Taylor Linden

Cars and people are in the Skagit River at the scene of an I-5 bridge collapse near Mt. Veron, Wash.

Three people were rescued from water after a bridge along Interstate-5 in Washington State collapsed on Thursday evening, plunging cars into Skagit River below, according to Washington State Patrol.

The extent of the injuries for the three is unclear, but all were evaluated on scene and were transported to area hospitals, according to Marcus Deyerin of the Washington Incident Management Team. Authorities say they have no reason to believe any others are still in the river.

“I’m thankful there were no fatalities,” said Wash. Governor Jay Inslee in a statement. “Witnesses say a truck hit the bridge and caused it to collapse, but an investigation has been launched to confirm that."

I-5 is the main freeway that runs along the West Coast, and NBC Seattle affiliate KING5 reported that traffic was significantly backed up in both directions.

Two vehicles were submerged in the after the bridge fell around 7 p.m. local time (10 p.m. EDT), and traffic has been closed in both directions.

A witnesses told KING5 that an oversized truck hit the upper right side of the bridge before the collapse.

The minimum vertical clearance on the bridge (distance from the road to something a truck can bump into) is 14.5 feet. The standard height is 16 feet.

This I-5 bridge over the Skagit River at Mount Vernon was described by the Washington State Department of Transportation, after an inspection in August 2010, as "somewhat better than minimum adequacy to tolerate being left in place as is."

Inslee's statement added: "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 [Friday] 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."

State inspection reports submitted to the Federal Highway Administration were reviewed by NBC News. That overall evaluation of the structural condition on the bridge corresponds to a score of 5 on a scale from 0 (worst) to 9 (best).

The bridge received identical scores on inspections in 2010, 2008 and 2006, and is on a schedule for inspection every 24 months, as generally required by federal regulations. State officials said Thursday evening they were working to make public a copy of the latest inspection report, presumably from 2012.

Looking at specific areas of the bridge, the substructure (piers, abutments, footings, piles, etc.) was described as in satisfactory condition, with the superstructure (beams, girders, stringers, trusses, cables, pins, hangers, etc.) in somewhat worse condition, listed as fair, according to the inspection data online from the Federal Highway Administration. "Fair" meant that all primary structural elements were sound but may have minor defects.

The 1,112-foot steel truss bridge was built in 1955, and was carrying an average daily traffic of 71,000 vehicles.

The bridge was of a "fracture critical" design, as are 18,000 bridges nationwide, meaning it could collapse if even one part failed.

Even after the bridge collapse that killed 13 people in Minneapolis in 2007, a haphazard system of inspections continued, with federal authorities choosing not to require re-inspection of all the fracture-critical bridges.

In a survey of every state by msnbc.com in 2008, only six states and the District of Columbia said they began to recheck all their fracture-critical bridges.

Gina Cole / Skagit Valley Herald

North end of the I-5 bridge over Skagit River collapsed Thursday night.

Officials in Washington state, like in most states, said they performed special inspections of only their few dozen bridges of the particular deck-truss design used in Minneapolis.

The bridge that fell Thursday did go on to receive its regular inspections in 2008 and 2010, according to the federal records, called the National Bridge Inventory.

Bill Dedman of NBC News contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 12:12 AM EDT

Flood-weary residents in parts of the Midwest were still trying to stem the tide of murky river water Friday, as late snow-melt combined with days of spring rain sent rivers toward high-water records.

Floodwaters had begun an inch-by-inch retreat in inundated Peoria, Ill., after the Illinois River crested Tuesday at 29.35 feet, eclipsing a 70-year record. In central Indiana, more heavy rain through Wednesday morning prompted a request for voluntary evacuation along the Tippecanoe River near Lafayette.

The Grand River at Grand Rapids, Mich., which reached record levels, began to fall below flood stage Thursday and some of the hundreds of people evacuated were starting to return home.

Along the Mississippi, the biggest concern was that the flood is expected to linger into May, potentially straining longstanding earthen levees and hastily-built sandbag walls. No towns were in imminent danger.

Rain-soaked Chicago had its wettest April on record, the National Weather Service said, according to NBCChicago.com.

In tiny Dutchtown, Missouri, flooding from the Mississippi has become such a fact of life that residents expressed hope that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would buy them out of their homes.

Reuters

Local residents work with soldiers of the 1140th Engineer Battalion to build a sandbag wall near Dutchtown, Missouri, on Wednesday.

Thousands of sandbags were at the ready in anticipation of a crest Thursday.

Doyle Parmer, who doubles as town clerk and emergency management chief, told The Associated Press that residents had been "jumping through hoops" for three years seeking a buyout from FEMA as part of a federal program that sees flood-prone areas set aside for green space or a park. The AP said:

In order for that money to arrive, towns must prove that flooding is frequent and devastating enough for a buyout to be cost-effective, and Dutchtown hasn't filed a suitable one yet, said Melissa Janssen, mitigation branch chief for the FEMA region that includes Missouri.

Parmer said he and other residents were ready to get out.

"Sell the house, cut the grass and get the hell out of Dodge," he said.

For 40 years, Shirley Moss has lived in the same home in the town, but as the sandbags piled up yet again, she didn't hesitate when asked if she would take a government buyout.

"In a New York minute," Moss said from her double-wide mobile home. "I'm 75 years old — I can't fight this."

Meanwhile, in North Dakota residents got their first touch of good news on Wednesday when officials said the swollen Red River would crest at lower than anticipated levels next week, the AP reported.

Residents in Fargo and neighboring Moorhead, Minnesota, have been filling sandbags ahead of the expected fourth major Red River flood in the past five years after unseasonably cold weather delayed the annual thaw.

But the river was still expected to peak at possibly its second-highest level on record, and flood preparations in the north-central United States follow major flooding on rivers in Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and Michigan caused by heavy rain, the AP said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

• Full coverage from weather.com

This story was originally published on Thu Apr 25, 2013 5:39 AM EDT

Flood-weary homeowners and sandbaggers across the Midwest were braced for record-level river crests Wednesday amid forecasts that rain would add more water to already-swollen rivers.

Possible snow flurries were also predicted for some flood-hit areas.

Showers and scattered thunderstorms were expected to move through the lower Great Lakes, Ohio Valley and Kentucky with a cold front into Wednesday afternoon, dumping between half-an-inch and one inch of rain onto ground already soaked by spring moisture and snow-melt, Weather.com meteorologist Kevin Roth said.

Another storm will drop into the northern Plains and upper Mississippi Valley producing rain and snow showers,

However, no significant snow accumulations are forecast. NBCChicago.com reported that early low temperatures were likely to rise following an extended period of sunshine.

Floodwaters were rising to record levels along the Illinois River in central Illinois late Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. In Missouri, six small levees north of St. Louis were overtopped by the surging Mississippi River, though mostly farmland was affected.

Officials in Peoria on Tuesday said the Illinois River finally had crested, but not without destruction. In Peoria Heights, population 6,700, roads and buildings were flooded and riverfront structures were inundated. Firefighters feared that if fuel from businesses and vehicles starts to leak, it could spark a fire in areas that could be reached only by boat.

Seth Perlman / AP

Jennifer Rock uses her cell phone to take photos to send to a friend of flooding from the Illinois River on Tuesday in Spring Bay Ill.

"That's our nightmare: A building burns, and we can't get to it," Peoria Heights Fire Chief Greg Walters said. "These are combustible buildings, and we have no access to them simply because of the flooding."

Among those still in their homes was Mark Reatherford. The 52-year-old unemployed baker has lived for decades in the same split-level home with a gorgeous view: a small park between him and the Illinois River. But by Tuesday afternoon, as a chilly rain fell, the river had rolled over the park and made it to Reatherford's home, creating a 3-foot-deep mess in the basement. Reatherford had cleared out the basement furniture and was hopeful the main floor would stay dry.

Now, he's considering moving.

"I'm getting too old to deal with this," he told The Associated Press.

In Saginaw County, Mich., water topped the dyke at Misteguay Creek in Spaulding Township. Businesses and homes were flooded along the Tittabawassee River, a Saginaw River tributary. Part of Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge also was under water.

The National Weather Service predicted that the Red River in Fargo, North Dakota could set a new record when it crests, possibly later this week, weather.com reported. A cold spring has delayed snow melt in the area.

A rise in temperatures later this week will accelerate the snow melt across the region, Weather.com said.

It was a very different picture fort the Northeast Wednesday, where thunderstorms were forecast to give way to sunshine and warm temperatures in metropolitan New York - possibly into the 70s.

Meanwhile, a storm system was expected to bring thunderstorms through the Southwest Thursday and into the southern Plains and Texas Friday, Roth said. Severe thunderstorms are possible in southern Oklahoma and northern Texas with this storm Friday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

Full coverage from weather.com

This story was originally published on Wed Apr 24, 2013 6:20 AM EDT

Melanie Thortis / Vicksburg Evening Post via AP

Barges wait for traffic to re-open along the Mississippi River near Vicksburg, Miss. on Monday.

VICKSBURG, Miss. -- With more than 50 vessels idled on the water for a fourth day Wednesday, authorities said they still did not know when they would be able to reopen a 16-mile stretch of the Mississippi River that was closed due to an oil spill.

A plan to pump oil from a leaking barge onto another barge — a process known as lightering — had been approved, but it was unclear how long that would take, Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally said Tuesday. He said the other barge was en route.

Severe weather that was expected to sweep through the area could shut down cleanup operations for a time, prolonging the process further, authorities said.

Crews have been working around the clock to contain and remove oil since the barge, owned by Corpus Christi, Texas-based Third Coast Towing LLC, struck a railroad bridge and began leaking early Sunday. The company has refused to comment on the incident.

Lally also noted that about 7,000 gallons of crude oil were unaccounted for aboard the barge. He said it was not clear whether all of it spilled into the river or some seeped into empty spaces inside the barge.

At least 54 vessels, including towboats and barges, were idled on the river, one of the nation's vital commerce routes.

More than 168 million tons of cargo a year moves along the Mississippi between Baton Rouge, La., and the mouth of the Ohio River, carried by nearly 22,300 cargo ships and 162,700 barges, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. About 3.6 million tons of cargo is handled annually by the port of Vicksburg.

When low water threatened to close the river earlier in January, the tow industry trade group American Waterways Operators estimated that 7.2 million tons of commodities worth $2.8 billion might be sidelined over the last three weeks of the month.

Salt destined for Northern roads moves upriver in January, said spokeswoman Ann McCulloch. "We're still moving corn, soybeans and grain, but also coal and petroleum ... stone, sand and gravel," she said Tuesday.

Barges carry 20 percent of the nation's coal and more than 60 percent of its grain exports, according to the group.

Ron Zornes, director of corporate operations for Canal Barge Co. of New Orleans, said each idled towboat could cost a company anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 a day. The low end would be for a single boat with a couple of barges and the high end for one in "a system of towboats that acts sort of like a bus system."

"So if one bus is stopped it gums up the whole system," he said.