![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/74\/2007\/08\/last-one-over-bridge.jpg\" "\\"last-one-over-bridge\\"")
\u201cI was in disbelief,\u201d says Rademacher, a member of First Covenant Church in Minneapolis, and associate director of the congregation\u2019s MetroKids Daycare. For two days afterward, she felt sick to her stomach.<\/p>\nMINNEAPOLIS, MN (August 21, 2007) \u2013 Jonie Rademacher felt her car shaking and thought there was something wrong with her vehicle as she headed home in rush hour traffic on August 1. Then she felt a lurch as she exited the I-35W bridge northbound. <\/p>\n
When she looked in her rearview mirror, she realized that the cars that had been behind her were no longer there. \u201cI thought they all had stopped because of an accident,\u201d she says. When she arrived home and turned on the news, she learned the bridge had collapsed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in disbelief,\u201d says Rademacher, a member of First Covenant Church in Minneapolis, and associate director of the congregation\u2019s MetroKids Daycare. For two days afterward, she felt sick to her stomach.<\/p>\n
She returned to the site several days later with her husband and was able to stand at a distance and see with binoculars just how close she had come to plunging down the portion of the bridge that now lies at a 45-degree angle (see photo).<\/p>\n
Two other members of the congregation, Monica Groves, the church\u2019s minister to children, and bookkeeper Darlene White, had crossed the bridge in the opposite direction only moments before the collapse.<\/p>\n
Within fifteen minutes of the disaster, their church was becoming involved. At the same time and in the days to come, other Covenanters also would care for survivors and family members.<\/p>\n
First Covenant is located across the street from Hennepin County Medical Center, where some of the wounded were transported. The church also is located across the street from the Metrodome, where the Minnesota Twins play, and as usual, had opened its lot for parking to attendees. When he heard of the bridge collapse, Steve Thoes, First Covenant\u2019s parking manager, immediately closed the lot except to hospital workers who were rushing to HCMC. The lot filled quickly.<\/p>\n
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Hospital administrators walked to the church to ask if the building could be used as a family center in case space was needed to handle the influx of family members searching for loved ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the course of the next few hours, we realized how fortunate Minneapolis was in this disaster, as only two families needed to use the facilities at First Covenant,\u201d says Jan Thoes, the congregation\u2019s communications manager. By 10:30 p.m., all the affected families were able to be on the hospital grounds.<\/p>\n
Parish nurse Carolynn Lundgren has held discussions with HCMC for years about using First Covenant as a triage location in the event of a disaster or evacuation, says Jan Thoes, adding that those talks will continue.<\/p>\n
First Covenant member Ruth Mattox, a retired nurse, has volunteered for four years with the Red Cross to help disaster victims. That work has included traveling to the South to help hurricanes victim, including those struck by Katrina.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis happened to be in our own front yard,\u201d Mattox says. For a week immediately following the collapse she worked fourteen hours a day caring for families of the missing and helping survivors with financial issues.<\/p>\n
She met with the families at a Family Assistance Center authorities had set up so families could gather while waiting for news. Mattox had seen a lot of grief as a nurse, but this experience was different. \u201cThis has been a real raw grief,\u201d she explains. \u201cThey just had so much hope, and you could see it slipping away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, she says, \u201cI couldn\u2019t wait to get back every day because we had formed community,\u201d Mattox says.<\/p>\n
Greg Bodin, a chaplain at North Memorial Medical Center and for the fire department, was summoned to the scene shortly after the bridge collapsed. He would remain there until 11 p.m. the next night.<\/p>\n
He has been at the scene or at the Family Assistance Center ever since. He also has been with rescue crews and the Navy dive teams as they searched for the missing. As the bodies of the victims were found, he prayed over them at the site before they were removed.<\/p>\n
Bodin plans on attending several funerals, including that of Greg Jolstad, whose body was found Monday evening, thus concluding the search efforts. The chaplain has spent numerous hours with the construction worker\u2019s family since the tragedy.<\/p>\n
Pat Hall, chaplain with the Ramsey County Sheriff\u2019s Department and the Burnsville Police Department, plans to continue checking in with at least one family. \u201cWe\u2019ve gotten pretty close,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Hall, who also is pastor of Frontline Covenant Church in Maplewood, was immediately called to the disaster scene. Like Mattox and Bodin, he spent hours that stretched into days with survivors of the missing. \u201cNot knowing was their worst fear, and yet they wanted to know. The not knowing is torture,\u201d he recalls. \u201cWhen they did find out, there was a sense of relief and horror at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
All of the families wanted Hall to tell others how grateful they were for the prayers and physical care offered them. \u201cThat\u2019s the one thing they wanted me to make clear to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n