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American Morning
Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Aired August 02, 2007 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome once again. It is Thursday, August 2nd.
I'm Kiran Chetry, here in New York. We have John Roberts in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING, covering this breaking news on that bridge collapse.
We'd also like to welcome our viewers who are watching around the world on CNN International. Thanks for joining us as well today.
We are awaiting a news conference. Hopefully we're going to be getting an update any moment now from the hospital. We're going to be hearing about the status of some of the 60 people that were injured in this bridge collapse.
We're going to talk to our Elizabeth Cohen about what she's hearing as well. Apparently, at least a half-dozen critically injured.
We're also hoping to hear from Governor Tim Pawlenty within the hour. And news conferences are also expected, updates from police, fire and rescue workers, about the status of their recovery efforts this morning.
John, 20 people still unaccounted for in this tragedy.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. And so the number of dead could go up.
The number of dead, as we understand it right now, stands at nine. Some 20 people or more still missing, as there are all those cars that are deep in the Mississippi River. Rescue teams -- we were talking with Minneapolis' mayor just a little while ago -- will soon be going back into that river to go through those cars, as they were last evening, trying to find people who may have been in those vehicles when they went down.
For the benefit of our international viewers who may just be joining us now, let me set the scene for you.
It was shortly after 6:00 Central Time last night in the middle of the Minneapolis rush hour that the I-35 bridge over the Mississippi River, which is right behind me, about 400 meters behind me, suddenly suffered an enormous vibration, and then collapsed into the Mississippi River Valley. It is just beyond that green sign. It literally disappears into nothingness.
The bridge decks just flattened completely down on to the ground. A whole section of bridge about 400 feet long went into the river.
There was a school bus that was on one of those bridge decks. All of the children, thankfully -- and there are 52 of them -- got out OK. Many of the people also escaped with minor injuries. Some are in critical condition.
We talked to one fellow who has an extremely sore back. He thinks he's going to go see the doctor about that. And then, unfortunately, there were those nine people that did not survive. And the extent of this tragedy is still unfolding, because those people who are missing, most likely presumed to be in those cars that are in the river. They hope to recover those bodies this morning -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes. And as you were talking about the 60 people that were injured in that bridge collapse, our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now from Atlanta.
Have you been able to get an update, Elizabeth, about the status and the condition of some of these people that were taken to area hospitals?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We've been able to get some information, Kiran. One hospital said last night that they had six people in critical condition. The injured were taken to at least three area hospitals. One hospital told us that they had 25 people walk in and five people arrive by ambulance.
We've also learned from county officials that -- or from officials who were on the scene that most of the people, most, if not all of the people who were rescued, were rescued in that very first hour, either from on top of the bridge or from just off of -- just outside the bridge. In other words, most of the people who were sent to hospitals, they were rescued in that first hour. After that first hour there were very few people who were actually rescued and taken to area hospitals.
Now, we've heard a lot about the school bus that was on the bridge at the time. And what we've heard about those children is that there were 50 children on the bus and that eight of them were taken to the hospital. We don't know if they're still in the hospital. Perhaps some of them by now have been released.
There's been a huge response from local emergency services. One official had this to say about the response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JOSEPH CLINTON, MED. DIR., EMERGENCY SERVICES: We have -- that would be a guess -- hundreds of paramedics from around the twin cities, we have a hundred paramedics here. Our nurses have all been alerted, 100 of them, the emergency department nurses from the critical care units.
Our whole medical staff was notified. We have 25 emergency physicians, a similar number of surgeons. We have internists and other -- and pediatricians and other specialties that have responded. The blood bank has responded. Our pathology director for the blood bank is here. We've had outstanding broad response from the medical staff and the nursing staff.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: Hennepin County Medical Center has been treating many of the injured. And they'll be having a press conference to update some of these numbers in 25 minutes -- Kiran.
CHETRY: You know, and Elizabeth, this just crossed right now on The Associated Press wire, which is quite confusing, because CNN throughout the day and all other news organizations have been talking about seven to nine fatalities. And we're just getting word from The Associated Press that, according to Minneapolis police lieutenant Amelia Huffman (ph), the number of confirmed fatalities has now been lowered to four.
COHEN: That is confusing. But you know what? We have found that there's lots of confusing information when we make phone calls about people who are dead and people who are injured.
This is a very confusing situation. You have people in the water, you have people who were on top of the bridge, you have many different hospitals. It is hard to know exactly how many hospitals they were sent to.
So I'm not terribly surprised that there's confusing information out there. Probably in the hours to come some of this will become more clear.
CHETRY: Well, it would certainly be a bright spot if there were some way that they would be able to lower by 50 percent the number of people who lost their lives in this tragedy.
COHEN: Certainly.
CHETRY: Elizabeth, thank you so much for your updates.
COHEN: Thanks.
CHETRY: Elizabeth telling us again that 25 of the injured, of the 60 injured, at least according to one hospital, were able to walk in, which would seem to indicate that they were not serious enough that their injuries were life-threatening.
But again, as these number are changing and we are just, as I said, getting an update from The Associated Press, that according to a police lieutenant, a Minneapolis police lieutenant, they've lowered now the number of fatalities to four. But we're expecting to get an update within the next 10 minutes from local police, fire and rescue.
So, hopefully, John, there will be some clarification about these numbers. ROBERTS: Yes. We see sometimes in the wake of these disasters like this, Kiran, that sometimes people are double counted. We saw a lot of that in the World Trade Center collapse. Remember how the death toll initially was so high, and then it came now. I mean, still an extraordinary number of people who died, but a lot of those people had been double counted.
There were so many people who were on that bridge over the Mississippi River yesterday when it went down. Bernie Toivonen was one of them.
Just to orient you a little bit, we're on the south side of the bridge.
Bernie, you were traveling in to Minneapolis from the north side of the bridge.
Where were you? What happened?
BERNIE TOIVONEN, RESIDENT: I was on the north side of the river. And the bridge deck I was on, it started to -- it gave way. And it came down at an angle like this. It's a part that, you know, it can still -- you know, it's at about a 45-degree angle.
ROBERTS: Right.
TOIVONEN: That's the section I was on. And the second behind me looked like it fell straight down.
ROBERTS: Just pancaked straight down like that.
TOIVONEN: Yes. And then the one, you know, north of that came down at a real steep incline.
ROBERTS: And then that whole big splan across the Mississippi just, boom, flat.
TOIVONEN: Right, down into the river.
ROBERTS: Was there any hint that anything was wrong before it collapsed?
TOIVONEN: No, there wasn't. I know before we were -- when I was going down the road, there were some construction workers, and they were hand-digging a trench. And the traffic was really slow up until that point.
And then after they went past to the people working, and people started to pick up the speed, and, you know, so it was like, well, now we can make a little time. And then -- and then the bridge -- you know, the bridge just...
ROBERTS: Literally let go like that.
TOIVONEN: Yes, it let go. ROBERTS: Some survivors had talked about a fairly large vibration before the bridge deck went down. Were they using jackhammers in the construction when you went by?
TOIVONEN: I didn't see that. It might have been, you know, further up. But I know they've had, you know, up to 20 people or probably more on jackhammers.
ROBERTS: Right.
TOIVONEN: You know, working on resurfacing.
ROBERTS: So you go back and forth across this bridge a lot.
TOIVONEN: Yes, I've been taking this bridge for the last two months. And I was...
ROBERTS: You never give it a second thought.
TOIVONEN: Yes, I never -- I never thought that there was any problem. And then...
ROBERTS: So when the deck collapsed, what kind of situation did you find yourself in?
TOIVONEN: Well, I wasn't -- there was a second I -- it went down. And my car rolled down to where it -- you know, where it kind of planes out on the bottom. And it went back about 40 feet, and the car stopped, or I put the brakes on.
ROBERTS: Did you check yourself and say, what just happened to me?
TOIVONEN: Yes. Oh, I put it in park and turned the key off. And I just said, oh, you know, I'm alive. You know? And I -- and I...
ROBERTS: Did you even have any kind of concept of what had happened?
TOIVONEN: Oh, I knew exactly what happened.
ROBERTS: Really?
TOIVONEN: I knew the deck was going down. And it was -- there was no question about it.
And I thought I was going to die. And when I -- my car landed upright, and I didn't get one scratch on my car. And I feel perfectly fine. I'm one of the -- I'm very lucky to be where I was.
ROBERTS: Oh, absolutely.
So, describe the scene for us after you came down. You got out of your car. What did you notice around you? TOIVONEN: There were some cars in front of me. And I didn't hear any people, you know, yelling there. And there was a car right behind me, and I walked there and there was a woman in that car, and she wasn't moving. And I thought she was dead.
And I heard some people screaming, you know, further to the north. And I helped a guy that was -- he was under a minivan or a truck. And I helped him.
There was a beam on his arm. And I moved that beam off his arm.
ROBERTS: How was he?
TOIVONEN: Pardon?
ROBERTS: How was he? Was he badly hurt?
TOIVONEN: Oh, he was in -- yes, he was in rough shape. And a couple young guys came out and they pulled him out from under his car. And...
ROBERTS: So everybody started helping everybody else?
TOIVONEN: Yes. There was -- me and three people were in the area of bridge where I was at. We were the only three that could -- that weren't injured. And we all stayed and helped out. And then there was a woman who was trapped in her minivan, and I helped her get out.
ROBERTS: It's amazing when your world is turned upside down like that that you can have the presence of mind to go to people who are badly injured or trapped and try to help them out, as opposed to just walking around in a daze.
TOIVONEN: Yes, I don't know. I can't explain it. I just -- I was just thankful I was alive and well, I had no injuries.
And there were people that needed help. And I just helped out where I could.
ROBERTS: Have you talked to anybody else about this, friends, family?
TOIVONEN: Yes, I talked to my brother and dad.
ROBERTS: What did you say to them about it?
TOIVONEN: Well, I was...
ROBERTS: I mean in words that you can use on television.
TOIVONEN: Well, shortly after it happened, I was good to -- I was going to, you know, go see my dad. And I called him up and I said, "I won't be back for a while, and the bridge collapsed. And I'm here. And so I won't be back for a while."
And he said, "Oh, OK. See you later."
So, you know, nobody heard about it. It was just -- you know, I called him at -- I looked at my phone. I called them at eight minutes after 6:00. And I -- you know, I -- I hung around and I helped.
ROBERTS: So that would put the bridge collapse at about 6:05 or so.
TOIVONEN: Yes.
ROBERTS: You know, you're remarkably calm about all this. I can't imagine how most people, including me, would be feeling this morning.
TOIVONEN: Well, you know myself and the other three people, we were -- I thought we were all calm. There were two young guys. And they were probably 18 and 19. And they were real calm and they helped out. And there was a woman there that helped out.
ROBERTS: I guess when you've escaped death like you did yesterday, maybe there is this strange sense of calm that comes over you.
TOIVONEN: It could be. Yes. It was an odd feeling.
ROBERTS: Well, Bernie Toivonen, we're glad you made it through it, and literally without a scratch. You're obviously a painter by trade.
TOIVONEN: Yes. Yes, I am.
ROBERTS: So you going back to work today?
TOIVONEN: Yes.
ROBERTS: Oh my goodness.
TOIVONEN: Have to finish up a job.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, thank you, sir, for being with us.
TOIVONEN: Well, thank you.
ROBERTS: Good of you to come in.
TOIVONEN: Thanks.
ROBERTS: All right.
Kiran.
CHETRY: It is amazing for people that survive sometimes the unthinkable. And then life goes on. He's headed to go to work to go to his painting job today.
We just want to once again update you on some new information that we're getting. According to The Associated Press, they're quoting a Minneapolis police lieutenant, and CNN has actually been able to confirm this as well in the last couple of moments. According to Minneapolis police lieutenant Amelia Huffman (ph), four people only at this time are confirmed dead in the collapse.
They have unconfirmed reports saying as many as seven were killed. And as John pointed out, in chaotic scenes like this, it's very easy to double count or to miscount in these situations.
We're also expecting the numbers to go up, even though we surprisingly saw them now be lowered. We are expecting them to rise again as the search resumes, the recovery resumes.
And we did get word that divers are now going back into the water there. They had to call off the search for the victims because it simply was not safe after the sun went down yesterday.
They wanted to work through the night but were unable to because of a river current. Of course, all of the debris in the river, including concrete, the rebar wire, all of that leading them to call off the search until just a few moments ago.
They are now diving once again. They say they've been able to visually see at least 50 cars submerged in the water, but that there may be many more according to fire and rescue officials.
So we will continue to keep you updated as these numbers change throughout the morning.
Amazingly, though, you know, this collapse was caught on tape. And we want to show you some of the video that CNN has obtained. A lot of this coming to us from I-Reports. But one of them was recorded by a security camera that was set up on the north side of the bridge.
And this video was provided to CNN by someone who did not want to be identified. They were not authorized to distribute this yet, and so they don't want to be named. But they gave this to CNN. And there you see the debris and the dust rising as that bridge within seconds goes from being up, being traveled by thousand of cars, to literally collapsing into the Mississippi River 64 feet below.
We also want to show you some amazing pictures and video that we've been getting from our Reports. Our I-Reporters are people who were on the scene with cameras and were able to capture these events and then give them to CNN, where we then distribute them out.
One of them is from Steve Dworak. And he heard the collapse. He got on his bike, he went to the scene, and this is what he was able to capture. You can see the once horizontal deck of that bridge span literally vertical as it buckled into a reverse V.
Also, we have some pictures taken from Andrew Worrall, who we talked to earlier on AMERICAN MORNING. He's a young kid, I believe 19 years old. Just graduated high school.
He used his press credentials from his high school paper to get close enough to the scene to capture some of the pictures before rescue and fire and police officials started telling people to stay back. There he captured a shot of people gathered along one of the pedestrian bridges nearby, describing the scene as eerie silence for the first 10 minutes after it happened.
Most people so stunned, some people rescuing themselves, getting themselves out of harm's way. And then about 10 minutes before they started to hear the sound of sirens in the distance coming to do what they could to help.
Also, Brad Paulson took some pictures about 15 to 20 minutes after the bridge collapse. He rode his bike right next to the bride, along the river, and then started taking these pictures. And in it you can see some of the rescue workers and police in the foreground.
You see the span of the bridge there twisted, literally like taffy. And there again the reverse V where it buckled. A lot of cars and vehicles getting stuck in the actual hollow of that V. And that is where rescue workers had to make their way down to help get people out.
We also want to update you on what is happening today. There will be two prayer services held at noon local time. That will be 1:00 Eastern Time for the victims and their families. It is being put on by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
That will be taking place. A moment of silence held. Also, yesterday, at the Twins game to remember the people who were killed and badly injured in this collapse.
So again, we're going to be updating you. We're expecting to hear from police, fire and rescue officials in a few minutes, get an update from local officials as to what is going on today after that bridge collapse.
AMERICAN MORNING will be back in just a moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw the car myself. It had fallen from at least three stories. It tumbled -- it rolled off. The minivan, frankly, it was a little hard to tell. And the woman got out of it with just a scratch on her forehead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We saw giant clouds of smoke and dust and debris. And immediately, we thought it was a fire, but at which point we started driving over 35-W, we realized the bridge had collapsed.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHETRY: And those were just some of the statements that we were hearing from eyewitnesses, people that survived this bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Joining us right now from San Francisco is William Ibbs. He's a professor of civil engineering at UCAL Berkeley. He joins us this morning.
Thanks for being with us this morning, William.
WILLIAM IBBS, PROFESSOR OF CIVIL ENGINEERING: You're welcome.
CHETRY: One of the things that caught our attention today was this rating that was obtained in a university -- I mean, in a Department of Transportation bridge inventory database that called this particular bridge structurally deficient a couple of years ago and also listed it as possibly in need of replacement.
What do you make of that?
IBBS: It's not surprising, actually. As you've mentioned in earlier segments, there are thousands of bridges in United States that are at risk. Being at risk doesn't mean that they're imminently at risk, but they're certainly on the watch list for engineers and highway officials.
You may find it interesting to know that there were actually 500 bridge failures in the 1990s in the United States. Most of those 500 were small bridges and they were not catastrophic failures like this, but regrettably, bridge failures, bridge deterioration is a fact of life.
CHETRY: Right. And there's obviously many steps in between. It doesn't go from being fine to collapsing. There are checks and balances. But what of these inspections, 2005 and 2006 -- according to local officials there, these bridges were inspected and obviously given the thumbs up.
IBBS: They were. But there was also a report in 2001 that highlighted the -- highlighted a concern about corrosion, as well as a concern about fatigue. Again, a concern is not necessarily a warning of imminent collapse, but it's certainly something that warrants further inspection.
CHETRY: They also talked about the -- when you talk about fatigue, there is also something that they talk about, the fatigue cracking of the deck truss. And they talk about how there was not a lot of structural support.
Do they go back on to these bridges and retro -- you hear the term "retrofit" a lot in your area, where they try to make structures that were built before new codes had been in effect, they try to make them safer in the event of a national -- or a natural disaster, like an earthquake.
Is this something that they were referring to when they talked about this bridge and the fatigue failure?
IBBS: Probably. Probably, yes.
CHETRY: So what would they do then? They would do retrofit work, they would try to somehow make this -- somehow try to find a way to reinforce the structure?
IBBS: That's right. This bridge was characterized again by the 2001 report that I mentioned earlier. This bridge was characterized as having a lack of redundancy, which isn't necessarily alarming by itself, but it means a heavy reliance was placed on primary members.
So, when they go back in and they do retrofits, they're looking at the stability and the integrity of those primary members. Possibly beefing up those primary members, and also exploring the possibility of putting in new members that would form -- that would serve as a secondary path for the load resistance.
CHETRY: All right. I think I understand what you're talking about.
And the interesting thing about this situation is there didn't seem to be any type of natural disaster or event that took place that happened directly before this collapse. It appears. Now, obviously, they're going to be doing more investigating trying to figure this out.
But we do have a side-by-side picture, because I think a lot of people who remember the -- well, these are the before and after pictures of the bridge in Minneapolis, the I-35 West. But I think a lot of people remember the collapse of the Nimitz Freeway, that portion of Interstate 880 after the Loma Prieta earthquake. And boy, it really did look similar.
In that situation, 42 people lost their lives when an earthquake caused that span to fall. And if we can show the two pictures side by side, they really do look a lot alike in that situation.
IBBS: Yes.
CHETRY: But as I said, that was an event that took place. I mean, a shifting of the earth because of an earthquake here. They don't know what happened before.
So what are they going to be looking for?
IBBS: They're going to be looking, as some of your earlier commentators have mentioned, they'll be looking at the chemistry of the materials that were used in the bridge, both the structural steel and the concrete. They'll also be looking at the fact that the bridge was fully loaded at the time of the collapse.
I expect that they'll be looking for signs of corrosion, maybe even weakening at the piers, erosion and weakening at the piers of the bridge. They'll be looking for other factors like that.
CHETRY: I want to thank you, William Ibbs, civil engineer, professor at University of California Berkeley.
Thanks for being with us.
Right now we want to take you live to Minneapolis, where the news conference is getting under way.
Let's listen.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
CHIEF JIM CLACK, MINNEAPOLIS FIRE DEPT. ... representatives here from the DOT and other agencies.
This morning we're moving into a more deliberate mode. Things will not be happening quickly.
We're concerned about the structural stability of the bridge, still, the pieces that remain off the ground. And so we're going to be very careful to use the experts to make sure our rescue workers are safe.
This is not a rescue operation any longer. It's a recovery operation, which means we move slower and more deliberately.
We want to make sure and search everywhere. The fire department has responsibility for everything above the water. And the sheriff's department and other agencies are handling the operations in the river.
With that, I'm going to pass it off to Chief Dolan from the police department.
CHIEF TIM DOLAN, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE DEPT.: Good morning.
We haven't -- overnight, from what we were briefing yesterday, not a lot has changed. Basically, we're in a hold mode.
We've set up a perimeter, basically four sectors, different commanders in those sectors. We're dealing with not only traffic, but pedestrians that are coming down.
And we'd like to say, we -- people that are coming down, please don't get frustrated that we're not going to let you close to the scene. And we'd request that people not come down unless they have a real good reason to come down.
We talked to officers that were on the scene last night. We had a number of officers that responded to the initial call.
We know that there are numerous other vehicles that are in the water. And so the recovery involving those vehicles and people who may be in those vehicles is going to take a long time.
We're planning on staffing this perimeter for three days minimally. And it's probably going to be longer as far as the recovery aspect of this incident. So we do want to again reiterate that we -- our sympathies go out to families that are involved in this and families that don't have answers. It's -- like fire Chief Clack said, this is going to take a long time, this recovery.
We're dealing with the Mississippi River. We're dealing with currents. And we're going to have to do it slowly and safely.
So, I would like to say that we've gotten a lot of assistance from partners down here, people that are assisting us from the Red Cross, Target, Cup Foods (ph), others. Very much appreciate that, because we have a lot of people here from metro agencies statewide that have come down to assist. You know, staffing this perimeter for 24/7 takes a lot of people. And we're getting assistance from a lot of agencies.
St. Paul Police Department helped us with calls last night. So we want to make sure we thank St. Paul. And we'll probably get more assistance from them today.
So -- so that's about it. We'll know more maybe a little bit later, but like I say, we're in a hold mode, we're in a perimeter, security perimeter. And it's -- this is going to take a long time.
QUESTION: Chief, do you have an update for us of numbers of dead, numbers of injured, numbers of still missing?
DOLAN: You know, I've heard that there's been some controversy on that. You know, our public statement last night is we didn't know.
So -- and we've had investigators at every hospital, go to every hospital. We're trying to count for vehicle license numbers, people with those vehicles.
So at this point -- and I've talked to Dr. Baker (ph) from the coroner's office. But at this point, I think there's still some unknowns.
People did go to different hospitals in the metro area. And obviously, we're fighting a little bit of that, privacy about who's who and where they're coming from and what their injuries were. So that's -- we have investigators working on all of that. You'll probably get a better number on that later on. So...
QUESTION: Chief, you mentioned (INAUDIBLE) the families of the people who are still waiting, who don't have answers about their loved ones. How many people are in that situation? How many families are there waiting?
DOLAN: We had at least six families that were at the center. We've got a number of other people that are calling. And so we're dealing with those.
And we can get you -- give you a number that we want those calls to go to. I don't have that off hand, but our immediate people do.
QUESTION: Are we still talking seven confirmed dead?
DOLAN: You know, we -- I never went to seven. And so at this time I wouldn't even go there.
I would say, you know, we'll get that from the coroner's office, and they're on scene now. And obviously, that's going to change throughout the day as we're doing this recovery, I would guess. And it's...
QUESTION: Chief, can you give us some sense of how difficult it is for the divers, what conditions they face?
DOLAN: The sheriff can talk to that since those are his people.
QUESTION: Are there still 20 missing? Is that confirmed at all?
DOLAN: What we -- we are estimating anywhere from 20 to 30 people that could be unaccounted for. But that's an estimate based on a number of vehicles that we're estimating were on the bridge. So it's -- there's a lot of estimates.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)
I would expect so, yes.
Sheriff?
SHERIFF RICHARD STANEK, HENNEPIN CO. MINNESOTA: All right. Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek. As Chief Clack mentioned we're in a recovery mode at this point. Things this morning, as he laid out, will move deliberate and slowly as folks are out early this morning at sunrise taking a look at the structure itself.
The bridge that's still standing, parts of it. Debris in the water, making sure the scene is safe and secure for emergency workers to be able to work around it. And get on with the job they have to do this morning.
There are a number of vehicles both in the river and on the bridge itself, some submerged, some you can see sticking out of the water. I had the opportunity yesterday both to be down on the river itself, and then last night Chief Dolan (ph) and myself and others toured the area by air. The state patrol helicopter, quite the scene.
In terms of what will happen this morning, again at sunrise, Department of Transportation folks from local, state, federal have been out with Hennepin County sheriff's office deputies, taking a look at the structure. Making sure it is safe and secure. When we are sure that it is safe enough for the rescue workers to go back into the scene, and continue their recovery operations, we'll do so some time later this morning.
There's a number of -- the currents are fairly strong. They're unpredictable now because of the structure in the water itself. We shut down operations around midnight or so last night due to the darkness, the current, and the debris in the water itself. So we've been fortunate to be assisted by a number of agencies. As you look around, you see fire, police, multiple agencies. You have to understand that we operate under a unified command system. We all have our individual roles, but we operate under the unified command system so that we can communicate.
We had divers here from Innoka (ph) County, other sheriff offices from around the state, who will be assisting us. We're planning for a three-, four-, five-day operation at this point. Whatever it takes to secure the scene and recover the individuals, and find out exactly what happened.
Go ahead.
QUESTION: (OFF MIC)
STANEK: That's very difficult. Again, you're dealing with -- you're dealing with the river, although the water is somewhat low, we're able to control a little of the flow of the water because of the upper lock and dams. But you have debris in the water, it's creating currents going under the bridge. There are places that we cannot get to, couldn't get to last night. Honestly, it was unsafe. So we took people out, shut down operations around midnight.
Our first concern, this morning, in addition to the recovery operations, the safety and security of the emergency workers, who are risking their lives to be back out there. It's a very dangerous job. And that's what we need to do.
QUESTION: (OFF MIC)
STANEK: I'm sorry.
QUESTION: (OFF MIC)
STANEK: You know, we've talked about this last night, the chief and I, the fire chief. We have had offers of assistance from a number of federal, state, local agencies. I mentioned later this morning I think the Transportation secretary will be here along with several folks from the congressional delegation, taking a look at the area.
Resources at this point are not a problem. What we've asked is for the public, please stay away from the area. Let the rescue workers do their job. The police have a fairly secure perimeter. It is purposeful. We need that in order to continue on with the recovery operations.
Secondly, if the public wants to help, we've talked about this before, give blood. We're in dire need of blood. They can do it at a local hospital, the blood banks.
And third, family, friends, people who are wondering, contact us at the recovery center, which is the Holiday Inn Metrodome. There's a phone number that the media has been using. They've been very gracious about that. We appreciate it greatly. I was there around midnight. A number of folks, you can understand the grief that they're going through. That means so much to them.
So those are the three things that the public can do to help us, the chief and I this morning as we continue on. We're committed to keeping you updated with information as it on goes. But understand it is a slow, deliberate recovery operation this morning, the rest of the day, and this will actually continue on. It has received -- not just you folks here, but worldwide attention. We've received calls from Australia, Poland, everywhere, people's hearts and souls poured out to folks here this morning.
QUESTION: (OFF MIC) How many divers can go down at a time. What can they see or not see?
STANEK: You know the Hennepin County sheriff's office, we're fortunate to have some very high tech equipment. We use side scan sonar via GPS. We can go down, we can take a look, we can mark where vehicles are, objects in the water, via GPS.
Please note that we treat this as a crime scene. We don't know the reason for the bridge coming down last night. Right? We don't have any -- we're not locked into one theory, but this is a crime scene. We treat it as crime scene. All of you who have been out here before know how law enforcement and fire handles crime scenes. That's why we're slow and deliberate.
The sonar that we use is high tech. We have a number of divers who dive together, working around the clock now to begin the recovery operations. That's about all I can tell you on that piece of it.
We did move into place last night heavy equipment, on barges, so they're ready to go this morning. Again, private contractor, public, local units of government have been great about providing the equipment. The our issue now, our issue now is coordinating our resources, which is why we operate under this unified command system.
QUESTION: (OFF MIC) Is this something that there are tapes (OFF MIC) for these guys? (OFF MIC)
STANEK: I'll answer for my perspective from the sheriff's office. We train ad nauseam for unfortunate tragic events like this. And when law enforcement and rescue personnel get together, you work with fire, you work with local police, you work with state partners, the state patrol, the Department of Transportation, federal officials. That's why we train. So that mode kicks in.
That's why we're 13 hours into really the tragedy from yesterday. We've got a number of things going on. Even around 11:00, 12:00 last night we were pretty well set in terms of logistics with personnel, setting up schedules. We've done this before, unfortunately. In the future we'll end up doing it again. But that's why we train so hard.
QUESTION: (OFF MIC) You're not saying that sabotage is somehow (OFF MIC)
STANEK: We're not ruling anything in, we're also not ruling anything out again. Again, this is a crime scene as far as we're concerned until we know the exact cause of the bridge collapse last night. All indications are collapse, not an act of someone doing it, but we've got investigators working it along with Minneapolis police, federal law enforcement officials. We received briefings fairly regularly this morning and last night from our federal partners
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the Coast Guard.
STANEK: And the Coast Guard.
QUESTION: Expecting other downstream crossings, some concern that debris might compromise some of them. Any problems that have been identified, or not?
STANEK: I can't answer that. But when MIN DOT gets up here, they might be able to.
QUESTION: (OFF MIC)
STANEK: From a law enforcement aspect, the sheriff's office, I think Chief Dolan laid it out. We are not talking about death tolls. Certainly there were fatalities in last night's tragedy. We expect that there will be additional fatalities discovered today, based on what we know from our beginning of the recovery operations last night. But we're not in a position to say that. We know there are dozens of injuries as well. But it's too early to speculate and make a guess that's unfair to the families themselves.
QUESTION: (OFF MIC)
STANEK: Chief Clack, you want to -- ?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were a few train cars under the bridge when it collapsed. We have had a preliminary survey of those cars. One was carrying a chemical, polystyrene beads. That is not particularly hazardous. And so we haven't really been very aggressive with that.
There are pollution control folks down there assessing it. But it isn't an immediate hazard to anybody in the area. Other than that, we don't think there's any chemical or biological or radiological hazards at this incident, but we continue to monitor for those things just in case something was under that bridge that we don't know about yet.
QUESTION: Chief, what was the name of that chemical again? I'm sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been told its polystyrene beads. I'm not sure yet if that's exactly what we've got. Actually, the crews on scene aren't sure either. That's the preliminary report.
QUESTION: Any update regarding any injuries to rescue personnel?
(END LIVE FEED, IN PROGRESS)
CHETRY: So that was a look there at the update that we were getting from the rescue officials. Fire chief as well as the police chief and local sheriff in Minneapolis, in Hennepin County. Giving us an update now on the situation.
One of the things they did make clear, right at the beginning of that update that this is now a recovery operation, no longer a rescue. And because of that switch, they are taking this slow. It will be a slow and deliberate process of trying to get the cars as well as any possible people who died out of the water and off of that collapsed bridge.
The police chief estimating it would take at least three days for this recovery effort to continue. He also said that there are 20 to 30 people still unaccounted for. He did not go on to speculate, but when asked whether or not he felt the death toll was going to rise, he said he thinks like it looks like it.
That's all that all of us can surmise from this situation, especially in light of some of the information that we got from our Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. She told me, a few moments ago, that the local hospitals said that most of the people who came in for treatment were rescued within one hour of that bridge collapse. They saw very, very few other people coming in after that one-hour time had elapsed.
So that doesn't bode very well for the chance of finding survivor, but there are always miracles that could take place and could happen in this situation.
So, again, what they told us was the Department of Transportation, both on the local, the federal and the state level, as well as others, are taking a look at the structure right now. They've been out there since sun up. They're going to determine whether it's safe. And when it will be safe enough and secure enough for the rescue and recovery workers to go back, and do their jobs.
So we'll continue to update you when we come back, including some memorial services, some relief for the families, in the local area, and also what is going on in terms of donations, giving blood, and where families can call to get information. AMERICAN MORNING will continue in just a moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I fell probably 30, 40 feet, landed on the shore of the Mississippi. I'm so lucky to be alive. I thought I was dead. I literally thought I was dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just real reminiscent of New York after 9/11. There were emergency vehicles going every which direction downtown Minneapolis. Sirens everywhere, people running everywhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTS: Welcome back to our special coverage of the I-35 Bridge collapse from Minneapolis, Minnesota. I'm John Roberts, along with Kiran Chetry in New York.
We keep hearing all of those incredible stories from eyewitnesses or survivors that rode that bridge deck all the way into the Mississippi Valley, when it collapsed last night, shortly after 6 o'clock, right in the heart of rush hour. One of those survivors is Gary Babineau. He was on the northbound side of I-35 when went the bridge went down. Gary joins us now.
Where were you headed, what happened?
GARY BABINEAU, BRIDGE COLLAPSE SURVIVOR: I was just on my way home from work, just about to get over the river, when it started going down. I could see the whole bridge in front of me, as it was going down. Watching the cars go. And then falling myself.
ROBERTS: How fast were you going?
BABINEAU: We were only going about 10 miles an hour. We were bumper to bumper, there was road construction going on. It was just slow moving. You know, lots of cars going bumper to bumper.
ROBERTS: It was just a routine crossing of the I-35 bridge?
BABINEAU: Yep.
ROBERTS: When did you get the first indication that something was amiss?
BABINEAU: The bridge started rumbling, I thought it was just construction, just for a split second.
ROBERTS: What was the rumbling like?
BABINEAU: It was like -- if you were standing on a bridge and somebody had a jackhammer right next to you. Just rumbling, you know. I thought it was just the construction going on.
ROBERTS: Were there any construction workers using jackhammers?
BABINEAU: No, I don't think so. It's a long bridge. I couldn't see them all. It started rumbling was for a split second. It was just a free fall. The whole bridge gave out.
ROBERTS: Like the world gave way underneath you?
BABINEAU: Yeah, it felt like the concrete just disappeared and you were just falling. Just a free fall all the way down and when we hit ground, we hit hard.
ROBERTS: The height of that bridge at the highest point is 65 feet. How far do you think you fell?
BABINEAU: Probably fell 35 feet. ROBERTS: What was the impact like?
BABINEAU: The impact was strong. It was intense. My back is definitely hurting me today. You know? It's not feeling good, but the impact was pretty intense.
ROBERTS: Did the air bags go off in the car?
BABINEAU: Yeah, the air bags went off. I was lucky that I was wearing my seat belt because the nose of my truck was going straight to the ground. And I actually hit the nose of my truck to the ground and then my truck came on all four wheels. The back of my truck was actually hanging off of the road. And my truck was bent in two pieces because the back side of my truck was hanging over. The cab of my truck was still there. If I didn't have my seat belt on, I probably would have been through the windshield.
ROBERTS: Good for you for wearing it.
BABINEAU: Yeah.
ROBERTS: Did you even have a concept of what was happening? Because that would be such an alien event to anybody?
BABINEAU: Like I said, I could see all the cars in front of me. I could see the whole bridge. So, when I was falling, I knew we were going down. I couldn't believe it. It was in my mind that the bridge was going down, but I still couldn't believe I was on a bridge that was actually going down.
ROBERTS: When you hit, what went through your mind?
BABINEAU: When I hit, I thought my back was broken, I thought I'd would be in a lot worse shape than I am now.
ROBERTS: Did you check yourself and say.
BABINEAU: When I hit, I said, oh, my God, my back, it must be broken. I was about to get out of my car, when the other car slid back.
ROBERTS: So, the pain let you know that you were still alive.
BABINEAU: Yeah! I was thanking God right then, you know? I was about to get out of my car and then cars were skidding down the incline, above me on the piece that was still connected, and they were falling, you know, on -- they were coming down incline. And then --
ROBERTS: Were they falling toward you?
BABINEAU: Yeah. I was on the piece of concrete that was below that connected anymore.
ROBERTS: You've just fallen 35 feet, suddenly you're dodging cars. BABINEAU: Yeah, well, I was still in my truck. They kept falling and skidding down and I finally got out of my truck when I thought no more cars were coming. I looked up, as I got out of my truck, there was one car left on the incline and it was directly above my truck.
ROBERTS: Oh, my God. But it stayed up there?
BABINEAU: It stayed up there.
ROBERTS: So you high tailed it out of the truck?
BABINEAU: Yep. There was another lady that got out of her car. We found a good place to get off the bridge. Then we got off the bridge together. That's when I remember about the school bus. So I ran under the bridge, over to the school bus.
ROBERTS: What do you mean you remembered the school bus?
BABINEAU: Well, when I got out of my truck, I was so worried about getting hit by whatever -- and the bridge falling again. And I saw the school bus, I remember thinking oh, my God, there's a school bus. I got off the bridge right away, you know? Then once I was off the bridge, right -- the school bus, oh my God, there's a school bus full of kids.
ROBERTS: So you ran over to the school bus?
BABINEAU: Yeah. I ran over to the school bus. We were handing kids down an eight, nine foot drop; and grabbing kids. And the ones that could walk, we were telling them run, you know, run! In case the bridge went.
ROBERTS: What was their mental state?
BABINEAU: They were kicking, screaming, crying. A lot of them were in shock, not saying anything, completely silent. You could see the fear in their eyes. A lot of them were crying and there was just -- bleeding.
ROBERTS: It really is amazing the way that people who went through what you and the others went through, had the presence of mind to say, hey, there's other people here in trouble, we have to help them out.
BABINEAU: Yep.
ROBERTS: What drove to you do that?
BABINEAU: Once I figured out that I could move, I could move around, and I know that I'm able to help people, I'm going to do whatever I can. I just -- I wasn't -- you don't even think twice. I've never been in a situation like that before. It's definitely new to me, but it just clicked in. I think anybody would do it, you know?
ROBERTS: Sometimes when people goes through tragedies like, this it reset theirs priorities. Changes them a little bit. Did it do that to you?
BABINEAU: It did. I have my first child coming in two weeks, actually. That's the first thing I thought about when I was falling, was, oh, my God, I'm going to die right before my first kid is going to be born, you know? And luckily that's not the case. And it does change stuff. It does change stuff.
I see now that any -- wherever I am, anything can happen, you know? This is just a freak accident. You know, it doesn't happen every day, but stuff like this can happen. It is real in my mind now that stuff like this can happen.
ROBERTS: Good on you for having the presence of mind and the humanity to help people out like that. Maybe you should get to the doctor and get that back checked if it's hurting that much.
BABINEAU: Yeah.
Gary Babineau, thank you for being with us.
BABINEAU: Thank you.
ROBERTS: More of AMERICAN MORNING right after this. Stay with us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bridge on 35-W has collapsed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything was in slow motion.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This tragedy is just beyond belief, for us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kind of scary, because first we thought we crashed, but then we felt like -- we felt us going down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you look out the window? What were you seeing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I didn't look out the window. All I saw was like, I saw dust everywhere. And people were screaming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Yeah. Some scary, scary moments for people who survived that bridge collapse in Minneapolis.
Speaking of survivors, there are at least 60 people injured in that bridge collapse. Our Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen was just listening to the news conference from a medical center where many of the injured people are being treated.
Elizabeth, did you find out any more on the conditions and how many we're talking about this morning?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kiran. Hennepin County Medical Center ahs treated many of the injured, and they did indeed have an update.
They said, last night they had six critical. They update that one of those critical patients passed a way. They described him as a man who had chest injuries. So there are five more critical patients, all of them adults. They said there were another five adults in stable condition. So that brings, at that hospital, the number to 10 adults. And in addition, five children and teenagers also in stable condition.
So that is just one hospital. The critical have been brought to more than one hospital. For example, at North Memorial, there are four or five pediatric cases. The status is unknown.
Now, back to Hennepin County, they said that the injuries are what you would expect in this kind of a catastrophe. Blunt force trauma, orthopedic, spinal, chest and head injuries.
Now, nobody's really made it clear exactly how many hospitals the injured have gone to. We've heard it's at least three, Kiran.
CHETRY: Yeah, as well. Thanks a lot for that update, Elizabeth. Now let's head out to John who is on the scene right now.
ROBERTS: Thanks very much, Kiran.
The Governor Tim Pawlenty has been probably up all night, I would imagine dealing with this. He joins us now.
Governor, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule for this. We understand the death toll has been reduced from initial estimates by a factor of three. Any idea what that's related to?
GOV. TIM PAWLENTY, MINNESOTA: We can't explain why. It is good news, John. And of course, we want to make sure that Minnesotans and Americans are expressing their thoughts and prayers to these families who have lost loved ones or who have people in their family who are injured, and we're focused on that, as well as the rescue and recovery effort.
ROBERTS: We just heard from the fire chief, the police chief, and the sheriff that this will be a slow process now. Probably going to take three days or so, before all the remains of the people who are believed to have drowned in the Mississippi River, to be recovered.
But people are already looking at how did this happen. And according to a 2005 report from the U.S. Department of Transportation, in which there were some deficiencies that were found in this bridge.
PAWLENTY: Yes.
ROBERTS: What do you know about that?
PAWLENTY: What we know is this, the federal government takes our data at the state level and does an assessment. And they notice some deficiencies. They call them structurally deficient. But there are 80,000 bridges in country with that designation and there's about an equal number with an even worse designation.
It is not the same as close the bridge, or replace it, immediately. They called for inspections, which we did, in 2005, 2006. The inspectors on the ground said yes, there is some fatigue in the bridge but it didn't rise to the level of being immediately replaced. In fact, it was slotted for replacement in about 2020. There was some construction going on the bridge at the time of the collapse, but it had to do with the deck.
ROBERTS: Right.
PAWLENTY: Not the underneath part of the bridge.
ROBERTS: Any working theories as to how this vibration got set up that collapsed the bridge?
PAWLENTY: There's speculation and theories, but I think we'd be well served by waiting for the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board, to do their investigation.
ROBERTS: And for the folks here in Minneapolis, and Minnesota, who will be very concerned about not only the tragedy, but when will the town be back to normal and the bridge be replaced?
PAWLENTY: Yes.
ROBERTS: What are we talking about in terms of timeframe here?
PAWLENTY: Again, a lot of this depends on ordering the steel and the construction. But best case getting this bridge back up and running is probably a year, maybe a little less. But it could be a bit more, as well. Of course, this is a major artery coming into our major city.
ROBERTS: Governor, thanks very much, again, for taking time out of your busy day.
PAWLENTY: Thanks, John. You're welcome. Thank you.
ROBERTS: Good to meet you, sorry it's under such tragic circumstances.
CNN's coverage of the bridge collapse will on I-35 will continue right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: That's going to do it for us here at AMERICAN MORNING. Thanks so much for joining us. John, will be continuing his coverage from Minneapolis. And right now, CNN NEWSROOM starts with Tony Harris and Heidi Collins.
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