Minnesota's Wild Night

Sauk Centre wasn't the only place to get wild weather last night. Twin Cities news services reported that 100,000 Excel customers (that's a big power company in Minnesota) were without power at one point. The Twin Cities had trees uprooted, but no one hurt, as of this morning.

A friend of one of my daughters lives near Alexandria, about 20 miles (30 kilometers or so) up I-94. They were without power for 5 hours.

Here in Sauk Centre's south side, we didn't have more than about a minute of no power. But that was enough to add resetting clocks to today's task list.

The storm kept me up well past 1 this morning. I don't like having every member of the family asleep with weather like last night's brewing. Friday had been hot, humid, and with a strong south wind. Even without National Weather Service warnings, it was pretty clear that odds favored a storm.

There was another reason for staying up late. More about that at Starting a Small Business Without Losing My Mind.

The St. Cloud Times says that last night's rain brought their monthly rainfall total up to par, plus some. That's good news, considering the drought we're in, but I'd have preferred the rain to come more gradually.

Minnesota Bridge Disaster: Front Page News in Alexandria, Minnesota

The 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis made the front page of the Echo Press today. That's Alexandria, Minnesota's newspaper.

The front page story was under the fold - on the bottom half of the page - and with no picture, but on the front page nonetheless. A sidebar to the article talked about the burst of cell phone traffic, as folks in this part of the state touched base with friends and kin in the Metro area.

(The Alex paper is pretty important to this family, when it comes to news from outside Sauk Centre. Alexandria is the nearest larger town, 20 miles up the Interstate. At about 8,000 population, it's roughly twice the size of Sauk Centre, where I live.)

The extended family that I'm a part of added a little to the communication overload, although what my wife did was call her father, who lives in town, to see how everyone was. At this point, his home is a sort of headquarters for the family.

The Alex paper's Friday edition has a photo of the mess on page three of their "A" section, part of an article on how folks in this area can help. Most of it's very local: important, but if you're that close to Alexandria, MN, odds are that you'll have seen the paper already.

For anyone in Minnesota's Metro area, here's what I posted on another site on Wednesday: I've heard that they're going to need blood. In case you're in the Metro area, interested, and able, here are some places to donate: Memorial Blood Centers / Where to Donate: Twin Cities Locations

The Red Cross Twin Cities Chapter says that eligible donors can "call 1.800.GIVE.LIFE" (1.800.4483.5433) "or go online to givebloodgivelife.org to learn more about blood donation and to make a blood donation appointment. A blood donor card or driver's license are required at check-in. Donors must be at least 17 years old and must weigh at least 110 pounds."

I'll add another link today: American Red Cross Twin Cities Chapter. That site was alternately very slow to respond, or not responding at all on the night of the disaster. The Red Cross TC home page has a link to www.safeandwell.org, where people who were in the area can register as being alive and walking, and where family and friends can search the list of those who have registered.

Two Metro area television stations are doing a decent job of covering aftermath of the bridge collapse, KMSP and KSTP.

One item that's half-way into the news that I read is what happened with the Twins game at the Metrodome, on one end of the 35W bridge. The folks running decided to keep the game going (that's been in the written news that I saw) because they didn't want all those fans driving out of the Metrodome before Minneapolis law enforcement had a chance to set up some sort of traffic control for re-routing a few thousand cars. The last part was on radio news in this area, I understand.

I've already heard a Minnesota politician say something guardedly stupid about the collapse. There's probably going to be quite a bit more as election time comes up.

Finally, I've been very glad to see how folks around the bridge collapse handled the catastrophe. KMSP said that many "were asking police if there was anything they could do to help." "They thanked us for the sentiment, but said there wasn't much we could do right now," KMSP quoted a woman as saying. She'd walked a few miles from where she lived to the disaster area.

Then, there's the security video footage of the bridge collapse. It shows the bridge breaking and falling, then a young woman with a cell phone running away from the bridge. She was making pretty good time, and I don't blame her. Maybe two beats later, she was trotting back toward the bridge, cell phone still held to her ear. My guess is that she was going to see if she could help.

Minnesota Bridge Disaster Followup

Amazingly, the death toll is still very low in the 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis. Only four people are confirmed dead at this point. There are 20 or 30 missing: people who were out on errands, coming home from work, or otherwise engaged in the area who haven't returned yet.

I posted a few online and toll-free contacts where people in the area can help, on yesterday's Sauk Centre Journal entry.

Minnesota Bridge Disaster

About 2 hours ago, at around 6:10 pm central time (USA), the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and St. Paul collapsed.

That's rush-hour traffic.

This extended family does not seem to have been directly affected: our family members who might have been in the area have been accounted for.

Other families, however, have lost people in this disaster. This family's prayers are with those who lost their lives, with those who are hurt, with the families who are affected, and with the emergency and trauma workers who are sorting out this mess.

God be with you all.