Bridge collapse in Minneapolis

Oh dear Lord...

Suddenly being stuck home with pneumonia REALLY doesn't seem so bad.

At 6:05pm, one of the most heavily used bridges in the Twin Cities suddenly collapsed into the Mississippi River. No warning. No escape - gridlocked cars. I'm only glad that it was not one of our double-decker bridges with cars underneath it - the river is bad too of course, particularly that stretch of it which is fast flowing and deep.

No word yet on what happened. Road work was being done the bridge, as with almost all of the Twin Cities freeways these past weeks, but no word yet on whether that had anything to do with it.

To make matters worse, there are severe thunderstorms that are moving into the metro, and the bridge scene is right in the path of the storm. Rescue efforts are going to be severely hindered unless a miracle happens.

Prayers are urgently needed for all affected, and for those rescue workers who are still hard at work trying to find people trapped or in the water. Especially prayers for the road crews that were on the bridge when it happened - they did not have the protection of a vehicle during the fall.

WCCO - CBS channel 4 streaming live video