Graeme Thickins on Tech

Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Tag: 35W bridge

Unbelievable Stories Today in Minneapolis

August 2, 2007 / / 0 Comments

I’m still reeling after getting in from Chicago last night just after the bridge collapse. What a horrible tragedy for so many innocent people! The stories coming in on our local TV affiliates today are gut-wrenching. Some tragic deaths, and many close calls. So many people grateful to be alive. 35wbridgebeforeafter_2

On the 5 o’clock news today, I actually saw a friend of mine, Chris Carlson, a close-by neighbor here in the suburbs, being interviewed. He’s a huge runner, and it turns out he was, for some reason, in the U of M area running on the River Road — under the bridge — when it collapsed and just missed him! He rescued some people. We’re seeing many other heroic stories as well. My brother-in-law is a Minneapolis cop — he’s been in the thick of it since last night (called from his own birthday party), stationed right down at the river.

Pray. Hug your loved ones and kids today. Hug ’em a lot. Life is precious.

(Graphic copyright 2007, St. Paul Pioneer Press.)

Leaving Chicago, I Learn of a Tragedy in Mpls

August 1, 2007 / / 0 Comments

All of a sudden, continuing to blog about a conference doesn’t matter. Are my kids safe? I was just boarding the plane at Midway when a seat-mate told me about the horrible bridge collapse in my home town. Hundreds of cars may have gone into the river? Oh, my God! I’ve driven over that bridge hundreds and hundreds of times since my days as a student at the U of M. Mplsbridge

The phone circuits were jammed. My first few tries to my sons and my wife would not go through. Thankfully, my daughter answered her cell phone (she hardly ever does), even though she was busy at a softball game. By some stroke of luck, she had just spoken to or texted both of her brothers….they were safe! I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Then, my seat-mate and I tuned into AirTran’s Sirius satellite radio connection to get the very latest from Fox News, all the way home — live coverage, scary at times, but very timely and welcome. Some of it included patching into friendly voices I recognized from our local affiliates. It was a surreal experience — hanging onto every word as we flew through the hazy, orange, late-summer skies, which were looking like they could produce thunderstorms anytime, all the way home till we made our descent under a low ceiling.

Please pray for those who weren’t so lucky. This is a horrible disaster for many in the Twin Cities.

(Photo: AP/KMSP-TV)

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