- Six individuals missing after the Baltimore Bridge collapse are presumed deceased.
- The ship involved had prior deficiencies, and officials vow federal funding for bridge reconstruction.
- President Biden pledges support and plans to visit Baltimore, while Transportation Secretary Buttigieg heads there as well.
Eko Hot Blog reports that Maryland state police have announced that the six individuals previously reported as missing following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore have now been presumed deceased.
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The incident resulted in vehicles and eight construction workers being submerged in the Patapsco River. While two individuals were rescued on Tuesday, Jeffrey Pritzker, a senior executive at Brawner Builders, stated that the remaining six are presumed deceased due to the depth of the water and the time elapsed since the accident.
Maryland authorities concur and have announced that the recovery operation will resume tomorrow morning with a team of divers.
Pritzker said the crew had been working in the middle of the bridge when it came apart. No bodies have been recovered.
“This was so completely unforeseen,” Pritzker said. “We don’t know what else to say. We take such great pride in safety, and we have cones and signs and lights and barriers and flaggers. But we never foresaw that the bridge would collapse.”
Those officials included Pete Buttigieg, the US secretary of transportation; Wes Moore, the Democratic governor of Maryland; the two Democratic US senators from Maryland, Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin; and the mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott.
Moore told reporters the bridge, which was built in 1977, was “fully up to code” before being struck by the ship.
The ship that collided with the bridge had a previous incident in the port of Antwerp, Belgium, in 2016, where it struck a quay while attempting to depart from the North Sea container terminal.
In a subsequent inspection of the Dali conducted on June 27 in San Antonio, Chile, deficiencies related to “propulsion and auxiliary machinery” were identified, as indicated by data from the public Equasis website, which offers ship information.
The inspection highlighted a deficiency concerning gauges and thermometers. A representative for the Dali’s owners chose not to respond to inquiries regarding the report.
Kevin Cartwright, the director of communications for the Baltimore fire department, stated that calls to 911 were received around 1:30 am, reporting that a vessel outbound from Baltimore had struck a column on the bridge, resulting in its collapse. Numerous vehicles, including one the size of a tractor-trailer, were present on the bridge at the time.
Officials mentioned that the ship issued a mayday signal as it deviated from its course and appeared to experience power loss, according to Baltimore authorities, which enabled them to prevent additional vehicles from accessing the bridge.
Subsequently, the ship appeared to catch fire as a section of the bridge collapsed onto it, releasing thick, black smoke into the atmosphere.
The temperature in the river was about 47F (8C) in the early hours of Tuesday, according to a buoy that collects data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Near the bridge’s entrance, from a vantage point, one could see jagged remnants of its steel frame protruding from the water. The on-ramp abruptly terminated where the span had once begun.
“All lanes closed both directions for incident on I-695 Key Bridge. Traffic is being detoured,” the Maryland transportation authority posted on X. “I-695 Key Bridge collapse due to ship strike. Active scene,” it later added.
Speaking from the Roosevelt Room in the White House, Biden said on Tuesday afternoon: “Everything so far indicates that this was a terrible accident. At this time, we have no other indication. No other reason to believe there’s any intentional act here.”
Biden vowed that the US federal government would cover the entire expense of reconstructing the bridge in Baltimore, a critical infrastructure project that has also suspended operations at a key national port.
“It’s my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge and I expect the Congress to support my effort,” the US president said.
A reporter from the Baltimore Banner said that the half-dozen people who had been presumed missing were construction workers from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico who were in their 30s and 40s, with spouses and children.
“All of them came to the city for a better life … not necessarily for themselves, but for the loved ones they left behind in their home countries,” the Banner’s reporter wrote .
“They are all hard-working, humble men,” said Jesús Campos, who described himself as a co-worker of the victims.
Biden, meanwhile, pledged to travel to Baltimore soon. “We’re not leaving until this job is done,” he said.
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Asked why the government should pay and not Grace Ocean, the owners of the Singapore-registered ship, Biden said: “That could be, but we’re not going to wait for that to happen. We’re going to pay for it to get the bridge rebuilt and opened.”
Following his announcement, the president departed from Washington to attend a campaign event in Raleigh, North Carolina. Buttigieg was scheduled to travel promptly to Baltimore.
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