Personal thoughts on this week’s big story from the those covering it, as reported by twin city newspapers:
Brian Williams, whose daughter Allison lived in the area during an internship a few years back: “Allison used that bridge every day… It’s the most ominous scene, it’s placid and still, and we know it’s not. We know that beneath the surface of those waters are the stories of people with families who love them. It’s the most counterintuitive scene I think I’ve ever come across.”
Greta Van Susteren: “The thing that struck me most of all was that everything was a matter of seconds. If you look at that school bus, it’s miraculous that those children even survived and that the bus was upright.”
Katie Couric: “To have this massive piece of infrastructure, seemingly out of the blue, fall apart — this is a fear that many people have and can relate to it.”
CNN’s Randi Kaye, formerly of WCCO-TV (CBS): “For me at least, you see these lives changing in an instant, this panic, these incredible efforts by Minnesotans to save strangers, all of that draws you. And it affects all of us because it could happen to any one of us.”
Rick Kaplan, CBS Evening News executive producer: “We have tens of thousands of roads and bridges and sewers that are underfunded. There’s a trillion and a half dollars needed. I think Americans expect to have their country work, so this story is going to have a long life.”