Bush to visit US bridge collapse site

At least five people are dead, about 100 injured and some are believed to still be missing.

The White House released a text of Bush’s weekly radio address in which he offers Minnesotans encouragement as well as federal money.

“This is a difficult time for the community in Minneapolis, but the people there are decent and resilient, and they will get through these painful hours,” he said. “As they do, they know that all of America stands with them, and that we will do all we can to help them recover and rebuild.”

US First Lady Laura Bush toured the scene yesterday morning.

She praised the rescuers who rushed to the bridge in the chaos after the collapse – a sentiment echoed by the fire chief in explaining why more people didn’t die.

The quick response by the president and the Democratic-led Congress was a change from the handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when the federal government was criticised for a slow and awkward early response.

The storm was a disaster on a much larger scale, with parts of Louisiana and Mississippi badly damaged. Katrina’s death toll topped 1,500, and parts of New Orleans are still being rebuilt after flooding.

Rep Jim Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat who chairs the House Transportation Committee, said that the Minnesota Department of Transportation was offered a new technology to inspect hairline cracks not visible to the human eye but declined to use it.

The department did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment left yesterday.

The legislation approved by the House yesterday would waive the $100m (€72.5m) federal limit per state for emergency relief funds, authorising $250m (€181m) for rebuilding the bridge.

The money itself still needs to be appropriated by Congress in future legislation.

Earlier yesterday, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters: “I think it’s safe to say, given the president’s remarks, that of course we are going to support the necessary funding.”

The bill allows for some of the money to be used to reimburse Minnesota for additional public transport costs incurred as a result of the bridge’s collapse.

Meanwhile, a fire chief dealing with the collapse said it was a “miracle” that the death toll was not higher.

More than 100 cars and lorries and a school bus were crawling bumper-to-bumper when the concrete structure crashed into the Mississippi River.

Divers are still searching through the swirling, muddy currents for cars and bodies. Of the 100 injured, 28 remain in hospital, and five are critically ill.

“We were surprised that we didn’t have more people seriously injured and killed,” Fire Chief Jim Clack said. “I think it was something of a miracle.”

Clack cited a list of reasons: a bridge design that minimised falling debris, a quick response by rescue crews and the rush-hour traffic that gave vehicles little momentum to plunge into the river.

In addition, experts say the speed and depth of the water in the Mississippi River were much lower than normal on the day of the collapse – largely as the result of a drought. That may have made it easier for people to escape the disaster.

“It’s a horrible, tragic event. But it could have been a hell of a lot worse,” said Kent Harries, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering in the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Engineering.

Minnesota officials say they do not yet know how many cars were travelling the span during the collapse.

But judging by the length of road, the lanes that were open, time of day and widely accepted traffic formulas, Northwestern University engineering professor Joseph Schofer estimated that between 100 and 150 vehicles were on the bridge.

Despite the low death toll, divers were still contending with a treacherous combination of sunken cars, broken cliffs of concrete and jagged rebar as they searched for bodies.

Firefighters pulled the fifth victim, the driver of a lorry that was engulfed in flames, from the wreckage on Thursday.

Video of the burning rig – nose down in the crevasse between two broken concrete slabs – was among the most compelling images shown in the immediate aftermath of the collapse.

The driver was identified as Paul Eickstadt, 51.

Officials identified the other fatalities as Sherry Engebretsen 60; Julia Blackhawk, 32; Patrick Holmes, 36; and Artemio Trinidad-Mena, 29, a Mexican citizen who lived in Minneapolis and worked as a salesman.

Trinidad-Mena, 29, was returning to his two-month-old daughter and wife Abundia Martinez after a day of meeting with the clients of New York Plaza Produce.

His wages helped support three other children, ages 2-11, in their home state of Guerrero, Mexico.

“He was the best man I’d ever met, a friendly guy, a happy guy. If you ever had a problem, he’d say:

’Don’t be sad. You have to live a happy life’,” said colleague Imelda Riera. “He made everyone feel good. He was that kind of person.”

Early in the day, authorities said as few as eight people were still missing.

But they warned later that number could rise, in part because there was no way to know how many victims were in the water.

Some people without family in the area may not have been reported missing, said police Lieutenant Amelia Huffman, a spokeswoman.

The missing included a 23-year-old pregnant woman and her two-year-old daughter, who was in the back seat of the family’s car when the bridge crumbled.

Authorities still do not know what caused the 6.05pm collapse. Engineers had theories including heavy traffic and construction work that might have put an undue burden on the span.

The bridge was deemed “structurally deficient” by the federal government as far back as 1990.

Minnesota transportation officials spent another day dealing with scrutiny arising from reports and inspections over the years that raised alarm about the bridge, including rust-eaten steel beams, missing bolts and cracks in the welding that held load-bearing parts together.

A consulting company that thoroughly examined the bridge noted that one possible fix – steel plating of fractures – carried a “relatively high cost”, according to a January report. Transportation officials deny that cost pressures swayed their decisions.