Friday, I learned that one of the people who works at my company had a brother who is among the confirmed dead. Also, one of my co-workers told me that she knows the school bus driver. There are a few other people at my company who were minutes away from that bridge when it happened. My own daughter was on the bridge that day–had the bridge given out a few hours earlier, that could have been her school bus perched there.
It is not preposterous that a Doper could have either been involved or know someone who was. I don’t think that concern is unwarranted.
What bugs me is the news media replaying footage over and over and over without breaks when there is nothing new to report…I’m sure that plays into people’s feelings of hysteria. It’s a big story, but CNN, etc. made it look like 9-11 pt. 2!
I was watching a news item this side of the pond about the collapse on either BBC or CNN and couldnt help but notice two women (apparently survivors) with their arms around each other apparently racked with grief ,the tears cascading down their faces.
The effect was spoiled a little by the way one of them kept manouvering her friend around so as to keep her own face on camera,the fixed stare over her friends shoulder couldnt have been more blatant .
I thought then and think now what a sick minded ,nasty posturing little slag she was.
Theres been a disaster ,people have died ,better make sure I get my face on T.V.
How low will you go ?
Who also simultaneously took the job (and the salary) of Commissioner of Transportation, and cut the budget for bridge inspectors over the past 5 years.
She was on a taxpayer-paid junket in China when this happened, and had to rush home on the first plane to get her face on TV.
Well, August is quite different, of course, when the climate is more temperate. Still, it’s the season wherein mosquitoes carry off pets and small chidren, so it has its drawbacks.
It is possible that the repercussions of the bridge falling could be enormous. If bridges are quickly inspected and found in need of repair ,the many billions required would be a huge problem. It would be large undertaking requiring Halliburton (. Jobs for the immigrants. )
Traffic would jam up. Taxes would have to be raised.
Side question- would a replacement bridge section really cost the 250 mil they are planning for it? I mean, for what looks to be less than a one mile section, 250 million?
The last inspection of this bridge, the engineering firm noted some problems and recommended specific repairs to fix them. Her Department of Transportation sent the report back to the engineering firm, asking for additional (cheaper) alternatives. Then they did the very cheapest one.
But somehow we had a billion dollars to build a new baseball stadium – that one that had the groundbreaking the next day canceled.
Well, fuck you very much you ignorant little hump. A conservative estimate for the number of people in the 5 boros of NYC on the morning of September 11th, 2001? Hmm. 8 million? More?
A handful of Dopers either worked IN the WTC, worked NEXT to the WTC, lived within a block or two of the WTC or were involved directly in the response at the WTC site.
Think I’m lying? Use the Search function, cowboy. Then stroll back in here and apologize because you know what? Random events are just that- utterly random. What the fuck were the odds that I would know someone who died when TWA 800 exploded over East Moriches, Long Island? Well, I did. He was a producer at ABC Sports. Dead, along with his wife and 2 of 3 kids.
Random means random. It doesn’t mean you get to make obnoxious sweeping statements condemning this entire community for expressing genuine concern over humanity in general and members of this community in particular.
Because in a random event, anyone can wind up dead. Got that?
