"Business Responds"

Thursday, August 2: The jagged remains of the I35W bridge and of last night’s rush-hour traffic lie partially submerged in the Mississippi. Rescue workers are searching the waters, and the number of dead and injured is unknown. The disaster—the disintegration of the bridge and the sudden closure of one of the state’s busiest traffic corridors—is unprecedented in Minnesota.

“I showed up in the mayor’s office early on Thursday morning and asked him what I could do,” says Mike Christenson, director of Community Planning and Economic Development for the City of Minneapolis. “He said, ‘Get on the phone with all the business leaders who are calling to ask what they can do. Tell them we have enough sandwiches and water on the site, and that we need to move to more sustainable forms of compassion.’” Make sure they understand we have transportation issues to manage going forward, so this isn’t an economic disaster, Mayor R. T. Rybak added.

Christenson started dialing. “I got on the phone with business leaders like Nate Garvis at Target, Anne Baker at Coloplast [a urology and wound-care device maker], and Tim Keane and Joe Finley at [law firm] Leonard Street and Deinard,” he says. “Everyone immediately grasped the notion that we had a bridge down that once carried 141,000 people a day, and that we best get on to the business of managing the aftermath.”

An emergency response from Twin Cities businesses was already well underway. Majdi Wadi, owner of Holy Land Middle Eastern restaurant and deli on Central Avenue NE, was just one of many who rushed to the bridge with food and other supplies.

“We brought out 500 meals the first week,” Wadi says. “We told the Red Cross we’d be willing to do whatever it took. We have a budget set aside for donations for times like this. This was a tragic, tragic occurrence, and we are a very vital part of the community. We’re always here to help.”

Wadi’s swift and compassionate response was common. “Immediately after the bridge disaster, our corporate and foundation partners, as well as local restaurants and grocery stores, were all very generous,” says Jan McDaniel, CEO of the Red Cross Twin Cities Area Chapter, which provided meals for rescue and recovery workers and victims’ family members. “They donated cash as well as everything from food, water, and coffee to hand sanitizer and bug spray.”

Just 36 hours after the bridge collapse, the Red Cross was pulling the plug on its fundraising efforts for the disaster. There were already enough donations to provide assistance to the injured and their families. Even so, “many of our corporate partners still wanted to support us in our ongoing disaster relief efforts” connected to the bridge collapse, McDaniel says.