Bridge Collapse - A City Responds

Minneapolis Star Tribune staff responded to the I-35 bridge collapse with thorough breaking news coverage, including stories from survivors and narratives of community action.

Staff writers Myron P. Medcalf and Tim Harlow describe a prayer gathering in St. Paul:

Hundreds of faithful kneeled, bowed their heads and clenched their fists this afternoon at churches in Minneapolis and St. Paul, praying for the people lost, injured, grieving or helping out after a bridge crashed into the Mississippi River.

Staff writer Kevin Giles, who was driving home when the bridge collapsed, tells of witness reaction at the scene:

Nobody smiled. They were for the most part a silent, showing reverence for the devastation they saw before them. Showing respect for the crumpled cars they could see, for the dying and injured they couldn't. And reverence for each other in the way that people reach out in times of need.

Columnist Nick Coleman writes of the profound sadness, and heroic response, immediately after the tragedy:

The focus at the moment is on the lives lost and injured and the heroic efforts of rescuers and first-responders - good Samaritans and uniformed public servants. Minnesotans can be proud of themselves, and of their emergency workers who answered the call.

For full coverage, including how to help, see StarTribune.com.