Holy Crap!

I grew up near the twin cities, and spent alot of time there. When I flipped on the news tonight, I saw that the I-35 bridge collapsed, plunging at least 50 cars into the river and resulting in several injuries and at least three fatalities. I'm guessing the television coverage lost something in the translation, because I couldn't even recognize the area I can navigate by instinct.

As the 35W bridge is adjacent to the Metrodome, people won't be able to get to the Twins or Vikings games. Nobody went to the Gopher football games to begin with, so that won't be a problem.

Some reporter on CNN just asked if the Mississippi river was a "big river." Wolf Blitzer said "there are casualties, and I think people are hurt or killed as well." Thanks Wolf. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security has reported that this was probably not an act of terrorism. Granted, I don't work for the CIA, but haven't they ever heard of Magneto? As I recall, he was able to lift the entire Golden Gate Bridge and use it as a weapon. Just because he's not Middle Eastern, doesn't rule out the possibility of terrorism. Racists.

In all seriousness, the scene looks pretty unbelievable. 35W is to Minneapolis what Iceland is to the game of Risk: It's the crux of the map, and when it's down, nothing can move. I can only imagine the months of nightmare traffic that will plague the twin cities. So in sum: Wow.