"Everything you've got!" a male caller said five seconds later. "The whole bridge over the river fell down - there's cars all over the place. 35W over the Mississippi down by the U. It's the - there's hundreds of cars, they're in the river. Bring everything you've got!"

The Minneapolis Emergency Communications Center on Friday released tapes and transcripts of some 40 calls received in the minutes after the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed Aug. 1, sending dozens of motorists plunging into the river. About 100 people called within two minutes of the 6:05 p.m. collapse, quickly erasing dispatchers' initial disbelief.

Minneapolis 911 supervisor Maryam Williams said she and the 14 operators and dispatchers who worked that night struggled at first to grasp what happened. She said she didn't see the first television pictures until about three hours later - and "that's when it hit me," she said.

"Even in my mind, when somebody told me the bridge collapsed, I'm still thinking a car flipped over in the water," Williams said Friday. "The magnitude of what happened - my mind wouldn't even go there."

The 911 tapes were released in response to public records requests from news media including The Associated Press. The collapse killed 13 people and injured about 100.

About six minutes after the collapse, a caller named Brian, whose hand was bleeding, tried to explain the scene to an operator, who asked if he was in his car.

"No - I'm out of the car," the driver said.

Operator: "OK, are you floating in the river, then?"