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Sheriff, Medical Examiner News Conference on Bridge Collapse
Aired August 03, 2007 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips, at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Don Lemon, live at the scene in Minnesota.
Another horrific day for investigators and divers who are in the murky water of the Mississippi, trying to recover victims and debris.
More on that from the scene a little bit later on -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: And it's obviously been slow progress in the waters there beneath the remains of the I-35 West Bridge in Minneapolis. We are waiting right now for a news conference with the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department. As soon as they step up to the microphone we'll take that. They're going to update us on those diving operations on the Mississippi River.
In the meantime, Don, what other stories are you working on for us this hour?
LEMON: Oh, sorry about that, Kyra. We're having a little bit of trouble hearing.
What we're talking about now, we've been talking to investigators, and also specifically talking to divers, because those are the people whose lives are really on the line right now, because they're working down in that water, and they're facing debris and metal and all kinds of things. So we're going to talk to one master diver a little bit later on right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
PHILLIPS: All right, Don. Thanks so much.
We want to bring you up to date also with everything that we know at this hour.
First Lady Laura Bush is in Minneapolis today. She met with some of the first responders just a short time ago and thanked them for their hard work. President Bush plans to visit the scene of the collapse tomorrow.
And the death toll has risen, but the number of people still unaccounted for has dropped. Five people are now confirmed dead. The sheriff's department says that eight people are missing.
Investigators, meantime, are analyzing evidence, including that dramatic surveillance video that captured that collapse as it happened.
So let's talk more about what can be done about the nation's aging infrastructure and where that money is going to come from.
We're joined once again by two members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. John Mica is the committee's ranking Republican. He's in our Washington bureau. Peter DeFazio, Democrat from Oregon, joins us from Capitol Hill.
Gentlemen, it was just getting heated. We were talking about the money from the gas tax. That is what goes toward helping with infrastructure.
Congressman DeFazio, you brought up the point that it has not been raised.
Congressman Mica, you were just about to respond. Why is that?
REP. JOHN MICA (R), FLORIDA: Well, first of all, raising it's not going to solve the problem, especially as we adopt CAFÉ standards, which is how far a car can go on a gallon of gasoline. Right now the tax is 18.4 cents per gallon, and we're going further and tearing up the roads even more, so that's not going to work. We're also shifting to more synthetic fuels on which we get a lower tax into the fund.
So we need a complete revision for the way we fund the system. But first of all, we need a plan.
We don't have a national strategic infrastructure transportation plan. Not since Eisenhower have we had even a semblance of a plan. And that's I think the first thing. And then we find out how we finance that plan and who does what.
PHILLIPS: So how do you do that? How do you get that plan together?
Congressman DeFazio, where do you begin? Because nobody wants to see another Minneapolis. And there are 77,000 bridges across this nation that have the same ranking as that Minneapolis bridge. This could happen again, both of you admit to that.
Where do you begin? Is it pressure on the secretary of Transportation, Mary Peters? Or is it all of you within the committee to do something?
REP. PETER DEFAZIO (D), OREGON: Again, we proposed a nickel increase in the last Congress. Everybody on the committee voted for it on a voice vote, Republicans and Democrats. It was stonewalled by the administration. That would be bringing in another $9 billion a year to invest in fixing these problems.
Short term, there's very little alternative to the gas tax. There's something else that relates to fuel, is you could index it to fleet fuel economy so that it wouldn't fall off over time.
Yes, we do need to look at other ways. We could bond, which many states have done, including mine, to deal with big problems. The Bush administration said no, they're against bonding to built infrastructure.
All they're offering is this private sector alternative, which could be a small portion of the problem. But this is a massive couple of hundred billion to $400 billion problem for bridges, depending upon whose estimates you use.
PHILLIPS: All right. Congressman John Mica of Florida, Congressman Peter DeFazio or Oregon.
Gentlemen, thank you so much.
MICA: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: We are going to have a chance to talk with the secretary of Transportation. I'll address the issues you bring up. We'll be following the story, of course.
And we're also waiting for Hennepin County Sheriff's Department, a live news conference to update us on the diving operations on the Mississippi River, trying to make the recovery of those bodies still submerged. We're going to bring that to you as soon as it happens -- Don.
LEMON: All right, Kyra. Absolutely.
Sheriff Rich Stanek will be leading that press conference. He has been the man on top of all of it, and really giving good information to the press. They've been very open about it.
But we want to talk about the recovery effort now, and really the folks who are facing the most danger at this point. Because they haven't determined that all of that structure is stable at this point. And they're also down in that water, searching this murky water, with only four inches of visibility in front of them.
I spoke with a master diver -- a master dive instructor and someone who is a member -- the founding member of the Crow Wing County Sheriff's Department Volunteer Dive Rescue Squad. They may be called into this.
There are a number of elelite units around the state who could be called in, depending on how long these guys who are on this situation now, how long they have to be in that water. And so, if they're in that water for a long period of time, they start calling out to other elite crews around the area.
I spoke with Todd Mathis (ph) last night. He spoke to me at length -- at length about the difficulties and dangers that divers face.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know as a master instructor the difficulties involved with training students, not necessarily for this type of thing, but yes, I have a vast experience in this area, but it's not necessarily in an instructional capacity. Those are separate things.
LEMON: Is it difficult?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Instructing?
LEMON: No, difficult going down and -- in these types of situations?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, absolutely. It's difficult in, I would guess, many different ways.
This is the just difficulty in the environment, and what you're dealing in with this case, with heavy currents and poor visibility. It's always a struggle. There's also issues with rivers, there's also obstructions underneath that we've got to be aware of as divers so we don't get entangled in them with our communications systems or just ourselves.
Beyond the events...
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: We're going to continue that interview in just a moment. We want to get to the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department press conference.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
SHERIFF RICHARD STANEK, HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA: ... our recovery operations. And that's great news.
Divers went into the water around 10:35 this morning to resume recovery operations. Our staging area, as I mentioned this morning, is on the west side of the river, on the lower St. Anthony Lock and Dam. That's where our divers are staging, launching their boats, going in and doing the recovery efforts.
We have 20 divers on scene right now. We're using teams of three -- one diver in the water at a time, two of them providing backup and safety. It's a little bit different than what I told you this morning. We had to change it because of the conditions of the water and the recovery efforts.
So, our operations are focused the on the upriver from the collapse site of the bridge. And this morning have been focused on the east bank of the river, the bank that you're on now.
And So, I'm just going to step away for a minute. Hopefully you can still hear me if I talk loud enough.
If you're looking at this, here's the collapse site. I'm sorry, folks. Here's the collapse site. Here's where our divers are staging. Here's where emergency medical personnel are to provide support to our divers. This morning we focused on this side of the river in terms of taking a look at the targets that we've identified through sonar. This afternoon we'll be on the other side, the west bank of the river.
This morning we identified five vehicles submerged. We cleared four of the vehicles with no victims found in any of those four vehicles.
OK. Can we continue on? All right.
Let me say that again.
This morning, divers checked and located five submerged vehicles. Four of the vehicles have been cleared, meaning they've been checked by divers. No victims in those vehicles. Information from those vehicles have been forwarded to our detectives, who then forward them on to the unified command to match up family members with the vehicles.
One of the vehicles is below another vehicle, meaning one on top of the other. That vehicle is crushed and sitting on the bottom. We are not able to clear that vehicle. We will have to do it later using heavy equipment. We've also cleared the four partially-submerged vehicles that I indicated this morning that are on the east bank -- near the east bank of the river.
The afternoon operations will consist of this -- we're going to be concentrating on the west bank side of the river, which is the downtown side. We've identified five targets by sonar. That's what our divers are working on right now, and will through the afternoon and early evening hours. We believe all five of those are submerged targets, so we'll see what they -- see what they find.
That's it from me. I'm going to take questions, but Dr. Baker is here from the Hennepin County Medical Center. Mark Stenglein, Hennepin County commissioner, is here. And I think I'm going to turn it over to Commissioner Stenglein for a minute, and then Dr. Baker from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office.
I'm sorry.
QUESTION: Spell your name.
MARK STENGLEIN, HENNEPIN COUNTY COMMISSIONER: My name is Mark Stenglein -- S-T-E-N-G-L-E-I-N. I'm on the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners, and I want to take this opportunity as representative of the county board to express condolences to the family members who have lost loved ones in this terrible accident, terrible tragedy, and thank the sheriff's office for all the dedication and work that you're doing here.
I had the opportunity early to go visit the site on the water with one of the metropolitan council members, Annette Witczak (ph), and it's a very, very sad, sad sight and vision. You know, our city has been cut in half. And to know that there are still victims underneath all that rubble that need to be gotten out is beyond -- beyond sobering.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank the many volunteers, the people who are here supporting this work effort. Wal- Mart Corporation is here, and I just talked with the president of the midwest, Mike Lewis (ph). I mean, he's here helping out, handing out hamburgers and water.
Everybody has really stepped up and have done their job, and they're continuing to do the job no matter how long it takes.
So with that, I want to turn it over to our medical examiner, Dr. Baker.
And Sheriff, thank you very much. God bless you and...
STANEK: Thank you, Commissioner. We appreciate it.
Dr. Baker.
DR. ANDREW BAKER, CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER, HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA: Good afternoon. My name is Dr. Andrew Baker. I am the chief medical examiner for Hennepin County, Minnesota.
I want to open my brief comments -- pardon me?
I want to open my brief comments by offering the heartfelt condolences of my entire office to those who have lost loved ones and friends in this very tragic event.
The role of the medical examiner in an event like this, our primary overriding concern -- our primary overriding concern right now is for the family of those who have lost loved ones. The mission of our office is to make sure that we properly identify all of the victims and return the victims' remains to the families as quickly as we can, adequately having ascertained who they are and how they died. As a matter of policy, my office will not be releasing the names of victims until they have been positively identified and we have been able to directly communicate that information to families.
Right now we are working to update our press announcements twice daily. One went out yesterday afternoon, another one went out this morning. So you're aware that we have identified four of the victims, and their names were released. And their families are aware of that.
The gentleman from the truck that crashed and burned has been recovered. He is at our office. I'm not going to release further details at this time until my investigators have had a chance to speak with his family.
Our office is staffed 24 hours a day with experienced death investigators. We stand by ready to respond to the river's edge as soon as we are made aware that additional human remains or bodies have been recovered.
Again, I just want to close with my sincerest condolences from myself and my entire office to everyone who has lost someone they care about in this very tragic event.
Thank you.
STANEK: Dr. Baker and his staff have been on site with us and will remain on site with us working through the recovery operations.
So let me wrap up with this before taking your questions.
Again, recovery operations from this morning, the early part of the afternoon now, have gone better than expected. We're continuing to move along, focusing upriver from the collapse site. We will continue to do that through the rest of the afternoon and the early evening hours.
Myself, Commissioner Stenglein, Dr. Baker are here for questions. Technical questions that we can't answer, I have got some other folks here from the sheriff's office that might be able to.
Your questions.
Go ahead, sir.
QUESTION: How much of the diving that you're doing with the three-man teams is based on rehearsal, practice? How much (INAUDIBLE)?
STANEK: I think that question -- Captain Bill Chandler (ph) is a diver as well, has worked a lot of patrol for a number of years, and has been in command of the divers as well. And I think he can take your question on this one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Sheriff.
The dive teams today are the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, the Washington County Sheriff's Office, and the Anoka County Sheriff's Offices. All the divers have trained for this or practiced.
It's not -- it's very succinct what we're doing. We have very distinct, methodical ways of doing underwater search. They practice it, they've done it numerous times, and we're sticking with what our training is.
The conditions are slightly better than we thought they were going to be, and the searching is going well for us. But this is all exactly what they've been practicing and they have done in the past.
QUESTION: Could you explain exactly what is different? What is better than expected?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Better than expected today -- and I want to start with through -- let me know if I have to -- I can wait a minute.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So much for closing the air space.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's right.
It's OK? OK.
What's better than expected -- and I'll start with great cooperation from the United States Army Corps of Engineers, who controls the lock and dam. They can help us regulate the water flow that's coming in that the divers are using.
They've done a great job working with us and helping us with their facilities so we can do these searches. We've been able to control the locks, the flow of water, which has made it easier for the divers.
We've lowered the level about two feet, which has made it a little easier, and we're controlling the flow off one side. So as the divers are diving, they don't have the underwater current or the strong current that they normally would have in that area. So it's made it better.
Visibility is terrible. They can see maybe six inches at best, and so they're moving very slow and methodical. But because the water flow is down, it makes the divers be able to work in place better than what they are, as well as searching, getting in and seeing what they can recover.
QUESTION: What about debris?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Questions did debris.
The debris field, we're keeping the divers out of the heavy debris. So we're bringing them up, up to the deck of the highway, but we are not penetrating or going underneath any open areas. So, we're stopping there.
The debris we've had so far has not hindered the divers. We've been able to -- we're -- and again, it's a diving technique, but we have them tethered on lines, and we're controlling how much line they have to keep them from going into debris. So we're controlling as far out as they can go. So we've kept them out of that so far.
QUESTION: Do you think there are any victims under the bridge deck? And if so, when do you think you can get in there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think I can speculate at all on what's under the bridge deck. We don't know. The possibility is always there that there's vehicles or victims there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Go ahead.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
STANEK: You know what? Again, we're not going to -- now we're getting into numbers, specific numbers. We don't know.
I mean, any of you have been out there, you've seen it from the air, you've seen pictures of it, it's a terrible mess, quite honestly. We don't know how many cars were up on the bridge when it collapsed. We don't know how many victims were in the vehicles themselves. There's a lot of questions that we just don't know the answers to. We're working to find them. We're about, you know, 40-plus hours into this operation.
It's going to take some time, more time than we've had thus far. But we're committed to finding out and finding those answers for you. So we're not going to commit to a number other than to tell you folks have been working very hard.
I know that earlier this morning, one of the folks that was unaccounted for has now been accounted for. That's what happens.
That's my understanding. This woman had been at work -- correct? The car recovered?
The car had been recovered by us. Detectives located her at work this morning. Things happen, right? That's good news for us.
Go ahead.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
STANEK: Well, I think, again, one of them -- the four cars that we found empty that we cleared, we know one of them...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do know -- of the four cars cleared, talking to investigators, we do know one vehicle that's empty, the party is in the hospital, and one other party has been identified as being alive and well. And I think that's been it so far.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we -- and again, these are the things we don't know.
We -- there are windows down in some of the cars, which allows people to get out. We are going to go under the assumption -- wait a minute.
It's OK?
We are going under the assumption that there are still people there, no matter what. So even after -- if we get down and clear everything out, we're going to go back and search again and sonar both sides of the river again just to make sure.
We're not -- we are going to go under the assumption that there are people in the water still.
QUESTION: So have there been any additional recoveries today at all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of humans? Human remains? There have been no human remains today so far.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead. QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. And the question is, how do they feel with no visibility?
First of all, our sonar...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Timing's everything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll say it again.
We have very good, sophisticated side-scan sonar that has helped us very well to identify objects. Of those target objects when we go in -- so we've got a good spot to look. Now the divers, it's pretty much a Braille method, as we call it. You're feeling through the muck to try to find it.
We have underwater communications, so the divers are talking back and forth to the surface just like you're on a phone line. And they can talk to each other.
We put one diver down at a time, with two divers backing him up. If they get into trouble, they can go rescue them. So, we are -- then we direct them by watching -- actually, there are air bubbles on the surface, or with the sonar if it's running, so we can direct them into the object.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct. Correct.
If we can't -- now, at this point where they are, we cannot run the sonar while they're in the water. So we're going strictly off the locations we put the cars to, and then working the bubbles. But they have got to feel their way in, find the object. They have to get pretty much face to face to the license plate. They call that out to us, and then they go around the car and then in the car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead.
QUESTION: The tether, (INAUDIBLE) rescuer's impulse to keep going?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. The question is, are they tethered for their impulse to keep going?
They're tethered for their safety. The communication line is through that. But in this case, because it's best to be able to swim up into a current to search, because coming down the way we are, it's easier for entrapment, so we're controlling so they can go in foot increments to keep them safe so they don't go beyond a level (INAUDIBLE).
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
STANEK: At this point, again this morning we were noncommittal about exact numbers, but this morning we talked about eight. We know that for sure this morning another one had been located that we didn't know her whereabouts earlier, so we continue to work through it.
Go ahead.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
STANEK: It's like sign language. Can you say it again?
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
STANEK: What happens as time goes on in terms of -- we'll talk about the strategy as we move on. She wants to know as time goes on, what happens in the next couple days?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
Our strategy is we are not going to stop until we can clear off everything we can safely do. So the sheriff's office and our combined mutual aid sheriff's offices are going to keep diving until we're -- can ensure as much as possible that the safe areas we can dive are clear of victims and account for what our sonar images are.
After that, that's a long-term plan with unified command, and the NTSB will decide what long term is going to be.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From a supervisor's standpoint, I think we're scared all the time. Our divers take a lot of risks.
We have been fortunate, and I think it's through skill more than luck that our divers are all safe. We had one incident yesterday only with an equipment malfunction, but it was not life-threatening. But things went well. The dive operation today has been pretty much textbook. It's going very well.
STANEK: Go ahead, sir.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
STANEK: The question is, when do we expect heavy equipment to arrive to assist us in the recovery efforts?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The heavy equipment issue is we are in ongoing communication with the NTSB and the Department of Transcription to determine what equipment is going to be needed and how and when we're going to bring it in. So I can't give you an answer to that yet.
STANEK: Go ahead, ma'am. Speak up.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
STANEK: I'll talk about the process. You know, again, when this tragedy happens and, you know, people were taken to a number of area hospitals for treatment, some people were able to just swim away, walk away, get rides with other people. Through investigations, our investigators, investigators from Minneapolis Police, federal agencies, the detectives themselves have been working on contacting the families, working on where they might be, who might be missing.
We've been able to match up the stuff we found in the river in terms of the vehicles that have been submerged. Other information that has come in -- just like this morning, you know, investigators went out and located the woman at her place of employment. That's the process.
It's tedious, it's thorough, and we're committed to finding everyone who has been reported missing.
Go ahead.
QUESTION: Obviously, any loss of life is tragic, but a lot of people seem to have survived (INAUDIBLE). Was there something about the circumstances that made this survivable that people were lucky?
STANEK: Guys vote luck?
It's a unanimous vote that this is a tragedy, and it was pure luck by which people either survived or perished in this tragedy. And we're sorry for the ones that perished, but I don't know that there was any magic formula.
Certainly the rescuers on Wednesday night, 6:00, 6:30, a number of folks came, and you've seen it the last couple of days. You've been broadcasting it to the citizens out there. That meant so much. We would have lost many more if those emergency workers had not been here and did what they did, question unasked.
Go ahead, sir.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
STANEK: Doctor, about the first part?
BAKER: If you wouldn't mind repeating the question, it's impossible to hear with these helicopters.
LEMON: OK. You've been listening to a press conference there from the sheriff's department, the Hennepin County Sheriff's -- talking about exactly what's going on today. And I think, you know, what they said today was that our city has been cut in half, meaning the artery -- that one of the main arteries in the city has been cut in half.
This is really the most information since I've been here that we've gotten out of a press conference. They've been talking about that recovery effort and exactly what those divers are facing. The interesting news is that they said they found one person who had been unaccounted for, and now that person, a woman, turned up accounted for, and she was at work. So earlier, we said eight people unaccounted for, they said eight at the press conference. I'm not sure if that brings the number down to seven people unaccounted for. We'll have to double check on that and make sure we find out.
Also, the people speaking there at the press conference said this is a terrible, terrible mess. We don't know how many people are still at the bottom of that river, we don't know how many cars are in that river. So they're thinking that, you know, those people are unaccounted for, but they're still not sure exactly.
We've been talking about the visibility there. They said they're working with very poor visibility in the water, and because of that lock and dam system, they were able to get the water level down, which was -- helped the divers in one sense, but it also created eddies in ways that they weren't used to here, because the water level was down so low.
Here's what they're saying.
10:35 this morning local time, which is Central Time, they put 20 divers into the water. Those divers are working in three-man teams -- one diver in the water, two divers on backup doing the lookout there.
Conditions, again, they said the water is problematic. They have located five vehicles submerged. Four of them they have cleared out and have been able to contact the owners and tell them that they found no one inside.
One, though, is below another car, and they're having trouble getting to that one and to looking inside of it. So they're going to have to have that pulled up and try to figure out exactly what's going on. But they said this recovery effort has gone better than expected, Kyra. And we've been talking about -- again, about the conditions those divers are facing.
I interviewed that diver who told me about the horrendous conditions. They're saying four to six inches, and we've been doing this. Put your hand four to six inches in front of your face. That's what they're dealing with.
They're struggling around, touching, basically swimming blind, with someone in their ear saying, go right, go left. They may know up from down, but they're not exactly sure where they're maneuvering in the water. Very tricky situation here.
We're going to continue to talk to that diver, bring you more from the interview, a master diver who knows exactly what these guys are facing. And we're going to continue to update you on the victims, on the recovery process, and also on the families who are still eight awaiting loved ones here in Minneapolis -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Don Lemon in Minnesota, thank you so much. Well, the warnings signs were there. They had been there for years, there was work to do. But no one crossed that proverbial bridge until it was too late. Could this happen to the overworked and under-maintained bridges you cross? We're going to talk with the secretary of transportation in just a moment.
Plus, how do you comfort children who came within feet of a horrible fate? We're going to talk with the man who did it.
But first, before we go to break, we'd like to remember the victims of this tragedy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips live at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
Thousands of bridges in the U.S., overused and under-maintained. You might drive over one today. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Well, it's time to acknowledge the hundreds and hundreds of people in Minneapolis who have sent us their photos and video. Bottom line, you guys rock. And you have told a dramatic and compelling story through how you have helped us.
Veronica De La Cruz of our dot-com desk has been looking through all the I-Reports for some of the newest and the best. This is -- are these the most we've ever received?
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, 540. In any given month, we'll receive something like 6,000. Virginia Tech's tragedy, 250, so 540 this time around. You guys do rock, and our I-Report team, you guys rock as well, I've got to give you a shout-out. I wanted to show you a couple more.
I've been kind of combing through them, and I want to show you this first one, I also wanted to mention that 45,000, since its inception is what we've received so far. Let's start with this one by Jeremiah Talamantes. It shows a close-up of the one the train-hoppers that was crushed by a steel beam.
Here you can really see how it just crumpled this train like a tin can. It's an incredible image of the raw forces at work. This next one was taken by Sama Sandy, he says that he had just gotten off work and was about to go to the grocery store when he heard the news. Sama says he crossed the 35W bridge at least three times a week. And he stayed at the scene until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning.
This next photo is from Chuck Green (ph), it is pretty interesting, very artistic. He heard that federal investigators were looking for photographs of the bridge. You and I talked about this yesterday. Well, Chuck says he took this picture back in March and he asked us to pass it along, in the hopes that it might be useful in finding out what went wrong. So he's hoping that we can pass this along to the NTSB.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 35W.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DE LA CRUZ: Some pretty incredible I-Report video to show you as well. This was shot by Steve Dworak just moments after the collapse. Now as you can see, he was right down at water level as he recorded emergency crews arriving on the scene, during the first frantic minutes, you see just the chunks of twisted metal at what remains of that bridge. He was about four blocks away. He raced to the river on his bicycle to capture these harrowing images.
Jane Summerlin caught the sheer terror of the moment as motorists, many of them visibly shaken, I mean, look at them, as they carefully made their way off the collapsed roadway.
And finally these may be among the first images taken of the scene after the dust cleared. They were shot by Bob Bauer, who says the pictures were taken about one minute after the collapse. Now check this out. Many witnesses have described the ghostly quiet before the first sirens could be heard.
I mean, you don't see any emergency crews on the scene, and, Kyra, these pictures certainly captures that unsettling stillness. I'm sure many of you out there might be worried about the safety of highway bridges where you live, and cnn.com has created a map that shows you how many bridges in your area have been deemed structurally deficient.
I'm going to have that for you coming up in the next hour. And you know, it's pretty startling, Kyra, I was looking at this map. And there are a handful of states that registered about 40 percent, 40 percent of their bridges deemed structurally deficient.
PHILLIPS: And you are going to show us, because I noticed on cnn.com, you can actually go to certain Web sites and click onto your state, see the report card about roads and bridges, so you can get specific, right?
DE LA CRUZ: Exactly. Mm-hmm, yes, and I'm going to have that for you in the 3:00 hour.
PHILLIPS: OK. Great. Veronica, thanks.
Well, the NTSB has asked for our help from out I-Reporters as well and anyone else who has video and still images from the collapse. Veronica mentioned that. We're asking you for your help as well. And you can contact the NTSB at 866-328-6347.
Once again, if you have anything that might help in this investigation through your I-Reports, 866-328-6347.
Let's get straight to the NEWSROOM, T.J. Holmes working details on a developing story for us -- T.J. T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Got a flight delay to tell you about here, Kyra. We're not talking about your domestic travel like we usually are. We're talking about the Space Shuttle Endeavour. We've got a flight delay here. It's not going to be taking off on Tuesday like planned. Actually going to be taking off on Wednesday now, 6:38 p.m. Eastern time. The issue they had, they noticed a leak, found a leak in the cabin -- in the crew cabin. They traced it back to one of two pressure relief valves that they have on the shuttle there.
So they decided to pluck the one out of the Shuttle Atlantis and replace it here. Some testing was supposed to happen yesterday. And it appears that things are working just fine now, but just having this bit of a delay in trying to fix something they didn't know was going to come up. Kind of put them, cramped them a bit, stressed them a bit on trying to get it all taken care of and ready to go by launch time on Tuesday. So now been pushed back a day to 6:38 on Wednesday for that mission to the International Space Station.
So another flight delay, but I guess the shuttle not immune to them, either. So that's certainly something we'll be watching next week, getting ready for another launch of another shuttle, Endeavour, taking off next Wednesday instead now at 6:38 instead of on Tuesday -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. T.J., thanks so much.
Well, so many questions left unanswered. That's why we're turning to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. She was among the first federal officers to arrive after the collapse. And we're trying to keep them honest as well, including her. We've been asking congressmen and -women about the fatigue on bridges and why more money doesn't go to improving the bridges and highways. Tough subject right now. Secretary Mary Peters joins me live from Minneapolis.
Secretary, first of all, I want to give you the chance just to give us an overview of your impressions once you got there to the scene. Obviously a tough time for you to see this.
MARY PETERS, SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: Kyra, it was. It was a very tough scene to look at, the numbers of cars and the mangled remains of the bridge there in the Mississippi River.
But I also was impressed with the courageousness of those in Minneapolis, the first-responders and many others who were there on the scene helping the community with this terrible tragedy. And certainly our thoughts and our prayers remain with them.
PHILLIPS: And, Secretary, you've had a chance to be there, you've seen the destruction, you know how bad it is, there are divers still in the water looking for bodies. We've already talked about the five that are dead, the eight that are still missing. In the news conference yesterday with the Minnesota Department of Transportation, we've been talking so much about structurally deficient. There were a number of structurally deficient issues with this bridge.
Now, according to the most excellent rating, that would be a nine, this bridge was a four. There were distinguishes with the deck, the superstructure, the substructure, which talked about corrosion and fatigue. Then here was the number that astounded us when it came through in this news conference, 77,000 other bridges across the nation have this same rating.
What are you going to do to ensure that there's not another Minneapolis?
PETERS: Well, Kyra, we're doing everything we can to assure Americans that our highways, our roadways and our bridges are safe. Let me give you the range, first of all. Zero to nine are the numbers that are used, and this particular bridge, as you pointed out, had a four rating. A nine rating would go to a brand-new bridge and of course a zero would mean that that bridge would be closed.
When the ratings are in between, the current protocols call for that bridge to be inspected annually and for remedial action to be taken to keep that bridge in safe operating systems.
But you know what, what's important to me is that we look at this whole process and determine how we can improve the process, how we can learn what happened here and ensure that a tragedy like this never, ever happens again.
PHILLIPS: But that's the biggest concern here. Because if you look at the 2006 report on all the bridges, we found six states, D.C., Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, New York, I mean, up to 64 percent of the bridges deemed structurally deficient or obsolete.
I mean, you have to act now. I mean, this could happen any day on any one of these bridges. How do you prioritize? How do you take action?
PETERS: Well, Kyra, what I have done right now is ask every state to immediately go out and inspect the bridges of the type that collapsed there in Minneapolis in this tragedy.
We want to make sure that those bridges are safe. And I have made federal officials available to assist with those inspections. Further, I have asked our Federal Highway Administration -- and by the way, our federal highway administrator, Rick Capka, is there on the ground in Minneapolis assisting with this, to insure that we're using technology wherever we can to assist us with the inspection so that we can stay on top of this.
But finally I have asked my inspector general to look at the bridge inspection program and to make sure this program is as thorough and as robust as it needs to be so that we never, ever have another tragedy like this.
PHILLIPS: Now we had a debate between two congressmen, one Republican, one Democrat, two of the members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and the issue of gas tax was brought up. Should you raise the gas tax? It hasn't been raised in years. That's where the money comes from to fix these bridges and fix these roads. Should that tax be raised?
PETERS: Kyra, our first priority has to be to respond to Minneapolis and to Minnesota as we deal with this tragedy. That's a very, very important discussion that we do have to have. You know, as a former secretary of transportation, commissioner, director in Arizona, I know how important and how difficult these prioritization decisions are.
I think what's important is not just how much money there is, but the flexibility that states have to spend that money to respond to issues like bridge inspections. And that is going to be something that I like forward to having the discussions with Congress and with other Americans in the coming months to have.
PHILLIPS: Secretary Peters, final question. Why does it take a disaster like this to get so much attention on an issue?
PETERS: Kyra, I am devastated by this tragedy. And I think most of us are. The last time that something like this happened was in 1983, and this was on I-95 in Connecticut. And since that time, we have taken steps to make sure that we are keeping our roads and bridges safe.
Something happened there in Minneapolis, we don't yet know what it was, but I can assure that I will get to the bottom of it, and we will get to the bottom of it, and we will take corrective action immediately.
PHILLIPS: Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, I appreciate your time today, from Washington.
PETERS: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, a bus on the brink, you can see just how close and the kids on board came to disaster. We're going to talk with the man who comforted those kids after that major close call. That's coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, two days after the collapse, we relive the horror of that moment through a terrified 10-year-old girl. Her name is Kaleigh Swift. And she was one of the dozens of kids heading home from a trip to a water park. Their school bus was crossing the bridge when it buckled. Kaleigh called her mom minutes after the accident. Her family shared that panicked call with us.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
KALEIGH SWIFT, PASSENGER ON SCHOOL BUS: Momma. The bridge broke when we were crossing it. And everybody was scared and crying. Are you there, Momma? Momma, are you there?
(END AUDIO CLIP) PHILLIPS: Wow. And as you probably know by now, Kaleigh and all the other children did make it off that bus OK, jumping out the back and into the arms of other survivors. Then emergency crews took over, including the American Red Cross.
Don, you have more on that.
LEMON: Kyra, and what do you do with that when someone experiences that type of emotion and pain? Can't you just feel the pain in that phone call, that little girl calling for her mommy, because she doesn't know exactly what to do. Shocking for adults and experienced people, but imagine the horror for children.
Let's talk more about that. The American Red Cross, always there, any type of tragedy, any type of situation, not only on American shores, but even on foreign shores sometimes.
We just heard a phone call from a little girl who was on that school bus when it happened.
TED CANOVA, RED CROSS: The "momma, momma."
LEMON: The "momma, momma." And can you imagine all of that. Tell us about what you guys are dealing with. You've been talking about the grief that you've had to deal with over the past couple of days. Overwhelming.
CANOVA: You know, it started with the Red Cross, one of the cornerstones of the Red Cross is to set up a family assistance center. And we started it with a couple of families coming by, meeting with our grief counselors, meeting with clergy, who were just sitting there waiting for word.
It has grown to the point that 1,200 people have either called or had face-to-face mental health counseling in the first 36 hours.
LEMON: Yes, and Ted Canova has been dealing with a lot of that. Ted, what are the personal stories that you're seeing, especially from people who really have nothing to do with this, and have selflessly given themselves to help folks who are in need?
CANOVA: You know, I've been a fly on the wall inside the police lines like I've never been in my career. And one of the things that I've noticed is just how selfless everybody is, the dedication of the Red Cross volunteers and staff. The first-responders of police, fire, emergency managers, that you hear in situations like this how things don't work.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: What are they doing? What are they saying? What are you hearing?
CANOVA: Well, I was in the emergency operating center the first night with the governor and mayor of Minneapolis. And to see the emergency managers, to see all of the dedicated fire and police, and just people who aren't looking for any of the credit. And not that anybody would think that. That's not why they get into this line of work, but to just see that. They wanted to make sure that the communication was tight. They wanted to make sure that the services to the people was right there.
LEMON: And what about the family members who are coming out and sadly you're going to have to deal with them, Ted, when they find out that their loved ones was not among the living?
CANOVA: You know, you pause. You just know that this is what the Red Cross does. It does it nationwide in hundreds of chapters. I would just encourage people to not take the Red Cross for granted, no matter where you're living, whether you're in a small community in Texas or a large city like New York.
LEMON: Yes. You were saying, you know, you've been doing this for years. Ted actually worked in the news business for a long time and we're used to dealing with a lot of things. Now you're working with the American Red Cross, and you said it's -- you know, the emotion about to come out, it's right here, every moment, you're about to lose it.
CANOVA: You know, it's something. I was on one of your other shows last night, and I was leaving this parking garage. And I checked out, and I paid and all of a sudden I started well up and tears were starting to come out. And my cell phone rang, and it was back to work.
So if that has happened to just one communicator, I just really look out into the yonder and say, what is going on with the grief counselors? What's going on with the first-responders? What's going on with the divers? You know, if a communicator can have this wall right behind the eyes with just an avalanche of emotions, in the days, weeks and months to come, years, Mayor Rybak said, this is going to be a sustained compassion that we need to find, and I believe that's true.
LEMON: Absolutely. And you know, we want to say the first lady -- if you were listening to that press conference, the first lady was here today, and those are the helicopters that you were hearing at that press conference, her touring the city and touring the devastation.
There's video of her in this hotel. She came to speak with you. I know they're telling us to wrap it up, but just real quick, tell us your impressions of the first lady when they came not moments ago to this hotel?
CANOVA: You know, she came to the Red Cross chapter headquarters a block away from the disaster. She met and had personal moments with a lot of the first-responders. She came across the parking lot and met with just 12 dedicated staff and volunteers from the Red Cross.
There are hundreds of them behind the scenes. But what this represented certainly goes a long way, that you're working in a vacuum. You're working one-on-one with people, you're really trying to nurture and comfort them. And for her to be there was a very big show of support.
She said something that was so poignant -- two things, she kept referring to her husband as George, which just seemed so personal, like we were in her living room. But the other part is that she says, you know, America is grieving, we can't imagine how much you and the first-responders and families are also.
So really her heart went out for all of the great, great compassionate work that's going on.
LEMON: All right. Taking over from the American Red Cross, that's a good way to put it and a good way to end it.
And I have to tell you, Kyra, we're talking about the Engebretsens, you and I personally just on the air this morning and other folks as well, I spoke to some hardened newspeople, as we call it, e-mailing me and calling me, saying, you know what, the interview you did with that family, I cried, and I haven't cried in a news story in quite some time, maybe since Katrina, or since 9/11. Your heart certainly goes out to the people here. I know it sounds like a cliche, but it's absolutely true -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Yes, and you're talking about Sherry Engebretsen, the woman that adopted those two girls from Bolivia. Was a heart- wrenching story, very emotional interview. And it just puts everything into perspective of how the loss has just been devastating in Minnesota -- Don.
LEMON: Yes.
PHILLIPS: All right. We'll talk to you more a little later. Thank you so much.
We're also talking about a journalist working on a story about a bakery. Well, that journalist ends up dead, then the law cooks up a major raid. We'll have that story for you straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: In Oakland, California, police picked up as many as 19 people early this morning in a series of raids that may be linked to the killing of a well-known journalist. The raids targeted four locations, including a business called Your Black Muslim Bakery.
Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey is said to have been investigating the bakery when he was gunned down yesterday near a downtown courthouse. Police aren't saying whether the killing prompted those raids.
An embattled Louisiana congressman has won a round in court. A federal appeals court says last year's FBI raid on Representative William Jefferson's Capitol Hill office violated the Constitution. And it says that some of the seized documents will have to be returned. Jefferson pleaded not guilty earlier this summer to bribery charges. The Justice Department says its case against Jefferson will not be affected by today's decision.
Well, what led to the Minneapolis bridge collapse? And were there signs of trouble before the tragedy? CNN investigates straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.
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