AP News, August 24th, 2007
"The whole bridge fell into the river," one shaken woman told a 911 dispatcher seconds after disaster struck on an interstate over the Mississippi.
"Everything you've got!" a male caller said five seconds later. "The whole bridge over the river fell down _ there's cars all over the place. 35W over the Mississippi down by the U. It's the _ there's hundreds of cars, they're in the river. Bring everything you've got!"
The Minneapolis Emergency Communications Center on Friday released tapes and transcripts of some 40 calls received in the minutes after the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed Aug. 1, sending dozens of motorists plunging into the river. About 100 people called within two minutes of the 6:05 p.m. collapse, quickly erasing dispatchers' initial disbelief.
Minneapolis 911 supervisor Maryam Williams said she and the 14 operators and dispatchers who worked that night struggled at first to grasp what happened. She said she didn't see the first television pictures until about three hours later _ and "that's when it hit me," she said.
"Even in my mind, when somebody told me the bridge collapsed, I'm still thinking a car flipped over in the water," Williams said Friday. "The magnitude of what happened _ my mind wouldn't even go there."
The 911 tapes were released in response to public records requests from news media including The Associated Press. The collapse killed 13 people and injured about 100.
About six minutes after the collapse, a caller named Brian, whose hand was bleeding, tried to explain the scene to an operator, who asked if he was in his car.
"No _ I'm out of the car," the driver said.
Operator: "OK, are you floating in the river, then?"
Driver: "No, I'm on like a little island part in the middle. There's a lot of people here too. And I think there could be people trapped in cars is what I'm really worried about."
At 6:23 p.m., a youth worker called after hearing from somebody on the school bus. The 911 operator told him the Interstate 35W bridge had collapsed.
"Oh my God," the caller said. "Where can we go so we can make sure that we get there? Because there are children on that bus."
The operator asked, "Did the bus collapse in the river?"
"I don't know. I don't know," the caller said.
All the children on the bus were rescued.
The cause of the collapse hasn't been determined. The National Transportation Safety Board and a private firm retained by the state are investigating.
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Associated Press writer Brian Bakst contributed to this report.
