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: tragedy

Best Photos and Coverage of Minneapolis Bridge Collapse

August 3, 2007 / / 1 Comment

It’s hard not to be fixated on the main news story today — the continuing coverage of the horrific catastrophe here in the Twin Cities, which has affected everyone on our town in some way. And it really just strikes home to anyone, anywhere. 35wbridgecollapse

Here’s a local photographer’s site with an array of sobering images. All I know is his name is Tim, and he’s from Little Canada, MN. (The graphic I show here is copyright 2007, Consolidated Photo, his company.)

For the best continuing coverage, I’d recommend our local TV station sites, who are all doing an amazing job of reporting, with lots of videos and photos and personal stories:
– KSTP: ABC, Channel 5
– KARE: NBC, Channel 11
– WCCO: CBS, Channel 4
– KMSP: Fox, Channel 9

And hats off to my friends at our two daily papers, who are doing an excellent job as well (with much reduced staffs lately):
– Minneapolis Star-Tribune
– St. Paul Pioneer Press

Also, for you technical types and engineers out there, you may wish to read this 2001 MN DOT “fatigue” report on “Bridge 9340” — as the 35W bridge is known in their lingo. There were concerns that many years ago. I hate to say it, but guano (pidgeon poop) is one culprit that cannot be ignored. Then again, forty Minnesota winters were certainly not kind to this bridge, either. (Thanks to my one of my favorite engineer friends, Bill Proffer, for the heads-up on this report.)

I’m also hearing there was a lot of extra weight on the bridge in the days before it fell — in the way of many piles of aggregate, and several cement trucks. That, on top of the fact that our cars are so much heavier today, so many SUVs, and so many more trucks on the highways…. My God, what was the collective weight on the bridge at that time, with bumper-to-bumper traffic stacked up, too?

It’s all very concerning. And we continue to pray for the victims and their families, the first responders, the medical professionals — and, wow, the everyday people who risked their lives to save others they didn’t even know. God bless them all.

Really makes you think….

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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