scary bad news--fiery freeway meltdown/collapse
ONRAMP
Originally uploaded by GaretFS. this story or - more accurately - the photos of the crash / collapsed freeway site basically reflect a recurring motif in many of my dreams-->
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070430/ap_on_re_us/highway_collapse
just a few days ago, for example, i dreamt that my mom was driving my family along a freeway at a part that went underneath another freeway {with steep, snaking on/off-ramps all about} and she crashed, but just into some dirt & pile-ons (our lane had suddenly ended) and no one was hurt.....
btw, no one died in sunday early-a.m.'s gas tanker accident, but "authorities said the damage could take months to repair, and that it would cause the worst disruption for Bay Area commuters since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged a section of the Bay Bridge itself."
The driver, James Mosqueda, 51, of Woodland, was headed from a refinery in Benicia to a gas station near the Oakland Airport when the accident occurred, according to the California Highway Patrol.
A preliminary investigation indicated he may have been speeding on the curving road, Cross said. Mosqueda was being treated in a hospital for burns Sunday; the hospital would not transfer media calls to his room.
Witnesses reported flames rising up to 200 feet into the air. Heat exceeded 2,750 degrees and caused the steel beams holding up the interchange from eastbound I-80 to eastbound Interstate 580 above to buckle and bolts holding the structure together to melt, leading to the collapse, California Department of Transportation director Will Kempton said.
The charred section of collapsed freeway was draped at a sharp angle onto the highway beneath, exposing a web of twisted metal beneath the concrete. Officials said that altogether a 250-yard portion of the upper roadway was damaged.
The cost of the repairs would likely run into the tens of millions of dollars, and the state was seeking federal disaster aid, Kempton said. Schwarzenegger late Sunday issued an emergency declaration to allow repairs to happen faster, said Adam Mendelsohn, the governor's spokesman.
The Bay Bridge consists of two heavily traveled, double-decked bridges about two miles long straddling San Francisco Bay.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said the accident showed how fragile the Bay area's transportation network is, whether to an earthquake or terrorist attack, and has the potential to have a major economic effect on the city.
"It's another giant wakeup call," Newsom told reporters at the California Democratic Party convention in San Diego.
spontaneous, related question: am wondering if those of you who are "grown up" and have started families of your own (however you define family... except especially if you live with any of the members) STILL have dreams about being a child and/or being in the position of a child in your family of birth.
as you probably know, i am a single adult; i've lived away from my parents for a while yet i still dream about being w/my original 'nuclear' family--perhaps not as often as i dream of friends & random other ppl, but still... i don't dream of being ALONE in a car on a scary freeway--ever. do i have any lone dreams, though? yeah, sure.