Thursday, August 02, 2007

Mourning in Minnesota

In the Rose Garden today, President Bush said the Federal government “must respond, and respond robustly, to help the people there...recover.”

The First Lady will be in Minneapolis Friday to console the families of those who died.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said today, “This is a horrible time for the families of those who lost loved ones yesterday, and it's also a very trying time for anybody in public service."

After the uproar over FEMA’s failure in New Orleans, the Administration is now responding with appropriate action and expressions of sympathy to a disaster in the city that will host the Republican National Convention next year.

The official death toll from the collapsed bridge is now four, with as many as 30 others missing.

In Iraq, 54 young men from Minnesota have been lost, 11 of them this year. Unlike yesterday’s victims, they died far from home and officially unmourned.

No one knows yet if the bridge disaster could have been averted and the victims spared. In Iraq, we do. Will the President “respond robustly”?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Actually it looks like it was an avertable tragedy.

It was one of "...as many as 80,000 bridges" judged to be "structurally deficient."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=a0QBV_5sTn44&refer=canada