Rescue

Some guy that had been on the bridge that collapsed was interviewed on TV. He hadn't been hurt at all and began rescuing those who had been, or where trapped inside vehicles right away, before any rescue crews arrived.

He said he wasn't sure of the time but that he continued assisting rescue crews, EMT's and fireman, for about an hour before somebody in charge decided that they had to clear the area of all but official rescue people.

Basically the people in charge were not able to figure out how to utilize able bodied volunteers who weren't on the payroll. It's not like the fire department all had extensive training on how to rescue people from a bridge that fell in the water and everyone had an exact role to play.

No, the people running the rescue were just incompetent boobs who's fall back position is "I'm in charge, I'm the expert, you aren't, go away."

If nothing else they could have used the volunteers to coffee runs. Or maybe send them off to round up generators and search lights.

That's how we know the people running the show are really totally incompetent. They had to shut down rescue operations when it got dark because they couldn't figure out how to find generators and search lights.