AP / Francisco Rodriguez

A man is seen sitting atop a car that fell into the Skagit River after the collapse of the Interstate 5, Thursday.

A driver said he thought he was about to die when an Interstate 5 bridge span collapsed in Washington state, plunging his pickup and another car into the Skagit River below.

Dan Sligh, his wife and another motorist found themselves waist-deep in water when the freeway crumbled moments after the bridge was clipped by an oversized truck, he told NBC affiliate KING5 of Seattle.

State officials said the rescue had been “amazing” and warned of major traffic disruption following the complete closure of the section of the road, near Mount Vernon.

Sligh, a Command Master Chief Petty Officer with the U.S. Navy, said the accident was “like a Hollywood movie unfolding in front of your eyes - up close and personal.”

He said he managed to release his seat belt and climb out of his mangled truck to shallower water, despite fearing he had dislocated his shoulder.

His wife also escaped, and was being kept in the Skagit Valley hospital where she was being treated for internal bleeding.

"I thought we were done," Sligh told KING5 outside the hospital late Thursday. “When I look at all the carnage, all the metal, I assumed that was it at that point. But here we stand."

The couple waited 90 minutes on the roof of pickup awaiting rescue, he said, adding that the other driver was not seriously injured.

“I’m OK. I’m beat up. I feel like I rode a rodeo bull or something.”

I-5 is the main freeway that runs up and down the West Coast between the Canadian and Mexican borders, and traffic was significantly backed up in both directions overnight.

The bridge collapse was caused by an oversize truck, which had a permit, that hit an overhead span, officials said. The driver of the truck was cooperating with investigators, police said.

At an afternoon briefing, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee called for patience while officials work on a plan to reopen the I-5 corridor.

He said an investigation into who is at fault is underway, but "we want to discourage drivers from crashing their trucks into state bridges."

The 1,112-foot steel truss bridge, built in 1955, 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."

Diversions have been set up and plans are already underway to install a replacement span, said Bart Treece, a spokesman for the department, describing the lack of more serous injuries as “amazing."

Officials are trying to find a pre-fabricated structure they could use as a temporary replacement for the bridge before they decide how to repair or replace it.

The section of the freeway carries 71,000 vehicles a day, Treece said, warning significant delays were likely over the Memorial Weekend.

“If you can reduce trips or take another route, that would help,” he said.

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.

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."

State officials stressed that the bridge was not one of the 66,000 nationwide that are considered "structurally deficient.'

“This is just bad luck of where it hit and how it hit,” said Washington Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson. “Based on our inspections, the bridge is not structurally deficient.”

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.

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. 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.

NBC News' Andrew Rafferty and Justin Kirschner contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 7:15 AM EDT

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

Colin Mulvany / AP

During the execution of a search warrant, members of the Joint Federal Haz-Mat Team, FBI and local law enforcement gather in front of the Osmun Apartments near the intersection of First Avenue and Oak Street in the Browne's Addition neighborhood of Spokane, Wash., on Saturday, May 18, 2013

SPOKANE, Wash. -- A 37-year-old man was arrested Wednesday after a pair of letters containing the deadly poison ricin were discovered in Washington state last week.

A grand jury indictment accuses Matthew Ryan Buquet of mailing a threatening communication to U.S. District Judge Fred Van Sickle at the federal courthouse on May 14.

The indictment did not say anything about ricin. However, the U.S. Postal Service said last week that two letters were discovered — one addressed to the courthouse and the other to the downtown post office — and they contained ricin in a crude form that did not immediately pose a threat to workers.

Buquet appeared in federal court in Spokane after the FBI said agents arrested him Wednesday afternoon. He pleaded not guilty.

If convicted of mailing a threatening communication, he could face up to 10 years in prison.

Ricin is a highly toxic substance made from castor beans. As little as 500 micrograms, the size of the head of a pin, can kill an adult if inhaled or ingested.

There were no reports of illness connected to the Spokane letters.

Investigators in hazardous materials suits spent most of Saturday executing a search warrant at a three-story apartment building in downtown Spokane. Witnesses reported that agents escorted a man from the building.

The Spokane investigation comes a month after letters containing ricin were addressed to President Barack Obama, a U.S. senator and a Mississippi judge. A Mississippi man was arrested in that case.

Russell family via Reuters

Sgt. John M. Russell last month pleaded guilty to killing two medical staff officers and three soldiers.

TACOMA, Washington - A survivor of a shooting spree that killed five U.S. servicemen at a combat stress clinic in Iraq testified on Tuesday that he remembered the gunman, a fellow soldier, chuckling after he shot an unarmed man who had been trying to hide.

U.S. Army Sergeant John Russell pleaded guilty last month to killing two medical staff officers and three soldiers at Camp Liberty, adjacent to the Baghdad airport, in a 2009 shooting the military has said could have been triggered by combat stress.

He is facing a streamlined court martial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state to determine the level of his guilt, a question that will hinge largely on whether the military judge finds he acted with premeditation, as prosecutors say, or on impulse, as the defense argues.

Army Sergeant Dominic Morales, working at the clinic at the time of the attack, recalled that he hid under a desk beside another soldier and heard shots ring out and said he could smell gunpowder.

Morales testified that Russell shot a soldier hiding near a filing shelf one time and chuckled as he moaned "Oh God, oh God..." and then shot him again.

"I heard Sergeant Russell chuckle ... an evil chuckle," Morales said. "To me, a frightening chuckle."

Russell then approached his hiding place and shot the soldier next to him, Specialist Jacob Barton, whose dead body fell onto him.

Seconds later, with Russell out of sight, Morales sprinted out of hiding but the soldier fired at least two bullets at him.

The testimony came on the second day of a court martial that is expected to focus largely on Russell's state of mind at the time of the shooting, which marked one of the worst episodes of soldier-on-soldier violence in the Iraq war.

Defense attorney James Culp later established through questioning Morales that nightmares jogged his memory of Russell's laugh.

Military prosecutors have focused this week on the more than 40 minutes Russell had to consider his actions as he drove back to the clinic with a stolen SUV and rifle and on his calm, stone-faced demeanor as he carried that rifle in a combat-ready position as he slipped into the clinic through a rear entrance.

Russell, who agreed to plead guilty in a deal that will spare him the death penalty, faces up to life in confinement without the possibility of parole, forfeiture of pay and a dishonorable discharge.

Defense lawyers, who had not yet made an opening statement, have said Russell suffered a host of mental ailments after several combat tours and was suicidal before the attack. With his mind damaged and unable to get the help he needed, they say, he cracked.

An independent forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Sadoff of the University of Pennsylvania, concluded that Russell suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and psychosis at the time of the shootings.

Sadoff suggested Russell, who was attached to the 54th Engineer Battalion based in Bamberg, Germany, was provoked to violence by maltreatment at the hands of mental health personnel at Camp Liberty.

The presiding judge, Army Colonel David Conn, ruled on Monday that when Sadoff testifies he can draw upon another doctor's findings that the soldier had "brain abnormalities" in areas that govern behavior and emotion. Sadoff used that analysis in his own broader psychiatric evaluation.

Prosecutors also asked Staff Sergeant Derrick Flowers, who jumped out of a window to escape the attack, whether Russell's gunshots were "erratic or controlled."

"It was controlled, sir," Flowers said. 

Related:

• Ten years after Iraq invasion, US troops ask: 'Was it worth it?'
• Army deserter who fled to Canada sentenced to 10 months in prison
• Iraq, 10 years on: Did invasion bring 'hope and progress' to millions?

Council of Chief State School Officers

Jeff Charbonneau, who teaches chemistry, physics and engineering in Zillah, Wash., is the 2013 National Teacher of the Year.

A high school science teacher who starts class each day by saying, "Welcome back to another day in paradise," and who came up with a unique way for his students to graduate from their small, rural high school with college credit has been named the National Teacher of the Year.

Jeff Charbonneau, of Zillah High School in Washington state, was honored by President Barack Obama on Tuesday afternoon, along with all of the other 2013 state teacher winners.

Charbonneau, 35, teaches chemistry, physics, engineering and architecture in Zillah, a city of barely 3,000 residents in Washington's Yakima Valley.

Charbonneau acknowledges that the subjects he teaches are challenging ones. But through interactive learning -- Charbonneau founded a statewide robotics competition and helped create an ecology program where students go on hiking excursions that can last up for up to two weeks -- he hopes his students can learn better.

“I fight a stigma,” Charbonneau wrote in his application for the Washington State Teacher of the Year, which he was awarded back in September.  “Students hear the words ‘quantum mechanics’ and instantly think ‘too hard’ and ‘no way.’  It is my job to convince them that they are smart enough, that they can do anything.”

Charbonneau has managed to set his students up for success after they graduate. By acquiring adjunct faculty status with several local universities, Charbonneau can award his students college credit through their high school science classes -- a deviation from other schools that enable students to place out of courses through Advanced Placement testing, which doesn't award credits. Other teachers at the school have followed suit, giving students a broad range of subjects to get college credit in before they graduate.

Council of Chief State School Officers

Jeff Charbonneau teaches students at Zillah High School, a small, rural school of 400 students in Yakima Valley, Wash.

Since he started offering the college credit program two years ago, enrollment in his upper-level science courses has increased.

“Over 60 students in this coming year’s junior class – a class of just over 100 students – have signed up to take chemistry. About 26 of the coming year’s seniors – a class of just over 80 students – will take physics,” Charbonneau wrote in his application.

Zillah High School has about 18 classes that offer college credit, Zillah's guidance counselor, John Griffin, told NBC News. 

"That's pretty neat for a small high school," Griffin said. "Most of our students want to take the challenge if they can. Some of them are a little bit leery because they don't the confidence yet in themselves. That's something you develop in high school. But we have such great teachers that work those programs, like Jeff Charbonneau, and they help soothe that anxiety."

The high school, which has about 400 students, is also Charbonneau's alma mater.

National Teachers of the Year are selected by the Council of Chief State School Officers, a nonprofit panel of educators that chooses the finalists from the 2013 state teachers of the year in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Nominations for state teachers come from students, teachers, principals, and administrators; teachers then must submit applications to the panel.

Other finalists for 2013 National Teacher of the Year were Rhonda Holmes-Blankenship of Maryland, Alex Lopes of Florida, and Heidi Welch of New Hampshire.

Griffin, who was Charbonneau's guidance counselor back when he attended Zillah, said Charbonneau was more nervous about another honor he received earlier this month.

"He loves baseball," Griffin said. "We talked with him several weeks ago. We asked him, what's going to be nerve-wracking for you: Throwing the first pitch out at the Mariners' game, or meeting President Obama? He said, 'Definitely the first pitch. I don't want to be a worm-burner!'"

Ted S. Warren / AP

Police officers walk near evidence markers at the scene of an overnight shooting that left five people dead at the Pinewood Village apartment complex in Federal Way, Wash.

Five people were killed in a shooting at an apartment complex near Seattle late on Sunday, including a suspect who was shot by officers, police said.

Officers were alerted to a shooting in progress at around 9:30 p.m. local time (12:30 a.m. ET) by an emergency call from the complex in Federal Way, which is between Seattle and Tacoma, police spokeswoman Cathy Schrock said in a statement.

Gunshots were still being heard when officers arrived at the complex, she added. 

"As officers assessed the scene two males could be seen in the parking lot injured," Schrock said.  "An officer attempted to rescue the men, and as the (police officer) approached, one of the males on the ground reached for a weapon."

This led to police officers firing on the suspects, she said. Three men were confirmed dead in the parking lot, and a woman and another man were found dead in a nearby apartment, police said.

No officers were injured in the incident, and eight police were placed on administrative leave after the shootings. This is standard policy for officers involved in shootings, Schrock said.

While there was no word on what caused the gunfire, police said they did not think another shooter was on the loose. Police said they would provide more information at a 11:30 a.m. PT (2:30 p.m. ET) press conference.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Arlington County Police Department

Kareem Jorif was arrested after allegedly throwing a meat cleaver in the maternity ward of Virginia Hospital Center.

A bizarre incident involving a meat cleaver in a hospital maternity ward landed a man behind bars.

Kareem Jorif, 34, of Arlington, Va., is charged with multiple counts of attempted malicious wounding and carrying a concealed weapon.

Jorif went into the maternity ward at Virginia Hospital Center last week and got into an argument when he was told he couldn't go into a patient's room, police said.

More from NBCWashington.com

Jorif allegedly pulled out the knife from his waistband and used it to bang on a door before tossing it into the patient's room, according to police.

Investigators said he'd gone to the hospital to tell the woman her baby's father couldn't visit because he'd just been arrested.

Jorif was being held without bond.

CHICAGO -- A derailment on an Amtrak train from Chicago caused by a mudslide forced passengers to take buses for the last leg of their trip Sunday morning.

No injuries were reported for the train's 86 passengers and 11 crew members on board, however, travelers were forced to finish the last 30 miles of their trip via buses, according to Amtrak officials.

A mudslide, repotedly involving 30 feet of earth, trees and rocks, derailed the last three cars on the Empire Builder near Everett, Wash., around 10:30 a.m. Sunday, officials said.

More from NBCChicago.com

The train, uncoupled from the three derailed cars, continued to Mukilteo, Wash., where passengers were transferred to Charter buses.

Crews were working to clear the debris and repair the track, which was expected to reopen Tuesday, and BNSF Railway was investigating the incident.

Smithsonian's National Zoo / Reuters

Giant panda Mei Xiang looks over a stone wall in her enclosure at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in this handout provided by the Smithsonian National Zoo during a spring snow in Washington, D.C. March 25, 2013.

The National Zoo announced Saturday that a team of scientists and veterinarians had artificially inseminated the Zoo's female giant panda after natural breeding failed to occur.

The statement said that Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated with a combination of fresh and frozen semen taken from the zoo's male panda, Tian Tian. The fresh semen was taken earlier Saturday morning, while the frozen semen had been held since 2003.

Scientists determined that Mei Xiang was ready to breed earlier this week after observing a rise in her urinary estrogen levels.

"We are hopeful that our breeding efforts will be successful this year, and we’re encouraged by all the behaviors and hormonal data we’ve seen so far,” Dave Wildt, head of the Center for Species Survival at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute said. "We have an extremely small window of opportunity to perform the procedures, which is why we monitor behavior and hormones so closely.”

Panda pregnancies last between 95 and 160 days. Experts say that it is impossible to determine from behaviors and hormones whether a panda is actually pregnant or not because a fetus does not begin to develop until the final weeks of gestation.

Mei Xiang gave birth to a female cub on September 16 of last year, but the cub died one week later due to lung and liver damage. Mei Xiang and Tian Tian have produced one surviving offspring, Tai Shan, who was born in 2005 and currently lives in China.

The panda habitat at the National Zoo has been closed since Tuesday, when Mei Xiang was deemed ready to breed. The Zoo plans to re-open the habitat to visitors Sunday.

NBCWashington.com

AP Photo / Ted S. Warren

An aerial photo shows before and after images of a landslide near Coupeville, Wash., on Whidbey Island, Wednesday, March 27, 2013.

A 1500-foot-deep landslide that rumbled down a scenic Washington state island shoreline early Wednesday is part of an ongoing geological movement that may date back 11,000 years, according to a preliminary report.

The dawn slide shifted the equivalent of 40,000 dump-truck loads of soil on Whidbey Island, located about 50 miles outside of Seattle.

It washed a road away, wiped out power lines and water mains, and plunged one home off the island's crumbling bluff, while threatening or cutting off access to 34 others.

An early report by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources Division of Geology & Earth Resources, published late Thursday [PDF link], said the movement was “a small portion of a much larger landslide complex, approximately 1.5 miles long, that was prehistoric and may date back as far as 11,000 years.”

Ted S. Warren / AP

An aerial photo shows a landslide near Coupeville, Wash. on Whidbey Island, Wednesday.

The slide displaced approximately 5.3 million square feet, or about 200,000 cubic yards of earth, the report said.

More homes could be lost as the ground continues to shift, officials have told residents.

“The chance of another catastrophic movement is low, but possible,” it said in its "Ear to the Ground" blog about the incident.

"I used to say 'in a million years we'll have waterfront property,' and now I can say 100 years or tomorrow. It's unbelievable," resident Nancy Skullerud told NBC affiliate KING-5 news in Seattle.

“It’s taken a while to soak it in to realize that life changes in five minutes,” Skullerud said. “Mother Nature always wins.”

It could be months before some residents have full access to their homes following the landslide, firefighters on Whidbey Island said Thursday, reported KING-5. Four homes were "yellow-tagged," the affiliate reported, meaning residents were allowed limited access to them.

A Red Cross relief center was set up earlier in the week for people forced to evacuate. 

In Western Washington, the majority of landslides are triggered during fall and winter after storms dump large amounts of rain or snow. Landslides are relatively common in the area, but one of this magnitude is rare.

NBC's Elizabeth Chuck contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Fri Mar 29, 2013 8:32 AM EDT