Donate to help out the kids rescued from the bridge collapse!

In reading about the people who died in the bridge accident, I noticed that family members and co-workers had set up accounts for donations to help out their families. I wondered if there was a fund to help out the kids who were on the bus because in the video I saw that some of them had injuries, many were clearly still frightened, and they are from families with very few resources. They were on a field trip as part of a program of the Waite House, a program supported by Pillsbury United Communities.

The young man who helped rescue them, Jeremy Hernandez, has had to drop out of school because he couldn't afford it.

I have discovered that there are two ways to make contributions to support the needs of these children and the Waite House program that serves them.

Please note that

* a number of the students on the bus are from families that are
undocumented and do not have any medical insurance. Pillsbury United Communities is taking up a collection:


Contributions can be sent
Waite House
c/o Pillsbury United Communities
1201 37th Avenue North
Minneapolis, Mn 55412

You can specific a certain % of the donation to pay for medical expenses,
and a certain % of Jeremy's scholarship if you prefer.


I have just discovered this message from one of my city council members, Gary Schiff that tells other methods of making donations to the fund:

A fund has been set up for children from the Waite House summer
program in Phillips who survived the 35W bridge collapse on
Wednesday, August 1st. All the occupants of the bus, which was
returning the youth from a field trip at a water park, reached safety
in the moments after the disaster.
Images of the bus resting against the bridges guardrail have become
a symbol of survival and heroism stemming from the tragedy. The fund
will support the students on the bus for what they need in the
process of recovery, including medical bills, Francisco Segovia,
director of Waite House said. Donations can be made online through at
www.puc-mn.org, click on donate and select the Waite House Bridge
Disaster Fund in the designation section. Donations are also being
accepted over the phone by calling toll free 888-642-3040 or by mail
to the Pillsbury United Communities, Development Office, 1201 37th
Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN 55412. Please specify the Waite House
Bridge Disaster Fund when mailing in donations.

A miraculous escape

The woman in this story, Djana Andic, was one of our majors and a co-worker in our department. She tells the story of her escape from one of the cars that plunged into the river when the bridge collapsed.

I'm so very grateful that she escaped with only bruises. Her experience was terrifying, but she is alive and well.

Rescue workers tell some of their stories. This man was riding his bike and was one of the first on the scene to help rescue people.

I think I"m not alone in feeling a kind of delayed shock. I've been thinking a lot about what happened in the earthquake of 1989 in San Francisco, where my family lives, and in New Orleans where the catastrophe was monumentally more dire. I'm also thinking of my experience in Spain of having passed through Madrid one day before the bombings of the train station in Atocha. I'm thinking of the victims of the plane crash in Brazil where inadequate airport facilities made such an accident a matter of time.

Every day in Iraq when a car bomb goes off and dozens, hundreds of people are murdered, the citizens of that country must experience the fear, horror and despair, compounded by the desperate lack of basic resources such as water,electricity, safety in the streets.

I believe that we will discover that budget constraints forced the state agency to spread out needed repairs to infrastructure in a way that contributed to the likelihood of such an accident. Some people wish that the "finger pointing" or political discussions would wait until all the victims have been identified, and I understand that desire. But we will need to understand how such a thing could happen, in spite of the fact that this state's agencies do a very good job in general, not commonly marked by corruption or incompetence.

The last budget cycle has been marked by acrimonious contention over the funding of transportation, with the governor and Republicans blocking bills that would have provided for more investment in roadways and public transportation, even losing out on matching available federal money in the process! I think that once the recovery work is done, we will see a set of hard-hitting reports on the fact that in the last six years Republicans have starved state and municipal agencies of all kinds in the name of "no new taxes."

The bridge

Jeremy Hernandez, the Waite House youth worker who got sixty kids off the school bus, handing them down to other rescuers who got them off the bridge.

Thank you so much to the friends and family who've been in touch. I've felt the need to reach out as well. Considering the magnitude of the event, it is astounding to me how many people were rescued and helped in the very first minutes. Watching and listening to the coverage, reading blogs and comments, seeing pictures from eyewitnesses who live and work in the area, like blogger Noah Kunin all have made clear how many people, both professionals and those who just happened to be there, acted immediately to rescue and comfort people who were injured, confused, or trapped. Sharon over at Birdchick wrote an eloquent post that shows a before and after picture, and links to a flikr set of photos taken from a boat on the river close by.

I used to live a few blocks from the bridge when I first arrived in Minnesota, and didn't have a car. Walking or biking on the river road around and underneath this bridge towards downtown was something I did quite often, and in recent weeks I've been walking several times very near that area. I crossed that bridge on my way to work almost every day at least once for the last twelve years, mostly without paying attention, but quite often (because I moved here from California) I'd think to myself, "I'm crossing the MISSISSIPPI RIVER!!" a fact that never failed to delight me. I love the river, and although this was not a walking bridge, or a beautiful bridge, the bridges we cross every day in this town are an intimate part of our lives. I don't feel a reaction of fear, but a senes of sadness and loss.

This is a message I received from the Deans of my College at the University. It really expresses well one of the ways this event has affected me and many others I work with.

Words cannot express the sadness we feel with yesterday's collapse of the I-35W bridge. Many of us have been deeply shaken by the suddenness of this event. Bridges hold a special importance for us in CLA since we are located on both banks of the Mississippi, and the ease with which we are able to cross the river reinforces our sense of a unified collegiate community. The I-35W bridge was virtually in the University's back yard and traveling across it was a normal part of the day for many of us and for our family and friends. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those whose lives have been affected by this tragedy.

This disaster is a stark reminder of own mortality and the fragility of life. But such events also remind us of the human ties that bind each of us to our community and to each other. We witnessed spontaneous acts of bravery by the first responders in rescuing many of their fellow citizens, and we remain grateful for the extraordinary dedication of our emergency service workers in trying to save as many persons as possible.

We hope that this email finds you and your family, friends, and colleagues safe and well. If there is anything that the college can do to support you during this time, please let us know.

ETA: Noticiero en castellano:

some video clips

still photos:

Ana and I are safe

We both left campus right about the time that the I-35 bridge collapse happened into the river. On another day, we would have been on it, but she was on her bike and I almost never take the freeway home during rush hour, so although we were crossing the river about that time, neither of us was on the span of the bridge that fell into the river. Instead, we took the 10th Ave bridge that crosses the river just a little way to the east. I came home and turned on the TV to check on something else, and saw the news unfolding. I immediately called my mother to let her know I was OK. Then my brother called me from Maryland because he'd realized that the freeway is the one that goes by the University.

Right now, the news is trickling in, rescue workers are on the scene. Boats and divers are in the water trying to find the vehicles that went into the water--maybe up to 50.

A few eyewitnesses are telling what they saw. A University colleague heard the noise and saw the whole thing from his fifth floor office on the West Bank of the U of MN campus. It looks as if there was some structural damage, some stress fractures in the steel structure.

A storm is moving in--I can hear the thunder. We badly need the rain because of the drought, but it is going to make rescue efforts more complicated.