once again, this video. And, John, I mean it really is amazing, if you haven't had a chance to look at it yet, this came to us exclusively to CNN. This is video from a security camera, a surveillance camera if you will, that was on the north side of the bridge. And you actually see the collapse. It just looks like it was just a matter of seconds. And there you see, from a perfectly standing structure, to one that buckled almost going vertical as it literally just crumbles apart and then crashes into the ground right during the heart of a busy, busy time. Bumper to bumper traffic, rush hour, on that I-35 west bridge.
John.
ROBERTS: Very fortunate, though, Kiran, I mean, if you could have anything fortunate happen last night, is the fact that this bridge deck is under construction and it was narrowed down to, as we understand, only one lane in at least one direction, which would have meant that people were going very slowly. There wasn't as much traffic as could have been on that bridge when it went down.
But, still, the scope of this tragedy still really kind of difficult to grasp because we don't know how many people perished when their cars went into the river. Courtney Johnson is with the American Red Cross.
Courtney, your office is only a couple of blocks away from this bridge. Where were you when the collapse happened?
COURTNEY JOHNSON, AMERICAN RED CROSS, TWIN CITIES: I was on my way driving home from work when it happened.
ROBERTS: How far away from the Red Cross building was that?
JOHNSON: Oh, probably less than five miles away.
ROBERTS: So you would not have seen anything that happened. But what's your sense? Have you been -- you came immediately back. You've been here ever since. What's your sense of this tragedy here?
JOHNSON: Right. You know, it's just astonishing. This tragedy is, you know, just beyond belief for us. This is literally in our backyard at the Red Cross. We are less than a block away from where this happened. There are trails along the river and a lot of the times during lunch hours our employees will take walks along these trails. So it's a real common area to people who work at the Red Cross.
ROBERTS: And as we know, there is a trail that runs underneath that bridge itself that parallels to a rail road tracks. So that bring would have come down right on top of that trail.
How many people did the American Red Cross help out here last night? JOHNSON: Well, the Red Cross has helped out at least a couple of thousand as far as feeding meals to the emergency workers and volunteers. We're also bringing in mental health, grief counselors who will help people. Sometimes, you know, this can understandably be an extremely traumatic situation. So what they'll do is they'll sit down with people and kind of talk with them and figure out how they can best solve, you know, the feelings that they're experiencing.
ROBERTS: What are the tragedies that you typically -- or disasters that you typically deal with here in Minnesota?
JOHNSON: Here in Minnesota we typically deal with house fires and tornadoes. There is occasionally cold weather incidents that we deal with in the winter. But this is definitely something that we are not used to dealing with occasionally (ph).
ROBERTS: How different is this from what you've dealt with before?
JOHNSON: Well, this is different in that with most of the local disasters, regardless of the scope, we're most often dealing with people who have lost their homes, be it a tornado, or be it a fire or other natural disaster. Here we're not having to deal with sheltering people per say, but we're facing a whole different kind of scenario in what we're doing as far as feeding people, bringing in the grief counselors. Those are things that we'll do for local disasters, such as house fires and tornadoes. But this is just a different response. You know, being that it's so close to our location, we're going to be called upon for the foreseeable future, I'd imagine.
ROBERTS: Did you talk to any of the people who came into the Red Cross center?
JOHNSON: There were some children who came into the Red Cross center.
ROBERTS: These are the ones that were on the bus?
JOHNSON: These are the ones that were on the bus that you see in all the video. And, you know, I was kind of talking to them as they came in. But it was, you know, they were upset. They were scared. There was a lot of crying. Luckily it was a good age range of kids. Probably from about four to early teens, probably 12 to 13. So some of the older kids were being really nice, you know, to the younger kids and having them sit on their lap and helping them out, you know, make them feel a little bit better (INAUDIBLE).
ROBERTS: That's great when they can really help them out like that. I think there were 50 kids who were on the excursion. I think there were two of the bus drivers children. The rest were adults. It was a total of 61 people that were on board that bus. It's a miracle that the most serious injury was a back injury. It really is a miracle that none of them perished in that bridge collapse because you see how far it fell. That the bridge is 64 feet above the Mississippi River. JOHNSON: Yes, there were a lot of amazing stories out there. You know, ours EMS director was driving along West River Parkway. He literally saw the bridge collapse in front of him and he played a pretty big role in helping those children get from the bus to the Red Cross where we actually triaged them and helped them out before they got sent off to the hospital or were reunited with their parents.
ROBERTS: Yes, our understanding of what happens is that several motorists on the roadway opened up the back of that bus and they started pulling kids off of the bus and that's when the Red Cross joined in and helped get them off that bridge deck up to the shelter.
JOHNSON: Yes, that's correct.
ROBERTS: How much more work do you think you're going to have to do today when first light comes up and the recovery effort continues?
JOHNSON: You know, I understand that if we thought it was busy around our chapter last night as far as emergency personnel and first responders, if we thought it was busy last night, it's going to be even busier today. They're bringing in some larger equipment. There's going to be more personnel there. So we're in for another busy day.
ROBERTS: All right. Great work that you folks do, as always. Courtney Johnson, thanks for joining us this morning. We will bring you back and talk to you a little bit later on this morning.
JOHNSON: Thank you.
ROBERTS: After the recovery effort restarts anew (ph).
Kiran.
CHETRY: All right, John, thanks so much. You know on the phone right now we have with us Tony Wagner. He is -- he can update us on the status of the children who ended up going to the hospital. And as the Red Cross worker was talking about, those kids, ranging in age from four to into their teens, how are they doing today?
TONY WAGNER, PRESIDENT, PILLSBURY UNITED COMMUNITIES: As far as we know, they're doing as well as can be expected.
CHETRY: Were there any major injuries on that bus?
WAGNER: We're not quite sure. I think the most serious was our staff person, who I think suffered a fractured leg and perhaps a fractured back.
CHETRY: OK. So, wow, how is that person doing today?
WAGNER: Well, I haven't seen her yet today, but late last night one of our staff visited with her and said her spirits were good. That she was awake and we're all hoping for the best for her.
CHETRY: You, by the way, run the Wait (ph) House. It's the community center that the kids went to. They were on their way back from, what, a swim trip that day?
WAGNER: Yes. It was just an organized field trip. They went to a local water park area just for some fun.
CHETRY: And, Tony, I don't know if you can see the pictures right now, but have you seen the pictures of the bus just perched so precariously against that guardrail?
WAGNER: Yes. In fact, that's the first scene I saw last night when I heard that the bridge went down. At then at the time I didn't even know it was our vehicle or our people.
CHETRY: When did you find out that it was, indeed, the kids that you guys work with?
WAGNER: Shortly about -- I'd say about 7:30. About an hour or so after the collapse.
CHETRY: What went through your mind after you saw that bus?
WAGNER: Oh, well, you know, it was just terror. I've never -- (INAUDIBLE) to my wife, (INAUDIBLE) bridge. And I was awful.
CHETRY: The incredible news, though, is that no one was killed on the bus. And, for the most part, passers by were able to help assist to get most of the children out. There were 52 children on the bus?
WAGNER: Our court we had -- there were 58 people on the bus. Eight were adults and 50 children.
CHETRY: I'm sorry, how many?
WAGNER: Fifty children.
CHETRY: Fifty children and then the two of them were the staff workers, right? Both of them were injured?
WAGNER: There were eight staff on the bus.
CHETRY: Eight staff. OK. And two of them were injured?
WAGNER: Well, one was injured seriously. And I don't know the extent of the injuries of the other people. But my understanding is, though, most were not seriously injures.
CHETRY: How did it go with the efforts to reunite the kids, the 50 children, with their family?
WAGNER: Fortunately, I mean, I think our -- they were coming back to the center to be reunited, so there were actually some parents at the center. And I think in a matter of minutes, actually, our staff was able to contact most of the parents and get the kids reunited.
CHETRY: Now do any of the children have injuries serious enough that they're still in the hospital today?
WAGNER: I don't know for sure. What I've heard late last night, the last word was that the only person that was staying overnight was our staff person, although I believe there might have been one of the children, too. But I can't confirm that.
CHETRY: I got you. And, boy, it must have just been such a stressful situation for the children, especially some of the younger ones probably having no idea what was going on.
WAGNER: Yes, it was. And I think we're obviously very concerned about that and are working to get some counselors into the center today yet so that the kids who need it can have access and get help.
CHETRY: Well, you know, amidst this tragedy, at least, boy, that's one bright spot that that bus full of those children and everyone's doing OK, albeit one of your staff workers is probably going to have a little bit of recovery. But thank goodness everybody did make it out alive.
Tony Wagner, thanks for joining us this morning.
Also on the phone with us, Gary Babineau. He was on the bridge when it actually happened.
Gary, thanks for being with us today. Gary, are you with us?
It looks like we lost the connection. But we are going to talk to Gary. He was one of the people on the bridge.
I mean it was just so unbelievable how different the fates could be just based on just where you happened to be at the moment. There were some whose car stopped literally five feet before the part of the roadway that broke off. There were others whose car plunged into the Mississippi, yet they were able to miraculously get out on their own. And there were others where, unfortunately, the luck was not good and they perished.
We have seven to nine people confirmed killed at this point, as well as 60 others injured and 20 still missing this morning. The recovery efforts will begin anew at first light in Minnesota in about 45 minutes and our coverage will continue after this short break here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just started kind of like crunching down and, I don't know, we didn't know what was going on. My eyes were closed. I opened them. I saw cement blocks in the front of the car. And then the of a sudden we were stopped and our car was perpendicular to the ground.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHETRY: These survivor stories are just so amazing when you hear people who really cheating death when you take a look at what that bridge collapse looks like today in Minneapolis. Our John Roberts is out there at the scene. He arrived about an hour ago.
You're, what, 400 yards from where that bridge was standing?
ROBERTS: You know, you can probably just see off in the distance some sort of a fuzzy shot, a road sign. That's the University Avenue exit that takes you to the University of Minnesota. That is exactly where the bridge collapsed. And we're looking at some live pictures now of the scene as the sun just barely begins to come up here. And when the sun's up a little higher, that's when the recovery operations will continue. Still, a number of people, as many as 20 missing. They believe that as many as 50 cars went right into the Mississippi River when that 400 foot span just collapsed right down into the river valley.
With me right now is Kevin Duchschere. You might have heard him. He was on with Kiran on the telephone last hour. He's joining us here live. He's a veteran of "The Minneapolis Star Tribune" newspaper. He joined the paper in 1989.
Where were you yesterday when all of this happened, Kevin?
KEVIN DUCHSCHERE, REPORTER, "MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE": Well, I was down near the river, John, talking to survivors. People who had just gotten off the bridge. I talked to a number of the little kids on the bus that were there. They were very shaken up. And their adults, mentors, sort of had them scurry away. They didn't want me to talk to them. But I talked to a number of the people, as well, who were stopped on the bridge and got off and made their way back to safety.
ROBERTS: Was there a consistent theme that they were talking about in terms of what it was like to be on that bridge when it came down?
DUCHSCHERE: They were absolutely stunned. This isn't earthquake country and you don't expect to be crossing a bridge. It was the height of rush hour. Bumper to bumper traffic going very slowly. And all of a sudden they -- many of them told me they looked in the rearview mirror and things were disappearing from behind them.
ROBERTS: Oh, I can't imagine. And some people have said that things were disappearing in front of them as well.
DUCHSCHERE: Right. Right.
ROBERTS: And they stopped just in time.
I have heard some eyewitnesses talk about a vibration. What did you pick up on that particular thought?
DUCHSCHERE: Well, yes. It seemed to happen all of a sudden. There was this -- sort of this rolling motion that several described to me and they heard a low rumble. They didn't hear a loud noise. Other parts of the area, people said they did hear a loud noise. But on the bridge, apparently it was just a low rumble, the rolling and then everything happened.
ROBERTS: This bridge is 40 years old. It was built, if my understanding is correct though, with a look ahead to the future, to 2000 traffic patterns. So it was built with the future in mind. But it's been the subject of -- I don't want to say controversy, but some study over the last few years. What has been the focus of that?
DUCHSCHERE: Yes, there was some controversy. Last night we had Governor Pawlenty of Minnesota saying that it was inspected last year and the year before that and no structural defects were found. And yet today the "Star Tribune" is reporting that the U.S. Department of Transportation, in its bridge inventory in 2005, said the bridge did, in fact, have a structural deficiency and may be in need of a replacement sometimes in the near future.
ROBERTS: What was that deficiency?
DUCHSCHERE: The report that -- our reporting does not say that and last night officials would not talk to us in detail about that.
ROBERTS: There was also, I believe, a University of Minnesota report in 2001 that suggested that there were two, what are called planes on these trusses, I guess, which support the bridge deck and that it's possible that if there were a crack in the truss, that only one plane would be supporting the bridge and that could lead to catastrophic failure. They did not find any reason to believe that there was a crack that existed or reason to believe that a crack could potentially occur.
DUCHSCHERE: Right. Right.
ROBERTS: But it's a story that's sort of told 160,000 times across this country, that it's an aging infrastructure.
DUCHSCHERE: Yes.
ROBERTS: Some of these bridges are in need at least of upgrading, some outright need a replacement. Was there talk of actually replacing this bridge?
DUCHSCHERE: Well, no, there wasn't. The ironic thing was, as you probably know, work crews have been on the bridge for the past six weeks resurfacing the deck of the bridge. And I myself have used the bridge a number of times in the last few weeks and the number of lanes have been narrowed so that to allow the workers to do their job. But that was on the surface of the bridge.
ROBERTS: What was the traffic pattern last night just before the collapse, do you know?
DUCHSCHERE: It was very crowded. People were going home from work. There was also a number of people coming to the Twins game. The Twins were playing at 7:00 last night. The Guthrie Theater, which is right down here to the river, was having a performance. So there was quite a bit of traffic. We think about 140,000 cars, at least, go over the bridge every day.
ROBERTS: But we've heard about the lanes being narrowed down.
DUCHSCHERE: Yes.
ROBERTS: You spoke to that. Do you know what the traffic pattern was in terms of lane closures last night?
DUCHSCHERE: I think it was the -- it's an eight-lane bridge and I think it was down to four lanes last night.
ROBERTS: Kevin Duchschere, thanks very much for sharing that with us. We'll bring you back in just a little while and get some more from you as we begin to hear more as the Sun comes up here in Minneapolis.
DUCHSCHERE: Very good.
ROBERTS: Kiran.
CHETRY: John, thanks.
Well, as we've said, they've moved from a rescue effort now to a recovery effort, meaning that they think there's little chance they're going to find any more survivors. Minneapolis Fire Chief Jim Clack talked a little bit about that last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF JIM CLACK, MINNEAPOLIS FIRE DEPARTMENT: We've been where we think survivors could be so far. It is possible that throughout the night and tomorrow we may locate somebody else that is a survivor. But the likelihood is getting fairly slim.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: One of the big problems they have in recovery efforts is searching some of those areas that are under the debris. A lot of pockets or void spaces, as they call them. Clack talked about how some of that effects the processes of finding people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLACK: When you have a collapse of freeway spans like this, there's a lot of void spaces that are hard to get into and we don't want to get into those spaces until it's safe to do so. So what that means is we'll be slowly, along with engineers, structural engineers, letting us know when it's safe and where it's safe to go to get into those void spaces and make sure that we've looked everywhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Rescuers estimate at this point that there are at least 20 people still missing. On the phone is Gary Babineau. He was on the bridge when it happened.
Hi, Gary. Thanks for being with us this morning.
GARY BABINEAU, WITNESS: Yes, no problem. Good morning.
CHETRY: Tell us where you were. Where your car was at the time.
BABINEAU: I was in the blue chevy pickup truck right -- it's kind of by the school bus, except for I was going the other way. And so I was looking at the whole bridge when it went down. So I could see the whole bridge as it was going down and as I was falling. And it just -- it just gave a rumble real quick and it all just gave way and it just fell completely all the way to the ground. And there was, you know, dust everywhere and it was just like everyone has been saying. It was just, you know, just like out of the movies.
CHETRY: So you say you were right by the school bus. Was your pickup in danger of either flipping over or going down that hollow, that v hollow where a lot of cars ended up sliding?
BABINEAU: Yes. Actually, the half of my pickup truck, the truck bed half, was actually bent over the edge of one of those, and the cab of my pickup truck where I was wasn't, you know, lucky. And there were cars -- I was on the lower portion -- lower section -- one of the lower sections of the bridge where it was split. So there were cars actually skidding down the part above me and falling after the bridge collapsed. And I think all the cars fell that were close, except for a white car that was right above me. And that was the only car that was above me. And that one didn't fall. That was the only one.
CHETRY: So, you know, how do you make that call at the time, then? Do I get out of my car? Do I stay? What if the entire bridge gives way? I mean, what was going through your head?
BABINEAU: Well, I knew that the entire bridge gave way because I could see the whole thing. And I just stayed in my car for one or two seconds. I saw a couple cars fall. So I stayed in my car until, you know, the cars quit falling for a second and I got out real quick, ran, you know, in front of my truck, because behind my truck was just a hole, and I helped a woman off the bridge with me. I just wanted off the bridge. I got off the bridge and then I ran over to the school bus.
CHETRY: Now Gary . . .
BABINEAU: So . . .
CHETRY: Oh, Gary, hold on. Back up. I want you to tell us about the school bus. But how did you get off the bridge? I mean when we look at these pictures. How did you know where to go?
BABINEAU: We -- I didn't. I had no idea where to go. But where our section was resting, there was -- there was a piece that was only about five or six feet off of kind of a rocky -- a rocky deal on the edge of the Mississippi River. And we just found one spot where it was -- you know, we could jump and I jumped and then I helped the woman down that was in the car right next to me. And then I ran over -- then I just clicked in and just remembered about the school bus and ran over there and started grabbing kids and handing them down. And it was just complete chaos.
CHETRY: What were the kids -- what were the kids like right there? How were they reacting to this?
BABINEAU: Most of them were crying pretty bad. A lot of, you know, screaming, crying. A couple of them were bleeding. You know, a couple of them, they really looked like they were hurt and they had to be -- you know, we were kind of setting them on the ground and telling them to, you know, run away from the bridge. But a couple of them had to be carried away to a safe distance because we didn't think at the time that they could, you know, walk or we didn't want to chance it if they did have, you know, broken bones.
CHETRY: Wow, that is just so scary to imagine. So you actually not only survived this, but then you were helping other people at the time. Do you have any training in that or this was just instinct that kicked in?
BABINEAU: No, I have no -- yes, no training in that. It was just -- I just knew what I had to do kind of at the moment. When I -- when my truck, you know, actually hit -- when the bridge hit the ground, my back, I didn't know if my back was broken, if it was -- you know, it hit hard. But I got out of my truck and the adrenaline was going crazy and I -- you know, I assessed myself that my back, you know, wasn't broken at the time, so I just started helping other people.
CHETRY: How you feeling today?
BABINEAU: My back is pretty hurt.
CHETRY: Did you get to a doctor yet?
BABINEAU: No, not yet.
CHETRY: Well, maybe . . .
BABINEAU: It's -- it's a lot -- it's more sore today than it was yesterday. It was hurting yesterday, but it's pretty sore. I think I'm going to go get it checked out today.
CHETRY: Yes. Well, thanks for sharing your story. Boy, as we talked about, you were one of the lucky ones and, you know, maybe you helped save those kids on the school bus. So, good job on that. Gary, thanks for talking to us.
BABINEAU: Thank you.
CHETRY: We're going to take a quick break. AMERICAN MORNING is going to be back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KIRAN CHETRY, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Well, it's about 29 minutes until the sun comes up today in Minneapolis. Sunrise set for 5:59 a.m. this morning. It's 6:30 eastern time, but when sun comes up, that's when the recovery operations are going to continue. There are still 20 people missing after the I-35 West Mississippi River crossing, that bridge, 725-foot tall bridge just collapsed. Simply collapsed in the heart of rush hour, sending cars careening not only into the river, but also on top of one another and portions of that bridge. We're following this breaking news and the developing story all morning here on "AMERICAN MORNING."
Thanks for being with us once again. It's Thursday, August 2. I'm Kiran Chetry in New York.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: And good morning to you. I'm John Roberts in Minneapolis. Just about 400 yards away from where I- 35 disappeared into the Mississippi River valley. Officials in this city still don't know the full scope of this tragedy. Still about 50 cars in the Mississippi river, still 20 people missing. And they don't believe that anyone else will be found alive. This moved quickly last night from a rescue operation to a recovery operation.
You can see the sun is just beginning to come up. When the sun gets higher in the sky, the divers will go back into the water to go under the muddy waters of the Mississippi. And we saw that in some of those pictures yesterday. You could barely see your hand in front of your face. They'll check out the cars to see if there are any people inside. Again, there were still 20 people missing.
We have been hearing stories from survivors, people who rode the bridge deck to the ground as it collapsed, dropping 65 feet along its almost 2,000 foot span. We've heard from rescue workers, people from the Red Cross.
Let's bring in Andrew Worrall right now. He was a student journalist in high school, continues to pursue that.
You had your camera with you yesterday, your 35 millimeter. How close to the bridge were you when the whole thing came down?
ANDREW WORRALL, STUDENT JOURNALIST: I was actually a couple miles out on the way to the Twins game when it happened and we heard it on the radio. They interrupted the pregame show for it.
ROBERTS: So you immediately turned around, journalistic instincts went off, and you bee-lined it for the bridge?
WORRALL: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: What did you do when you got there?
WORRALL: I happened to have my old high school press credentials with me, whipped them out, ran out as far as I could and started snapping pictures.
ROBERTS: So you got up there on the bridge deck. And we have some of the pictures that we're going to show.
WORRALL: Yes.
ROBERTS: Describe for me the scene as you were going out on that bridge deck.
WORRALL: There were tons of pedestrians climbing up under the Cedar Avenue Bridge. They were crowding around trying to get a better view. It was mysteriously quiet and they were all staring over the side, I think, in shock and disbelief, just trying to put together what had happened for themselves in their heads. I went around them, started shooting the triage sessions that were going on underneath the bridge, as well as some of the construction workers that I saw.
ROBERTS: Had you ever seen anything like this before? We've seen bridge collapses on television, the I-10 freeway, the I-5 freeway up in the Antelope Valley after the Northridge earthquake. But how were you struck by all of this?
WORRALL: You're right. We do see it on TV a lot, but seeing it in person, live, it's indescribable.
ROBERTS: We do How many cars would you say were on the bridge at the time?
WORRALL: It looked, for me, anywhere on the bridge, all the sections, probably anywhere between 30 and 40 cars.
ROBERTS: We heard that it was bumper-to-bumper traffic and the bridge had been narrowed down to two lanes in either direction, so traffic was moving fairly slowly. Did you talk to anybody while you were there?
WORRALL: I did not. I just shot photos.
ROBERTS: The police tried to shoo you off the bridge?
WORRALL: They did one time, but they were more concerned with getting the pedestrians...
ROBERTS: Just in terms of what you sense coming from the people that were on the bridge, trying to get off, what words would you use to describe that?
WORRALL: Disbelief, shock, that this would happen here, to them.
ROBERTS: What's the scene that struck you the most? When you're looking through the lens of that camera, you're picking up moments in time. What's the moment that struck you the most?
WORRALL: When I was shooting the triage patients, there is one woman I remember -- you have the picture actually -- her ankle was twisted sideways, but she looked almost content laying there and she's not reacting at all. And that just shocked me. If that was me, I think I would be balling in pain.
ROBERTS: Well, you can certainly imagine, though, the situation like that, the shock is going to set in.
WORRALL: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: How is this affecting people in this town?
WORRALL: I think it's just bringing everyone together, if anything. Everyone has one common goal and that's to help as many people as possible. At this point, like you said, there's not much anyone can do and there's probably no more survivors. But this community, we're going to stick together, we're going to help each other get through it any way we can.
ROBERTS: How long did you stay out there on the bridge?
WORRALL: About two hours.
ROBERTS: Really? And what did you see developing during that time?
WORRALL: A lot of spectators ended up leaving. Some more came to shoot pictures with cell phones or cameras. A lot of people left and the emergency crews were wrapping up as much as they could.
ROBERTS: You watched some of those emergency crews? Did you take some photographs of them as well?
WORRALL: I did.
ROBERTS: How were you struck by the way they reacted to this? I saw video yesterday of a woman in a wet suit, didn't have a mask, didn't have a snorkel. She was tied to a safety line and diving down into these vehicles to try and see if there were people in those vehicles.
That's the image I took away was those rescue operations, just the heroism that they were exhibiting. Going down there in the current of the Mississippi River, amongst the debris and the enforcing rods and the vehicles, whatever else might have been in that water as a result of this bridge collapse. It really is above and beyond the call.
WORRALL: You're right when you say heroism. You're absolutely right. It takes a lot of bravery and courage to go do something like that without as much protection as would be ideal. What I took away most was how comely they were doing it and how efficiently they got themselves to places they needed to be. We're always taught to remain calm in a situation like this, and they did exactly that. And it really helped, I think.
ROBERTS: It will be a long time recovering for this city, not just getting the people out of that situation now, but is there a sense here of where do you even start? This bridge was built back in 1967. It's the better part of a half a mile long. Where do you begin?
WORRALL: I'm not sure. I think everyone is going to have to figure that out for themselves. I guess I'm just going to have to get used to using the Central Avenue Bridge for now.
I don't know what's going to happen. That was a big bridge for us.
ROBERTS: No question. Big impact, lasting impact on this city?
WORRALL: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: You know, when we were down in Virginia Tech, Kiran and I, we remarked on the resilience that the people had. Tell us about the folks in Minneapolis and how they'll react.
WORRALL: Well, there's that that term, Minnesota Knights, and I think that would come into play when people need to reach out to other people for help. Strangers will help strangers. I think we're going to see that a lot.
ROBERTS: A big scar on the city this morning. Andrew Worrall, thanks so much for joining.
WORRALL: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Thanks for sharing your pictures with us. Really appreciate it. We'll talk to you soon.
WORRALL: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Kiran?
CHETRY: John, thanks. A big question that everyone is asking this morning and just wondering, what caused this disaster? What caused that bridge to collapse like it did?
CNN's Tom Foreman took a look at all of the factors that could have played a part in this deadly bridge collapse.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: As investigators try to figure out why this bridge collapsed the way it did, they'll no doubt consider a study by the American Society of Civil Engineers, which found that in more than half of more than 500 bridge failures in the 1990s, water really was the culprit. Water washing away at the banks over here or at the pilings in the middle, weakening bridges and making them simply fall apart.
What do we know about water in this area? Well, we know that this bridge is right below a dam which tends to focus the water. You see the white water here in very natural circumstances. That's a lot of force moving down a very big river. We also know in the past few weeks, they have had explosive thunderstorms in this area. They've had flooding on this very roadway further down, flash flooding that caused a lot of problems, all of which potentially could have weakened something in this bridge.
What else do they have to consider? They have to consider structural issues. Was there a weak joint somewhere in here? Many witnesses say that the bridge went in sections. Some people say it went here, here and here, very rapidly. So it appeared to be almost at once, but nonetheless, in three sections.
Bridges like this are very dynamic and balanced structures that have to be intact. If you don't have an abundance of supports out here, a failure here can weaken everything and make it all fall down when, in fact, the original failure was a small failure in an area like this.
One more issue to consider are thermal events. Concrete doesn't like it when the temperature changes dramatically. In this very area, only a few weeks ago, the temperature changed more than 20 degrees in just two hours. That also can have a weakening effect.
So as investigators look at this, they're going to be looking at the structure itself, was it fatigued? Was there something wrong with it that caused a joint to fail and the whole bridge to collapse? They'll be looking at water, certainly, because that's a big factor. Did that weaken it? They'll be looking at temperature. And they'll be looking at about how all of those things might have interacted together to bring this bridge down in a catastrophic fashion.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: And we are going to be exploring more of that with a structural engineer coming up in just a few minutes.
There was also this report in 2001 by the University of Minnesota's engineering department talking about having some concern about fatigue cracking in the deck truss and having that concern be heightened by the fact that they felt that was a lack of redundancy in the main system.
Usually structural redundancies are additional supports that are put on after a bridge is built to continue to support it. A lot of these questions this morning are whether or not the bridge was structurally sound and whether of not some of these inspections saw everything they should back in 2005 and 2006.
More than 60 people were injured in this collapse. We know at least six of them suffered critical injuries.
Our Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen will be joining us after the break with more on how they were doing this morning. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming back to live pictures from our Minneapolis affiliate KARE. They've got a helicopter up this morning as the sun starts to come up, taking a look at the bridge deck that collapsed into the Mississippi River yesterday.
The main span of this bridge -- the entire bridge is almost 2,000 feet long. The main span of this bridge that traverses the water is 390 feet. That came completely down into the river, as many as 50 vehicles in the water. Twenty 20 people, as many as 20 people still missing. There are reports of seven people dead. The Minneapolis Star Tribune, the local newspaper, is suggesting that nine people may have died and more than 60 were injured.
We have incredible video this morning of what it looked like when the bridge actually came down. This was taken from a security camera that was overlooking a section of the bridge. You can just see it sort of shaking and collapsing there and then a huge plume of water and dust comes up. There was a subsequent fire as a tractor-trailer caught on fire that took firefighters some time to put out.
But just an incredible picture of that huge span, hundreds of thousands of tons of steel and concrete and vehicles and people just crashing into the Mississippi River valley.
Where we are this morning is about 400 yards away from the southern-most point of the collapse where I-35 begins to cross over the Mississippi River where we're just a short distance away from the Metrodome here in Minneapolis.
Just beyond those trucks -- you see a sign there -- it just literally drops right off. As the sun comes up, you can begin to see a piece of the bridge deck that is still cantered at a severe angle there.
There are rescue boats out in the river now, taking a look at the situation to assess whether or not the divers can go back into the water to recover what bodies may remain in the Mississippi.
And a team from the National Transportation Safety Board is on its way here to Minneapolis to try and get a sense of how this whole thing happened.
People who were on the bridge that we've talked to have talked about this sense of a violent vibrating just before the bridge began to disintegrate. And the Minneapolis Star Tribune this morning reporting that, in the 1995 inventory of bridges, that the U.S. Department of Transportation puts out, that there were structural deficiencies in this bridge that were noted. No details on what those deficiencies were.
But Kiran, this may be a big piece of the puzzle that the NTSB looks into.
CHETRY: And it's interesting that you say that, because that rating that came out a couple of years ago calling it structurally deficient, they say that that bridge is not alone, that there are many other bridges nationwide that carry that same designation of being structurally deficient.
As you said, we're not getting a lot of details on exactly what that means, but it raises the question, are there other bridges out there that may be ticking time bombs when it comes to not being structurally sound and what, if anything, can be the factors that ultimately lead to a bridge collapsing like we saw yesterday. ROBERTS: There are at least 160,000 bridges in this country that have some kind of problem with them. Not to say that they're in danger, all in danger of collapsing, but some sort of structural deficiency, some sort of concern that may require a repair or an upgrade. But there certainly has to be thousands of bridges in this country that are in desperate need of replacement, Kiran.
It's just a sign that this is an infrastructure that was built decades ago, finally succumbing to the elements, all of the traffic, the pounding it takes -- 200,000 vehicles a day cross this bridge. You can imagine after a while, it begins to wear out.
CHETRY: That's right. We're talking billions and billions of dollars in reconstruction, retrofit. This National Bridge Inventory Database issues some sort of a score. They say if it gets a score of 80 percent or less it indicates some rehabilitation may be need. If it's a score of 50 percent or less, it's a concern that a replacement may be in order and apparently this I-35 West bridge was rated at 50 percent, this according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune this morning. John...
ROBERTS: o right there on the cusp, I guess, right?
CHETRY: Exactly.
John, we're going to check in with you for one second.
But we're going to our CNN Center. Our Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is in Atlanta this morning with an update.
What are you hearing now of the 60 or so people that are considered injured in this and that in area hospitals in Minneapolis this morning?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN NEWS MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kiran. What we're hearing about the 62 injured is actually, if you look back retrospectively at how they got there, the fire chief said that most of the people were rescued in the first hour. They were either on top of the bridge or away from the bridge. So most of those people were rescued right away. There weren't many people who were rescued and hospitalized after that first hour.
We've heard a lot about this school bus that was involved in this bridge collapse. There were 50 children on that school bus. Eight of them were taken to area hospitals. It is not known if they're still there. Eight out of the 50 were initially taken to a hospital.
The director of the Hennepin Country emergency services says that 100 paramedics have been on the scene and we're expecting to hear from them in an 8:30 press conference this morning -- Kiran?
CHETRY: All right. We will carry that live as soon as we get more details on that. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.
Also, we're going to be showing some of the most incredible pictures that have been taken by our CNN I-Reporters. These were people who just happened to be on the scene, had their camera or cell phone camera on them at the time and sent these pictures to us. We have more of the most incredible pictures from this tragedy this morning. That's coming up next in our continuing coverage of the bridge collapse, here on "AMERICAN MORNING."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, a game between the Minnesota Twins and the Kansas City Royals went on last night as scheduled. The stadium that they play at, the Metrodome, is just about a mile away from the bridge that collapsed.
Now, before the game started, a moment of silence was held to honor and remember the victims. The teams thought about canceling the games, but realized it would mean sending about 20,000 people out on to the streets. Tonight's game, though, has been postponed.
We're going to head back out to John Roberts who is at that scene of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis this morning -- John?
ROBERTS: And Twins officials who play at the Metrodome, which is literally just across the street from where I'm standing, say, in fact, all of this weekend's games might be affected by this. As you can imagine, thousands of Minnesota Twins' fans would cross this bridge, going back and forth to the game.
We're about 400 yards away from the southern-most point of the collapse. You can see some vehicles down there. You see the green exit signs for University Avenue. Just about 100 feet past that, it drops off into nothing. And that whole 2,000-foot-long span sits in the Mississippi River valley with a large chunk right in the river itself. And according to officials, there might be as many as people vehicles in that area in the water and 20 people still missing.
When this bridge came down, it was such a shock to everyone here. You can imagine the massive spans, the massive tons of concrete and steel, cars, people inside them. People were literally shell-shocked when they came upon the scene.
Here is some of what we heard in the early minutes following the collapse last night. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bridge on 35-W has collapsed. There are several known dead people as part of that. It's a very dynamic situation that just completely gave way, the whole bridge, from one side of the Mississippi to the other, completely gave away. So all the way down. I probably had a 30, 35-foot free fall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We carried people from the bridge on -- you know, we put them on the stretchers and carried them to the ambulance. You know, when you put a bloody, delusional pregnant woman on to a stretcher and carry her to the ambulance, it's one of those things you're going to remember for a while. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were a lot of kids that were hurt. There was a car whose car the fallen in, he said his car had split in half. His nose was bloody, he was bloody.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I realized the school bus was there and me and a couple of other guys went over and started lifting the kids off the bridge. There was yelling, screaming, bleeding. I think there were some broken bones.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People were crying and scared. I don't know how this could happen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It did unfortunately happened at the peak of our rush hour. And we also had a baseball game that started and there was traffic coming in for the baseball game.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have one drowning victim here and I believe there were more at the scene.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were emergency vehicles going every which direction in downtown Minneapolis. Sirens everywhere, people running everywhere. And the bridge that collapsed was about a -- maybe a half mile to my east. It was such an odd sight to look over there and see a bridge that used on be there no longer being there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously, this is a catastrophe of historic proportions for Minnesota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: It certainly is that. And they still do not know the full scope of this tragedy. As we said, 20 people still missing. Divers will go back in the water as soon as the light comes up a little bit more to go into those remaining vehicles and see if there is anyone inside.
It is almost -- it's almost remarkable, though, the fact that more people weren't killed. So far, we have seven confirmed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune saying nine and 20 missing. But there was a school bus with 61 people on board, 52 of them children, and they just made it past the worst part of the collapse. Somebody was obviously looking over their shoulder.
But the question that people are asking this morning is how did all of this happen? There were no warnings. Witnesses described it as a violent shaking and then the entire bridge deck came down.
We'll put that question to a structural engineer when we come back on "AMERICAN MORNING." Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Breaking news.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: On the way down, I thought I was dead. I literally thought I was dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Why did a Minnesota bridge buckle and crumble over the Mississippi river?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: This is a catastrophe of historic proportions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Devastating pictures and stories of horror.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This tragedy, you know, is beyond belief for us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She told my fiance, "The bridge I'm on is collapsing. I've got to go."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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