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Bridge Collapse; California Raid; Gerri's Top Tips

Aired August 03, 2007 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Dangerous river currents slowing the search now for victims. The death toll in Minneapolis rising by one. Here is the very latest now on the bridge collapse.
The medical examiner's office confirms this morning that another body has been recovered. That brings the confirmed death toll to five. As you look at these live pictures now, divers are going back into the water this morning to search for more victims.

River conditions, though, are described as more dangerous than yesterday because of that current. The sheriff's office says eight people are still unaccounted for. That's down from an earlier estimate that as many as 30 people were missing.

And First Lady Laura Bush visits the disaster site today to meet with victims and families. She's expected to arrive next hour. President Bush will be going there tomorrow.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Crews searching for victims. Investigators searching for answers in the bridge collapse. Live now to Minneapolis and CNN's John Roberts.

And, John, more boats in the water today, more divers. But really aren't we talking about trickier conditions?

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are. Those trickier conditions were actually somewhat manmade. Yesterday the sheriff asked the Army Corps of Engineers to lower the level of the Mississippi River, which they can because there's a serious of dams and locks here in Minneapolis. And in doing so, they increased the current of the river, created some unpredictable eddies.

So they've actually made a few more problems for themselves. They're just trying to figure out how they can work around the situation. It's obviously advantageous to have the water level lower. More of the debris is out of the water. But in doing so, they did increase the risk to their divers. So they've actually had to slow down that recovery operation.

The big news, though, Tony, here in Minneapolis this morning, is this idea that the Minnesota Department of Transportation knew about some structural problems with this bridge a couple of years ago, stress cracks in the metal, stress cracks that were so concerned that they actually thought about a retrofit, bolting steel plates on to those weakened area. There was some discussion, though, about whether or not drilling thousands of holes into that bridge might have actually weakened the structure as they drilled those holes to put the plates on. So they went instead with a program of sort of watchful waiting. Stepped-up inspections.

They were doing them every year to insure that the bridge was still in good shape. Obviously the inspections did not tell the whole story. And when I talked to Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty this morning, he seemed to indicate to me that he is looking for some answers from his officials.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM PAWLENTY, MINNESOTA: This bridge has been under inspections since 1990. It's had all kinds of inspections. Clearly, just to net it all out, there were warning signs that there were problems with this bridge, concerns with this bridge, but no one came forward and said, a collapse is imminent or it should be closed. They kept talking about future fixes.

And so now going back with hindsight you're going to be able to say, well should they have taken a different course or is what they did reasonable. These were decisions made by experts and the like. And, you know, we trust and rely on them. But now we're going to have to go back and critically review those decisions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Now because, obviously, those experts were completely wrong as a result of this I-35 bridge collapse, the governor has ordered inspections of all of the bridges in Minnesota. Eight percent of those were found in a recent federal Department of Transportation study to be somewhat structurally or somehow structurally deficient. That is actually lower than the national average, which is 13 percent.

The people at the center of this investigation into how the bridge actually came down, the National Transportation Safety Board, they have some pretty good evidence, photographic and video evidence, as to what happened. There's a belief among some people that it was the center section of that span that was the first to go. And because there was no redundancy build into that bridge, the rest of it collapsed into the valley as well. While Mark Rosenker, the chairman of the NTSB, wouldn't confirm that, he did say that part of the investigation will be to, as they did with TWA 800, the aircraft that went down off of Long Island, reconstruct portions of this bridge. Listen to what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK ROSENKER, NTSB CHAIRMAN: We will actually be doing some reconstruction. Some of the aspects, some of the parts that we're looking for, we'll, in fact, actually take and take them just a little bit down river and begin to lay them out and try to match up where, in fact, we may see some fracture and try to understand why that fracture occurred.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Now that's not to say that they're totally going to reconstruct this bridge further downstream, but they will lay it out on the ground. If they can see how these pieces connected together, they may be able to tell exactly which piece it was that was the first to let go. But again, Tony, suspicions running to that long center span of almost 400 feet that goes over the Mississippi River as the catalyst for this complete catastrophic destruction of this bridge.

HARRIS: CNN's John Roberts for us in Minneapolis this morning.

John, appreciate it. Thank you.

COLLINS: For relatives of the missing, another agonizing day of waiting. CNN's Don Lemon is now joining us from Minneapolis as well.

Don, any idea how some of these family members are doing this morning?

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, we have been speaking to the family members. Again, the one we spoke to last night. Obviously, these folks are in grief. And a lot of them today are saying they're just drained. They really don't have any more effort, any energy to give to the media or to speak to anyone.

But I want to talk to you guys about what John Roberts was talking about, about the rescue efforts and also about finding that fifth body. And we're going to go to a person who knows specifically about those efforts. It's Jeff Westall. He's from the city of Minneapolis Fire Department.

We're talking about finding the fifth body in all of this. That person found among the debris. And you said there was some difficulty with that because of the way the truck was structured or had landed during the collapse and that that truck was on fire. Tell us about the efforts and why it took so long to get to that person.

CHIEF JEFF WESTALL, MINNEAPOLIS FIRE DEPARTMENT: The time it takes to get to him is after we go into a -- out of the rescue mode and we slow everything down. We want to make sure that the bridge is structurally sound. No more collapses are going to happen. So the engineers come in, take a look at the bridge, kind of get it mapped out for us, tell us where we can and cannot go search.

LEMON: So you wanted to make sure that that truck was -- the way it landed, you said there was an issue?

WESTALL: Well it was kind of, you know, the way that it landed and the fact that it had been on fire. We wanted to make sure it wasn't going to go anywhere else so we could get in there and get the fifth victim out.

LEMON: OK. So they deemed it safe. You went in and got it.

Now talk to us now -- we've been talking about these -- the dams that they have that they control the water level with this. They had originally raised the water level during the rescue effort so that they could get boats in to try to get people out. Now they've lowers it, you're telling me, and that is helping the divers? WESTALL: Right. Initially when we were still in the rescue mode, they were trying to bring that pool up so they could get barges up to us if we need help lifting some heavier objects. When we went into the recovery mode, they kind of backed the cranes off, they were having trouble getting up here, and now with getting the divers in the water they're trying to lower that water level back down and make it safer for them.

LEMON: Because the water level, at one point, was so low helping the divers, but then some of the boats you said were getting stuck?

WESTALL: Well that was when we were still in the rescue mode, there were some boats trying to get upriver to help. And they got stuck on the rocks. When I got taken off the bridge the night it collapsed, the water on the downstream side of the bridge was only eight feet deep. So they were getting caught on rock piles and stuff further down stream.

LEMON: Explain to us this morning -- the sheriff talked about the problem up -- they were going to focus on upstream, but there were some issues in being able to get to the cars and to the debris that's up stream in the river?

WESTALL: I don't know -- I haven't heard that statement. I don't -- they say that there's some debris that's further upstream, and that's all I know about that. I haven't been briefed or anything on those upstream cars yet.

LEMON: Just real quickly on a personal level, you've been out talking to the media and, of course, they dispatch you to do that because there's so much interest in this story, as well as Shanna, who's been out, you know -- she's the lady we saw just walking through, looking for cars, tethered. You guys have been dispatched to talk to the media, but you are hoping to get called back out because that's what you want to do.

WESTALL: Yes. Yesterday I took my daughter to a doctor's appointment and one of the employees at the doctor's office's car is sitting out there. And she needs her life back. And she needs her purse. She needs the stuff that's in her car. And I want to go back out there and try and help her get her life back.

LEMON: And that's what you guys do.

WESTALL: That's what we do.

LEMON: All right. Jeff Westall, thank you very much for joining us.

WESTALL: Thank you very much.

LEMON: And that's the latest from here. You can understand very much how these folks feel. That's what they're trained to do, to go out and help people. And they have been dispatched to help us to try to get information to the world and that's what they're doing now, but they'd much rather be out there helping the folks. And again, you heard John talking about what they're doing this morning, the team of divers that have been dispatched to go out. They're using that side sonar. So today, hopefully, they'll find more debris and we hope that they don't find more victims. And we know that eight people are unaccounted for. Hopefully maybe they are in a hospital and they just have not been identified. That's the very latest from here.

Heidi and Tony, I'm going to throw it back to you.

COLLINS: Hey, Don, we're a little bit confused. Maybe you can help us sort this out now. Specifically about the water level. We know the Army Corps of Engineers came in yesterday, as you mentioned, to lower that water level, maybe give the divers a better chance at finding people, finding cars to get into. But then we had been reporting this morning that it's actually making it a little bit more difficult for the divers because it has increased the current so much.

LEMON: Because of the eddies. Yes.

COLLINS: So which is it?

LEMON: Well, they say it's helping the divers in some way because they can get to it, they can see better because the water level is lower, when they lower that, right? But then it's also -- it can create a current. A current that's not expected, the natural current of the river, so that may be the problem here. So it may be, you know, sort of a catch 22 situation where it's creating better visibility for them, but as far as the water current, it may be creating some unexpected water currents that they're not used to dealing with.

WESTALL: Right. The water on the upstream side of the bridge is trying to find its way through all the wreckage. So there's small holes in it. There's all kinds of debris in it. There's cars in it. So as the water tries to get its way around and downstream, it's creating those eddies that are making it tough for them to search it.

LEMON: There you go, Heidi.

COLLINS: OK. Very good. Thanks so much. We appreciate that. Live reporting now for us from Don Lemon from Minneapolis.

Thank you, Don.

HARRIS: Old bridges, new worries. A couple of structures closed just in case in Washington state. A 94-year-old bridge over the Elway (ph) River. It was going to be demolished anyway to make way for a new span. The Minnesota bridge collapse prompting officials to shut it down a month early. And in St. Louis, a closure moved up by a year. A bridge carrying about 10,000 vehicles a day. County officials say it was too risky to keep the 82-year-old structure open any longer.

COLLINS: Critical video. It could help investigators learn how the bridge in Minneapolis failed. CNN's Brian Todd has that. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Investigators say they'll enhance this video, which shows the bridge's collapse into the Mississippi River.

MARK ROSENKER, NTSB CHAIRMAN: What we're particularly pleased about is, one, getting that video. That's the equivalent in getting a cockpit voice recorder or a flight data recorder.

TODD: They'll also look at the design, history and maintenance of this doomed bridge. It's tough detective work and investigators say they have to begin by recovering key pieces of the bridge.

The Army Corps of Engineers has decided to lower the water level in the Mississippi River at about the point where the bridge collapsed. That might also be a crucial move to help investigators determine what structural problems led to this disaster.

A crucial part of the probe -- two reports on this bridge over the past six years which cited structural distinguishes and evidence of fatigue in some areas. State officials defend their actions regarding those reports.

GOV. TIM PAWLENTY, MINNESOTA: While there were concerns and stress and fatigue in aspects of this bridge, MINN DOT has informed me that it did not result in a calling for an immediate replacement or closure.

TODD: Still, other officials offered some clues into this bridge's past.

DAN DORGAN, MINN DOT BRIDGE ENGINEER: In 1990, it was classified as a structurally deficient bridge due to corrosion of the bearings, so that they were not able to move as freely as designed. Since that time, as the years have passed, we've also had some corrosion of the steel around the joints of the bridge.

TODD: But official stress in recent inspections they found no signs of cracks. So what do civil engineers think happened?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only way that I can see is that there was some kind of a major damage across all of the trusses of the bridge at that point.

TODD: But this case still very much a mystery. Another unanswered question, did the construction taking place on the bridge have anything to do with the collapse? The head of the construction company told me they were doing only surface work and they had nothing to do with this disaster.

Brian Todd, CNN, Minneapolis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Water treatment, power plants, how safe are we? (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASEY DINGES, AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS: Many times infrastructure systems are underground, out of sight, out of mind, and there's decaying and degradation going on that we don't even see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: What we are talking about is America's aging infrastructure.

COLLINS: Images of a tragedy. The Minneapolis bridge collapse. Our i-Reporters on the scene. Viewers share their stories.

ROB MARCIANO: And we're watching the tropics in the CNN Weather Center. This area of disturbed weather heading into the Caribbean, but not amounting to a whole lot. And today the team with Will Gray out of Colorado State University has reissued or updated the hurricane forecast for 2007. We'll have it coming up on the CNN NEWSROOM.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And a developing story in the Bay area. We're watching it here at the breaking news desk. A famous bakery gets a visit from police this morning. Heavy police presence there as you see in these pictures. But it's not the only place that got a visit from the police. About a dozen people in custody as well. We'll tell you what we know after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Welcome back, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Following the money. From Washington to America's crumbling bridges. Where are the billions set aside for road repair?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: This news just in to CNN and we've been able to confirm. The Associated Press reporting on this. An appeals court has ruled that the FBI violated the Constitution during a raid last year on the congressional office of U.S. Representative William Jefferson.

Again, the FBI violated the Constitution, according to this federal appeals court, when agents raided Congressman Jefferson's office last year and viewed the legislative documents. The court has since ordered the Justice Diplomat to return any privileged documents it seized from the Democrat's office on Capitol Hill. The court did not order the return of all the documents seized in the raid.

Now, as you'll recall, what we all seem to remember about this case is that Jefferson is facing charges, 16 federal charges, accusing him of using his political office to bribe businessmen and influence foreign officials. The other piece of this that we all remember is that Jefferson is accused of receiving more than $500,000 in bribes. And that in a raid of Jefferson's home in Washington, investigators found $90,000 in cash stuffed in a freezer. But now the federal appeals court ruling that the FBI violated the Constitutional in raiding Congressman Jefferson's congressional office. More on this story to come. We're following it for you right here in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: We want to take you to something that's going on in Oakland, California, now. Our T.J. Holmes is working on this story.

Apparently, T.J., we're talking about some police raids that are going on?

HOLMES: Several police raids. Nineteen people have been arrested. We don't exactly know why yet. These are the pictures we were looking at earlier.

This was outside of the Your Black Muslim Bakery, is the name of it. People in that area will know it well. Been staples of the community there. Several locations around the Bay area.

But Your Black Muslim Bakery was one of the locations that was raided. And, again, we're not exactly sure why yet. The bakery has had some issues in the past and come under some negative light over the past year or so.

Some members of that community, in connection with that bakery, are actually seen on videos cameras going around the community and busting up liquor bottles of areas of different shop owners, saying that they shouldn't be selling the liquor to that community. We don't know if that has anything to do with it, but police are saying this has been a year long investigation. Nineteen people are not in custody, have been detained, but we don't exactly know why yet.

And again, the bakery was not the only location, apparently, that was raided. There have been at least three other locations in and around the Oakland area that were raided by police earlier this morning as well.

We do expect a press conference from police a short time from now to get some details about this year-long investigation, exactly who they were after and why they were after them. But, yes, Your Black Muslim Bakery, it's kind of a community building, a thing there in the Bay area that people there are certainly familiar with. They sell natural ingredients good and they do a lot of community outreach, a lot of community building.

But don't know why these arrests took place. Again, some 19 people in custody. So you can see there, a heavy police presence out there this morning. So we are expecting a press conference. When we get more information and more details about exactly what was going on, we will pass those along to you.

Heidi.

COLLINS: All right. Very good. T.J., thanks.

HARRIS: You know, the tropics have been so quiet, we've had to remind ourselves, and every one else, that we are in the middle of hurricane season right now.

COLLINS: Yes, isn't that nice?

HARRIS: And Rob Marciano is keeping an eye on the tropics. Relatively quiet at this point, but we do start to get concerned into, what, August and September?

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: And still to come, deadly flight, raging fire. Chopper down in Washington's Cascade Mountains.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Gerri Willis.

When it comes to your money, the devil is in the details, whether you're talking about investments or tax deductions. We'll have the answers next on "Top Tips" in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Taking a look at the big board now. Dow Jones Industrial average is down about 64 points. We are sitting at 13,398 for the moment. The Nasdaq looks like it's down to 14 or so. We're going to be covering the business stories for you. And one that I'm looking forward to hearing a little bit more about, the economic impact of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis. Really could be devastating in many ways. Susan Lisovicz is going to be joining us for a little bit more on that, coming up later in the CNN NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: Job fares, investing, and appraising. We are taking your e-mail questions today. Our personal finance editor Gerri Willis with me -- there she is -- from New York.

WILLIS: Hey. Happy Friday.

HARRIS: Hey, Gerri. And good Friday to you.

You want to dive right into the e-mail bag here?

WILLIS: Let's do it. Yes. Let's go.

HARRIS: We want to start with Patrick. Patrick says, "I will travel to a professional job fair in DC next month and will be interviewed by several potential employers. Can I deduct the travel and conference expenses?" What do you think, Gerri?

WILLIS: Well, good question, Patrick. Yes, you can deduct them. But there are conditions. The jobs you're interview for must be in the same field as your previous job. For example, you can't be a lawyer trying to become a chef. You have to use the same skill set. And your expenses while job hunting must exceed 2 percent of your adjusted gross income to qualify for the deduction. Don't forget to keep your own records, like a list of the attendees, or your registration. And guess what, Tony, there are some exceptions. If you just graduated from college, you can't deduct job-hunting expenses. HARRIS: Whoa.

WILLIS: Yes.

HARRIS: All right. Did not know that.

Michael in Illinois wants to know, Gerri, "is investing in U.S. bonds still a good investment vehicle?

WILLIS: Interesting question. You know, U.S. savings bonds might be attractive right now because the market's been such a nightmare, right. If you're afraid of taking risks, maybe you're thinking about them. And bonds like that are backed by the full faith and credit of the federal government, so it's one of the safest vehicles out there.

But the interest rate you'll get on a U.S. savings bond is low right now, 3.4 percent, and that is 25 percent below what you would get on a regular money market account. So just think, with a tiny bit more risk, you can get rates of 5 percent or higher on a money market, a CD, an online savings account. So if you really are interested in bonds, if you want to find out more, go to the web, check out treasurydirect.gov. But there may be places you can get a better return.

HARRIS: Sounds like it. And Charles writes, "I received some souvenirs from President Nixon during his stay in office. I'm not sure where to go to get an appraisal. I am seeking some direction, Gerri, on getting a value for these items."

WILLIS: Very interesting. Wow. OK. Well, first off, we'll do this in steps. Go online and check out some of those online auctions like eBay. You'll get a sense of what the value might be. And then scan local newspapers to see if there are any free appraisal days in your area. Here's some places you might want to check out if you want the professional appraisal. So get out that pen. The National Association of Professional Appraisals. That's professionalappraisers.org, or the Appraisers Association of America, at appraisersassoc.org. In the meantime, remember to keep your collectibles in good condition, because then they're worth a whole lot more.

And, Tony, a note to your viewers, you know, everybody makes money mistakes sometime, right?

HARRIS: Sure.

WILLIS: So we want to hear about people's financial bloopers, so we're going to help all other viewers avoid those same errors. We're really interested in what you want to say. Send us an e-mail to toptips@cnn.com, and you have if a money blooper, Tony, I hope you participate.

HARRIS: How much time do you have, Gerri?

You know, I do want to get you to your weekend. All right, well, we will do that, and the big "OPEN HOUSE" show coming up this weekend as well. Don't want folks to forget about that.

WILLIS: 9:30 a.m. CNN, we're going to be talking about this mortgage meltdown. We have lots of great ideas, including what rewards card is best for you.

HARRIS: Sounds great. Gerri, good to see you.

WILLIS: Thank you.

HARRIS: 10:31 Eastern Time. Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.

COLLINS: Hi there, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins.

The death toll goes up, the number of missing goes down. Here's what's going on right now. in the Minnesota bridge collapse. The medical examiner tells us a fifth person has been confirmed dead. The victim's body recovered yesterday. The sheriff's office says eight people are still unaccounted for.

Earlier estimates, though, were as many as 30 people missing. Divers are back in the Mississippi River this morning searching the debris for victims. The sheriff says conditions are very treacherous. Investigators already examining surveillance video of the bridge collapse frame by frame, trying to get any clues they can. This is the video we're talking about. The head of the NTSB calls it a key piece of evidence.

First Lady Laura Bush offering her support in a visit to the disaster scene. She will be there in about an hour or so. The president will arrive on Saturday.

HARRIS: Well, you are sharing your stories and images of the Minnesota bridge collapse. Thank you so much for that. Some amazing i-Reports to show you, again, this morning. These photos of the tragic aftermath sent to us by i-Reporter Jennifer Beilfuss (ph). She lives in an apartment building right next to the highway on-ramp.

She says -- man, I'm trying to give you the story and look at some of these pictures at the same time. She says when she heard the collapse she thought it was a plane crash. When she got to the scene, she saw a portion of the highway standing vertically. Can you imagine that. If you have photos, video or eyewitness stories about the bridge collapse, please send them to CNN.com. Just click on i-Report, and you will be prompted through the process.

ROBERTS: I'm John Roberts in Minneapolis. She became the image of the dedication of first responders in the wake of the I-35 bridge collapse. You'll meet her, coming up.

LEMON: I'm Don Lemon in Minneapolis. The people who were stuck on that bridge when it fell to the ground and into the water. Many in critical condition, others still in the hospital. How are they doing? I'll have an update, coming up in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COLLINS: Crews searching for victims, investigators searching for answers in the Minnesota bridge collapse. Back live to Minneapolis now and CNN's John Roberts.

John, good morning to you once again.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Heidi. Of course the images of the destruction of that bridge are compelling and difficult to believe in some cases.

But one of the images I was most drawn to in the wake of the bridge collapse was that of a young firefighter neck-deep in water with nothing more than a tether attached to her, diving through those vehicles to try to find people who might be inside, might be trapped, might be in danger of drowning or may have already died. Her name is Shana Hansen. Yesterday I had an opportunity to meet her.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS (on camera): How were you struck by what you saw when you arrived there?

SHANNA HANSON, CAPTAIN, MINNEAPOLIS FIRE DEPARTMENT: It was very -- wow. That's a tough question. You don't expect to see it in your city. That's something that happens somewhere else.

ROBERTS: It's one of those things you almost can't get your brain around, to see this entire span of bridge collapse into the valley like that.

HANSON: And that's where the structural collapse train is we're doing in you don't want to just focus on the task at hand, on the one person or how many tasks you have. We have to look at how many people we have down there, how many initial rescuers are gone in there you now if the bridge comes down more, are those people going to be additional casualties?

ROBERTS: You went in with your uniform?

HANSON: Yes.

ROBERTS: Didn't even have a mask on. You tied a rope to yourself?

HANSON: That's what firefighters are trained to do. It's kind of -- that world is our office and being in that world -- it's what you're trained to do so you don't really think about it at the time.

ROBERTS: What was it like doing what you were doing? I mean, you were looking for people who were either trapped in the vehicles and struggling for life or people who had already drown.

HANSON: You're really trying to be thorough. Mine wasn't the first search of those vehicles, so you're trying to be thorough and check into all the spaces so there's no possibility that somebody is in a space that didn't get checked. When people are going through it the first time, they're trying to get through it fast, try and find as many vehicles as they can as fast as they can. In the secondary search, you're trying to find if there's anything you missed. We had some people ejected from the vehicle so we were checking around, underneath the vehicle.

Because the ground was so uneven, because of the slabs and debris under there, the water depth kept changing so that would change things up a little bit.

ROBERTS: What was the environment like when you were down there? How far could you see without a mask?

HANSON: The visibility was bad. It's Mississippi and it's August and visibility was under a foot, for sure. The water was fairly warm. The environment, that was where it gets dicey because you have the jagged metal and broken glass and you can't see what's around you. You don't know what else you'll bump into while you're out there.

ROBERTS: In your searches of the vehicles, did you find any victims?

HANSON: I did not.

ROBERTS: What's your sense of everything that's happened? What's it doing to the city and what are you seeing out there?

HANSON: Part of the tragedy for the people that were on the bridge and didn't make it through that because that is still, I think, everyone's main focus here.

But this is a huge impact. It was not only the road, it was the railroad. The river is commerce for the city.

The only thing that I can say out of all of the bad things that happened is the amazing way that everyone worked together. Our police force here is phenomenal. They always work so well with us. There were no problems on the scene, no jurisdictional anything. Everyone came together and worked well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: While she's actually never been trained in underwater rescue, she does have a lot of experience in the water. She'd been actually off for the day water-skiing. She's also a recreational diver. In some of the photos I saw, she was holding her breath and diving through. I said you're pretty good at holding your breath. And she said, actually some of my colleagues said I have some work to do on that level, but she showed an extraordinary amount of tenacity and dedication, and at the same time humility. Because when I was talking to her off camera, she kept giving most of the credit to her colleagues, who reached the scene before she did, though she was on the scene within minutes of it happening.

COLLINS: You know I think that's what makes them so remarkable, too, John, is that when you see her working out there, the calmness, and then when you were talking to her, just a very low-key, calm person. And we had seen a press conference earlier where she said to the cameras there, I hope you understand how hard this is; you know, we don't seek the spotlight as rescuers.

ROBERTS: Exactly. It's her preference to stay out of the limelight, but she has sort of become the face of the dedication of the first-responders here, all of whom did an extraordinary job here Wednesday night.

COLLINS: No question about it. All right, John Roberts, thanks so much. We'll check back with you later, from Minneapolis this morning.

HARRIS: More on the recovery effort in Minnesota. CNN's Don Lemon joins us live from Minneapolis. And, Don, I'm just curious to, from your vantage point, your location, have you been able to get an sense of how that community is coming together to rally around the people who clearly are devastated and the families still waiting for some kind of information.

LEMON: Absolutely, because right where we're staying here at this hotel, we have the Red Cross, and this Red Cross shelter that they have here has really been setup for family members to come and to get information and to be with each other for support and what have you. So we've been getting a sense of that, just because we happen to be in the same place where the families are coming.

And also we've been talking to the people who have to talk to all of the family members, and the victims as well. John Hick, who's from the Hennepin County Medical Central, joins us now, where most of the people who were injured were taken to.

We've been talking about the fifth victim who was found. We've been talking about the number of injuries, where we said that at least 79 people have been injured.

But John's telling me that number goes up, especially one or two days after the incident, when people come in, because the adrenaline has worn off.

DR. JOHN HICK, HENNEPIN CO. MEDICAL CENTER: Exactly. You know, the forces that affected these people on the bridge, you know, forwards, backwards, up and down, you're going to have a lot of muscular injuries, in addition to bone injuries to the spine, the neck. And so a lot of folks think, I'm OK, I'm doing all right, they're adrenaline's surging, then they go to bed, they get up the next morning and they're just as stiff as a board. They're got very server muscular injuries, and so we did see, you know, at least 20 more people in area hospitals yesterday that were directly related to the incidents.

So you know, over, all told, at least 100 people coming into area hospitals in the last two days because of the incident. But fortunately, none of those injures were significant enough to require hospitalization. Some of the initial victims are improving. We did discharge one person from Hennepin Count yesterday. We expect to discharge at least one more today.

LEMON: Yes, yes, we certainly hope so. As we've been saying, you know, 79 people injured, and you know, it's tough to say this, but it's the truth, considering 100,000 cars that go across this bridge every day, and we've had four deaths so far, and eight people are still unaccounted for, really that the tragedy wasn't much greater, that more people didn't lose their lives or got injured.

But hearings 79 people injured, but then that number is going up, according to you, but not necessarily with life-threatening injuries.

Talk to us about -- we heard one story yesterday, just heart- wrenching, about a person who actually got to say goodbye to their family. They had been injured and then sadly died. Explain to me as much as you can what that was like and about that situation.

HICK: You know, there's nothing harder in emergency medicine than actually talking to somebody and either having them die or finding out later they died. It's just the most powerless feeling in the world. I'm glad that in that situation there was able to be a little bit of closure provided by the person being able to speak and being able to communicate with the paramedics, and thoughts that he wanted to pass along, but there's no greater difficulty in medicine. And unfortunately with these kinds of injuries, by the time your heart stops from all these organs being injured in car accidents like this, in building collapses, there's just not much that we can do to bring them back.

LEMON: We've been speaking about the possible John and Jane does, and what you, and we're I'm going to continue to talk about that. We're going to move on. But the people came into the hospital, hoping that their family member might have been in the hospital and you have to tell them no, they're not here, and you have to send them away. It's just terrible, I'm sure.

HICK: It is very hard. And we try to make sure we have chaplaincy and other support and plan for a lot of family members coming, looking for information and work with the Red Cross and other agencies on setting up that family-support center, that hotline, as soon as we can, collecting all the information from hospitals to find out what patients you have, what condition are they in, where are they, so we can match those families up as quickly as possible.

All right, John Hick, thank you so much for joining us. So that's the very latest here. You heard news from the Hennepin County Medical Center that the number of injuries going up, because people, Tony, coming in one or two days later, maybe three days later, after the adrenaline has worn off, and say, you know what, I'm feeling so well; I need to get myself to the hospital.

HARRIS: Makes sense. Don, appreciate it. Don Lemon for us in Minneapolis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS HEADLINES) COLLINS: Trouble on America's bridges and roads. What are the problems? What are the solutions on America's bridges and roads? We're going to be talking with California's former governor in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Experts say it's not just America's bridges that are aging and in need of repair -- water treatment plants, dams, power plants, the list goes on.

CNN's Casey Wian reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. JAMES OBERSTAR (D), MINNESOTA: This is yet another wake up call for the nation's infrastructure. We have to make a more robust investment than we're doing now.

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's an alarming fact. Despite the understandable concern about the nation's bridges, they're actually in better shape than virtually every other component of American infrastructure.

CASEY DINGES, AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS: The infrastructure is, if you will, the backbone of the economy of the United States. And many times infrastructure systems are underground, out of sight, out of mind. And there's decaying and degradation going on that we don't even see.

WIAN: The American Society of Civil Engineers gives all of the nation's water-related infrastructure a near failing grade of D minus. Drinking water systems are so obsolete, many are threatening public health. More than 850 billion gallons of raw sewage spills into the environment every year because of broken pipes and decrepit wastewater systems.

The City of Indianapolis alone wastes a billion gallons of water every year.

And a record drought in California has underscored a critical shortage of water delivery and storage facilities.

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: As you can see now, we had one dry winter and we are already in trouble. I mean everyone is scrambling and we have to have rationing in some places. And we have, you know, even though conservation is very important, but it only takes us so far.

WIAN: Residents of California and the Northeast know firsthand the inadequate state of the nation's power grid. Both have suffered crippling blackouts in recent years.

Dams pose an even more direct risk to human life. More than 3,500 U.S. dams are considered unsafe. One example, the Cherry Creek Dam and Reservoir near Denver. It has serious safety problems and threatens newly built homes, schools and office parks.

Faring only slightly better are the nation's airports. Runway congestion decreased following the September 11 terrorist attacks, but air travel has rebounded and there have been 272 near misses on runways so far this year, a 15 percent increase over last year.

WIAN: The American Society of Civil Engineers is outraged none of the presidential candidates has made infrastructure an issue. The groups says it's time for current political leaders and those who hope to lead in the future make this a national priority.

Casey Wian, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: He stopped just a few feet short of the edge of the collapsed bridge, and that's just the beginning of his story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you would have gotten off your van down the ramp, you would have ended up in the river.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, with my wheelchair

TUCHMAN: With your wheelchair. You would have rolled into the river?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: CNN's Gary Tuchman with one amazing bridge-collapse survivor.

ROBERTS: I'm John Roberts in Minneapolis. The recovery operation, a long, hard slog in the big muddy. We'll talk with the man leading up that operation, coming up in the NEWSROOM.

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