Washington’s elected leaders respond to collapse of I‑5 bridge over Skagit River

As the evening goes on, more and more elect­ed lead­ers are react­ing to tonight’s break­ing news out of Skag­it Coun­ty. A sec­tion of the bridge that car­ries Inter­state 5 over the Skag­it Riv­er, just north of Mount Ver­non, has col­lapsed into the water. The cause of the dis­as­ter is believed to be an over­height truck that struck the super­struc­ture, but this has not been offi­cial­ly con­firmed yet.

Wash­ing­ton Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee, Trans­porta­tion Sec­re­tary Lynn Peter­son and their entourage have arrived in Skag­it Coun­ty to respond. The gov­er­nor is expect­ed to address the news media short­ly at a site not far from the interstate.

Con­gress­man Rick Larsen, who rep­re­sents west­ern Skag­it Coun­ty, was among the first elect­ed lead­ers to respond, with a state­ment issued at 8:27 PM.

“I am mon­i­tor­ing the bridge col­lapse in Skag­it Coun­ty,” he said. “My office stands ready to assist emer­gency respon­ders and local and state offi­cials. I encour­age peo­ple to fol­low police instruc­tions and stay away from the site of the col­lapse to let first respon­ders address the sit­u­a­tion safely.”

Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell sound­ed sim­i­lar notes in a state­ment released just a bit ago.

“My thoughts and prayers go out to the fam­i­lies affect­ed by this col­lapse and to the emer­gency respon­ders on the scene,” Cantwell said.

“My office is close­ly mon­i­tor­ing this sit­u­a­tion in coor­di­na­tion with fed­er­al, state and local offi­cials. We stand ready to help the com­mu­ni­ty in Skag­it Coun­ty and to sup­port the ongo­ing emer­gency response efforts. I encour­age peo­ple in the area to avoid I‑5 and to fol­low the direc­tions of local officials.”

Con­gress­woman Suzan Del­Bene, who rep­re­sents east­ern Skag­it Coun­ty (as well as NPI’s home­town of Red­mond) like­wise indi­cat­ed she stands ready to help.

“I’m close­ly mon­i­tor­ing the bridge col­lapse in Skag­it Coun­ty this evening. I am deeply relieved at the ear­ly reports of no known fatal­i­ties from the bridge fail­ure. As emer­gency response efforts con­tin­ue and inspec­tion crews inves­ti­gate the cause of the shock­ing col­lapse of this bridge, I stand ready to assist in any way I can.”

“This evening, as I am urgent­ly trav­el­ing to the scene from Wash­ing­ton, DC, my staff is cur­rent­ly at the Skag­it Coun­ty Emer­gency Oper­a­tions Cen­ter to help in coor­di­na­tion with fed­er­al, state and local offi­cials. My staff and I are also in com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the NTSB as they send a team to inves­ti­gate and assist.

“I encour­age the pub­lic to avoid the scene and fol­low the direc­tions of local offi­cials and all sug­gest­ed detours in the area.”

Pat­ty Mur­ray announced an hour and a half ago on Twit­ter that she is fol­low­ing devel­op­ments as well, with a tweet signed “PM”.

Close­ly mon­i­tor­ing #Skag­it­Bridge & my staff is work­ing w/ @GovInslee, @wsdot, & local offi­cials to assist in any way pos­si­ble. ‑PM

—  @PattyMurray, 9:09 PM

“My thoughts are with the injured and their fam­i­lies, and I am thank­ful there appear to be no fatal­i­ties. King Coun­ty stands ready to assist in the response to the I‑5 bridge col­lapse,” King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine added on Face­book.

Here’s some reac­tion from state lawmakers:

“Think­ing of those affect­ed by tonight’s events in Skag­it Coun­ty. I’m espe­cial­ly thank­ful for the ded­i­cat­ed WSDOT crews that are work­ing hard tonight.”

— State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Marko Liias

“What a ter­ri­fy­ing expe­ri­ence for the peo­ple thrust into the night­mare of a col­lapsed bridge. We’ve all tak­en this route a mil­lion times…sending prayers to those fam­i­lies direct­ly effected.”

— State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Reuven Carlyle

“We need to invest in our trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture not just for our econ­o­my but for our safety!”

- State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dave Upthegrove

“[A Columbian] reporter just called and asked if this bridge col­lapse changes the debate on the CRC [Colum­bia Riv­er Cross­ing]. First, I had not heard of the col­lapse before his call as I had just got­ten off work late and went direct­ly to the store. I hope and pray every­one is alright — that would be a mir­a­cle! How­ev­er, I believe this col­lapse only inten­si­fies the debate in Olympia on the I‑5 bridge’s safe­ty which has always been a pri­ma­ry issue, par­tic­u­lar­ly the much old­er north­bound span. The crit­ics voic­es will say they want a new bridge — but their actions say they real­ly don’t want a new bridge. They will say we can build a “cheap­er” bridge — a total myth. They will point to a num­ber of what they con­sid­er “prob­lems” but nev­er address the core issues with a VIABLE alter­na­tives that have not already been explored and dis­card­ed by their peers. No, I hope and prey no one was seri­ous­ly hurt but the need is there even more now to build that bridge!”

- State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jim Moeller

“Thoughts and prayers for those in Skag­it Val­ley. Very seri­ous sit­u­a­tion for vic­tims and first responders.”

- State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Chris Reykdal

“Maybe we should increase the size of the pro­posed trans­porta­tion pack­age so we can make sure our state’s high­ways are safe.”

- State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Joe Fitzgibbon

UPDATE, 11 PM: The gov­er­nor is being briefed and his news con­fer­ence is expect­ed to begin in a few min­utes. It will be car­ried live on all major stations.

UPDATE, 11:59 PM: The gov­er­nor’s news con­fer­ence did­n’t last too long. Not all the net­works car­ried all of it because they were talk­ing to a sur­vivor at Skag­it Val­ley Hos­pi­tal. Here is Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee’s statement:

“I’m thank­ful there were no fatal­i­ties tonight. I want to thank the U.S. Bor­der Patrol, our State Patrol and local fire, police and oth­er emer­gency per­son­nel who par­tic­i­pat­ed in a very suc­cess­ful res­cue effort.”

“Our hearts are with those who have been injured and we hope to hear good news soon of their speedy recov­ery. Wit­ness­es say a truck hit the bridge and caused it to col­lapse, but an inves­ti­ga­tion has been launched to con­firm that. Any wit­ness­es or peo­ple with infor­ma­tion should con­tact the State Patrol.”

“I urge every­one dri­ving through this area to pay close atten­tion to the detour and trav­el infor­ma­tion that our state Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion and State Patrol will be pro­vid­ing. The Nation­al Trans­porta­tion Safe­ty Board is on their way tomor­row, and I’ve been in touch with our fed­er­al partners.”

“We will be involved in a vig­or­ous and dili­gent effort to get traf­fic flow­ing again through the Skag­it bridge cor­ri­dor and I will issue an emer­gency procla­ma­tion tomor­row to make sure we have the resources to do so as quick­ly as pos­si­ble. This is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for us to pull togeth­er to show strength of char­ac­ter and patience and good cit­i­zen­ship as we deal with this disruption. “