Stories tagged disaster
7 dead, 60 injured (as of 1am, Aug 2)
I-35W bridge
At 6:05 pm, during peak traffic, the 35-W bridge over the Mississippi river collapsed. All eight lanes, all the way across, just dropped straight down into the river along with more than 50 cars, trucks, and even a school bus. How could this happen? Here is what I have found so far.
The I -35W bridge.
What does it look like? How is it made? It was a steel arch deck truss bridge. Its longest span stretched 458 feet between supports. It was built in 1967. (Link to photos and more data about the I-35W bridge.)
What might have gone wrong?
"The state, whoever did the inspection, which was likely to be MnDOT, noticed and observed cracking in the structural steel members, the main girders that hold the bridge up in the air. What it means is that the bridge is no longer going to stay stable," Galarn said.
Link to early video with a safty engineer about what might have went wrong.
How safe are other bridges?
Transportation Commissioner Len Levine who served under Governor Rudy Perpich (said) "between 40 and 50 percent of the 20,000 bridges in Minnesota are deficient in some way."
What is going to happen to traffic?
There will be added bus services from North metro area.
Map of detour routes.(pdf)
Where are photos of this disaster?
KSTP has lots of photos and updates.
Detroit Free Press had 25 photos.
34 photos on Flickr by blogger s4xton Read his story here.
Please use our comments to add updates, photo links, or thoughts.
I could not sleep so I started this after midnight. This story will keep growing so stay tuned and share what you know.
Tags : 
Tidal surge from the 1938 hurricane: Image courtesy NOAA/NWS Historic Collection.Over on our thread about a crazy catfish skull, "brandon" recently left a rather off topic, yet still intriguing question:
hi there! i was wondering if there was a hurricane in new york in 1930???????
Why, yes, there was. Technically, it happened in 1938, and it was quite the whopper. On Friday, September 16th, 1938, a Brazilian ship reported a huge storm in the Atlantic and weather forecasters expected it to make landfall near Miami. Luckily for Miami, the storm turned north and everyone expected it to head out to sea. Remember: this was long before satellite images allowed us to track these huge storms in real-time.
Unluckily for people who lived in New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, though, the storm had just temporarily headed out to sea and was about to make landfall in New England. On the 21st, with no warning, one of the fastest-moving hurricanes ever recorded slammed into the New England coast. It caused massive damage in Long Island, giving the storm the name "The Long Island Express." Nearly 600 people died by the time it was all over.
Can you imagine what a storm like that would do to this area today? In 1938, Long Island was still somewhat rural and undeveloped. Today it's a densely-packed urban area full of millions of people, homes, and businesses. And, quite honestly, I hadn't ever even heard of this storm until today. I often think of New York as immune to these sorts of major storms. But it's actually very likely that a major storm will affect this region again in the next 50 years.
1938 Hurricane Links
The Great Hurricane of 1938 - a very in-depth history of the storm.
History Reveals Hurricane Threat to New York City - A modern perspective on the risks to New York city.
The regional perspective on the 1938 hurricane - Lots of great pictures of the destruction in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Do you know anyone who remembers the 1938 hurricane? Do you live in this area and have a hurricane story? Share your stories.
An article in the journal Science recommends that government harness the power of blogs, wikis, and on-line communities to help coordinate disaster relief. The idea is that decentralized bloggers can bring hundreds of eyes and ears to an event, monitoring the situation and looking for solutions.
Big rocks hurtling through space tend to smash into our planet. Unfortunately if these rocks are big enough they could easily wipe out human civilization. So now the United Nations is drafting a plan about how to respond to an eminent asteroid impact. And no, their first step is not to hire Bruce Willis.
Earth wobbles impact extinctions
in Earth and Space Science, Life Science, and Earth Structure and Processes
Wobbly planet Earth: Photo courtesy NASA.
The extinction of rodents and other mammals have been linked to variations in the Earth’s tilt and orbit, according to new research published in the journal Nature.
Dutch scientists studying 22 million year old rodent fossils in central Spain found that the rise and fall of the mammal species correlated with cooling periods due to changes in the Earth’s behavior. Rodents offer one of the best fossil mammal records and are excellent indicators of seasonal changes because of their short life spans.
"Extinctions in rodent species occur in pulses which are spaced by intervals controlled by astronomical variations and their effects on climate change," Dr Jan van Dam, of the Utrecht University in the Netherlands, said.
The researchers discovered two cycles associated with changes in climate, habitat and food availability are linked to the disappearance of rodent species. One cycle, which lasts 2.4 million years, is linked to variations in the Earth’s orbit. The other 1.2 million year cycle is related to changes in the tilt of the Earth’s axis. Both cycles would cool the Earth, allowing the expansion of ice sheets and causing species to adapt or die out.
Right now Earth is in a relatively circular orbit and about 700,000 years away from the next period of axis stability.
"The environment is responsible to what happens to species," said Van Dam. "Biological factors are secondary, according to our results."
However, Larry Ciupik, an astronomer at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium says volcanic activities, plate tectonics and the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere also contribute to species turnover.
MORE INFO
New Scientist
LiveScience.com
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred in the Indian Ocean about 220 miles from Jakarta, Indonesia. It caused tsunamis which are most likely responsible for the death of at least 100 people and the injury of another 150 people. The earthquake was followed by strong aftershocks.
There was a 7.7 magnitude earthquake centered in Pakistan on October 8th, 2005 at 8:50am Pakistan time (that's 10:50pm on Friday in Minnesota). The earthquake devastated the region, leaving many villages destroyed and killing thousands in Pakistan and India. It is one of the strongest earthquakes to hit this area in living memory. Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf described the disaster as the country's "worst-ever."
A clash of titans
The earth's continents rest upon large plates of rock that are slowly moving around the surface of the earth. For millions of years, the Indian subcontinent has been slowly moving north towards Europe and Asia (Eurasia). About 40-50 million years ago (mya), India slammed into Eurasia. Because both India and Eurasia were continents the Eurasia crust crumpled upwards, creating the Himalayan mountains. The leading edge of India was eventually forced underneath the continent in a process geologists call subduction. This movement is still happening today. However, as India continues to move slowly north, it gets hung up and energy builds. When enough energy builds up, there are short bursts of movement, releasing this massive energy and shaking and buckling the ground in what we call an earthquake.
Past disasters
In the last hundred years, several other earthquakes of similar strength have struck this region:
- 2001 - 11,500 people killed - 7.6 magnitude quake struck Indian city of Gujarat
- 1991 - 700 people killed - 6.7 magnitude quake struck in the remote Hindukush mountains of Afghanistan
- 1935 - 35,000 people killed - 7.6 magnitude quake struck Quetta in the Baluchistan province (now western Pakistan)
- 1905 - 20,000 people killed - 7.9 magnitude quake struck Kangra, in northern India
Recent comments
Moon and planets #4
How many books do you read in a year?
Music hath charms to soothe the savage... brain
The Moon and planets unite
Subscribe
I want to learn about
Science Buzz and all related activitiesScience Museum of Minnesota, 2004-2008,
except where otherwise noted.
Copyright Information
Add a new comment