Blanked Out

Decided not to post video from evacuation. Really doesn’t show anything useful and is just stressful to watch. I will post video from when we finally got back home last night.

To my knowledge we are the only civilians allowed in the exclusion zone. The recovery process is going to be perhaps even slower than people think. They are taking extreme safety measures to avoid any risk of injury. The secondary collapse mentioned below was minor but it takes just one small piece of concrete to wreak havoc.
Thank you to everyone in the Mpls Police and Red Cross who helped us get back.
I’m also grateful to the media who put us in touch with the right people.

Initially, no one knew who to talk to - special thanks to Jeff Passolt of Fox 9 who took a vested interest in the situation and eventually put me in contact with the right person.

UPDATE 8/2 4:19PM: This is Aaron again. Just got off the phone with Noah who is at the north end of the Stone Arch Bridge. He just personally confirmed these two rumors with the Chairman of the NTSB and Chief of Police: The bridge was lacking redundancy and there was a secondary collapse.

UPDATE 8/2 8:36AM: Been hearing many conflicting reports of what caused the collapse.  I would  ask for people to refuse to “speculate” what caused the disaster.  Here are the only facts that I am personally aware of:

• The construction might have not been “structural” in nature, but it was still serious construction.  For a time, there were holes in the bridge through which I could look up and see the sky.
• I have been hearing multiple reports that this bridge type contains no redundancy. This is not a “fact” in my opinion until the NTSB or DOT confirms it.  Go here and read comment 14 for an interesting (if passionate) analysis.
• I have gone through an earthquake before.  The shaking was more like an aftershock.

8/2 UPDATE 7:00AM: Sean at MN Publius is entirely correct. Within approx. 20 mins everyone who could be rescued by us “amateurs” was, but people kept coming. I have some video I will be uploading later (OSX can’t see the file type apparently) of a steady stream of people coming to and from the bridge - on the ground level. Amazing.

Just finished my first (and hopefully last) nightmare regarding the collapse.

It had a happy ending though - at the last possible, horrific second, Peyton Manning (who for some reason had the powers of Spiderman) arrived on the scence and began to help. I was ecstatic, for a moment, but then I was thrown from the bridge by some unknown force and spent the rest of the dream unable to get back to the bridge.
UPDATE 1:36AM: This is Noah and I’m back from my apt. We had to walk in, since it is now in what is called the “Danger Zone”. Fairly sure I’m the only resident in the Zone. We got the cat we left behind and packed small bags.

Please, call 612-460-3700 for the Red Cross if you can help. The MN Red Cross office is directly across from my apt. - I can still see their sign underneath 35W.
I’m nominally homeless - crashing at friends. Will try and return home in the morning.

Deep thanks to Britt, Aaron and everyone else who rushed with me to help get people off 35W bridge.

UPDATE 10:25pm: Aaron Landry here still. I just posted Noah’s Photos. Shots before emergency personnel showed up, some of the survivors as well as shots from under the bridge.

UPDATE 9:50pm: Noah is off to City Hall and a batch of photos have been sent to me to post from him. I haven’t gotten the photos yet though.

UPDATE 9:20pm: Tom Elko points out Noah’s place in his latest post. I haven’t heard from Noah since but will post an update as soon as I hear anything from him.

Photo by Adam Meyer, emailed to Tom Elko

UPDATE 8:44pm: Aaron Landry here; Noah is being overwhelmed with phone calls so he gave me the keys to the castle to relay his updates. Here’s a couple shots of Noah’s place is in comparison to the bridge:

UPDATE:

I’m at the Humphrey School waiting for a ride. We couldn’t take a car our any of our belongings. One cat was taken, one was left behind.

I’m shocked, but no longer shaking. Still sweaty from sprinting to river side to help rescue people. Didn’t see any dead or hurt on the West side of non existent bridge. Helped people off girders. My cell phone isn’t working like many of yours, so email me at noah@blanked-out.com if you need to. I have pictures, will upload later. Confirmed all of my friends (except one) who commute are safe.

Description of collapse: Surprisingly quiet, but my entire warehouse apt shook quite a bit. Bridge fell so very slowly - poof. Yelled and yelled but no one answered. Only a handful of ppl in water, all got out ok and then began to help as well. Ran into woman who thought school bus was trapped on east side in fold of highway. Couldn’t confirm it or get to the other bank to help.

more later…hope everyone is safe…

I live the closest to the 35W Bridge than anyone in Minneapolis and I watched it come down from my roof.

I spent 20mins getting people out and off the bridge.

I’m being evacuated.

PS This was not a bomb.

According to the new Survey USA poll (hat tip to MNCR).

Key points:

• The difference is within the margin of error (MOE).Remember: the MOE applies to both statistics. So if Coleman is at 49% and Franken at 42% with MOE +/- 4%, the true values might have Franken at 46% and Coleman at 45%.

• Coleman is getting 15% of his total support from Democrats! No, this isn’t a sign of Democrats rejecting Franken - even against Ciresi the numbers are almost identical.Did I say identical?I meant to say that Franken gets more Democrat, Republican and Independent voters than Ciresi does against Coleman. That’s what we call a “non-issue”. Zing Brodkorb!This is the soft underside to Coleman’s support level, which is already slipping. Once the campaign begins in earnest, that 15% is going to slowly fade away…
• Moderates support both Democrats over Coleman Brodkorb at Minnesota Democrats Exposed wrote, in reference to this survey, that Franken has said things that would make a “goat sick”. I guess there aren’t too many sensitive goats among Minnesotan moderates.
• Coleman also loses to the Democrats with:
  

• Women
• 65 year olds and over
• Registered Democrats! (Yes, this matters, since Democrats comprise 11% more of the registered electorate over Republicans). Woot!

I’ll whip up some visual aids later. I’ve got to get downtown…more on this later.