It
is almost 2 a.m., and I just got back from a story like no other I've
experienced. It was 6:10 p.m., I was
sitting at my desk, waiting for a call back, when Assignment Editor Peter
Nelson said, "The I-35 Bridge is down." I said, "What?" He later told me he got two tip calls that
said the bridge went down at University
Avenue and cars were in the river.
The
photographer I was assigned to work with was out on another story, so I walked
out of the building to wait for him. I
saw photographer Brad Earley sitting in his car on the ramp, ready to leave to
go home (he would have taken the bridge, incidentally). I told Brad about the story, and he said,
"Let's go."
When
we arrived, we saw thick, black smoke filling the air. It was clear a truck was on fire. Then we saw people running up the hill on River Road. Cuts.
Bruises. Bloody. But nothing horrible. I tried to get a view of the river, and we
couldn't see it. Police kept pushing us
back.
I
didn't call the newsroom, I immediately called our control room when I got on
scene, and had the producer put me on the air.
Reporter James Schugel and I went back and forth, filling in details as
we got them. I talked with a guy who had
blood on his nose, because he crashed in his truck. He couldn't believe he was alive.
Later,
I talked with another man, a staffer for the community group that was on that
school bus. He said he helped the kids
get off the bus, that it was crazy. I
asked, "How many kids do you think you helped?" He said, "All of them."
When
I got back to the newsroom, I checked my e-mail and found about a dozen
messages from friends around the country.
"Hope all your loved ones are safe." "My prayers for your community."
Then
another local friend e-mailed, the editor of a
local
online community I participate in: "I imagine today has been
just exhausting. You covered it well. Someone on MnSpeak said that these are
the moments when we realize the importance of live television news, and I
agree."
I'll
be back in 9 hours to keep on this story.
To ask the tough questions about what happened here. To share the heroic stories. This is what we do.
