Thursday, August 02, 2007

Bridge In Troubled Waters








By now many of you have heard about the 35W bridge collapse in Minnneapolis yesterday evening. First a personal note of gratitude: we are all fine, thank G-d.

It's quite a ways from us and not a route we use often, though I almost drove across it yesterday morning until I found myself driving on "autopilot" and heading a different way to the same destination. (I'm not sure whether that "autopilot" thing was not enough coffee or just enough Divine Intervention, but either way, I'm safe.)

It's very surreal here. Husby and I went out for a walk last night and met several other neighbors who were outside just trying to make sense of it. Everyone knew someone who crossed that bridge during rush hour. The cell phone towers are overloaded and last I heard, there are at least 30 people unaccounted for and at least six fatalities.

We had the news on at 6:00pm last night and saw the first "breaking news" story. Stopped us in our tracks. I stared in disbelief until my brain kicked into gear and then all I could do was whisper "Baruch Dayan HaEmet" repeatedly. There was nothing we could do except watch and worry and pray.

I just saw the CNN video of the bridge as it actually collapsed. I'll add it in a post just after this one.

I couldn't sleep last night from all the news, finally took something to help and I'm groggy today. Not a great day for writing, let me tell you. But I've got two articles due and another blog post update on watching Tsvi Bisk in action (wow), so it's a writing day whether my brain wants to or not.

3 comments:

Torah said...

We are to learn something from every event.

singing.... bridge over troubled waters by Simon and Garfunkel

www.zahavapasternak.blogspot.com

Shira Salamone said...

Thank G-d you and your family are alright!

What a tragedy for those who didn't make it, as well as their family and friends.

Sheyna said...

This makes twice in my life that a local tragedy has dominated national news for a while (the first was the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake that hit Northern California - at the time it hit, I was standing literally 8 miles from the epicenter, and, thank G-d, in the safest place within two miles).

Two is enough, thank you. My heart goes out to all those who lost loved ones, especially to the pregnant mom and her 2-year-old daughter. Tragically sad.