Our Bridge Disaster

It's been a whirlwind the past few days I work for the Minnesota Department of Transportation and we were astonished by one of our bridges falling down. Several of our friends and co-workers were working on the bridge at the time. One of my firends was sitting in her truck enjoying her air conditioning until the last minute and she saw the bridge fall down in front of her eyes. One of our other co-workers was on the bridge at the time and fell into the river he has a few broken ribs but is doing good. All the people of Minnesota have rallied and astonishing acts of kindness are happening all around us. It really made me thankful for my family and friends and all of you on the boards. I am so glad I had this surgery, it has turned my life around. Especially when things like this happen and it makes you realize your life could end at anytime and that it is so important to live your life to the fullest. Deb

Wow - Deb!!! Prayers - prayers and more prayers to all of you that is crazy - when I saw the news footage - I was blown away ... I CANNOT even imagine being there. LIFE is precious hugs, Britt

It's been all over the news out here too. I can't imagine how people deal with such disasters. It's good to hear the good stories of people helping each other. They said on the news that 27 bridges here in Oregon are in a potentially dangerous situation, and then turned around in nearly the same sentence and said the what happened with the bridge collapse in Minnesota was highly unlikely to occur here. How can they say that? How do they really know? I don't know about you guys, but I usually feel a little tightness in my stomach when I cross bridges. We have lots of them here in Portland, and I know of one that is so old and unsafe that they moved all truck and bus traffic off it. They are planning to replace it, but I wonder if it will fall before that happens. Scary stuff. It was evaluated for safety on a scale of 1-100 and it scored a 2.

I'm sorry that terrible disaster hit so close to home for you. My heart breaks for the families of tose that were killed. Can you imagine losing a loved one so suddenly? How aweful!

Deb, Big hugs to you and everyone near this horrific disaster. Working for the D.O.T. must be a very trying job and it is probably a thousand times worse now. The media is over sensationalizing the need of bridge repair throughout the country and everyone is searching for someone to blame for this tragedy. Hopefully they will get to the bottom of what happened sopn and some of the myths will be dispelled. It is so horendous when lives are taken so quickly. We need to take stock of where our lives are in the present. Tomorrow is not promised to anyone. We must remember to always thank God for every given day and ask Him to allow us tomorrow if it is His will. My prayers are with you. Valorie

It is a tragic situation we have our largest US office in MPLS but fortunately none of our 700 plus team members or their families involved . We have made a contribution to the Red Cross appeal and our thoughts are with all those involved. Chily