BALTIMORE-
A crane that can lift 1,000 tons, described as one of the largest on the East Coast, appeared near the site of a highway bridge collapse in Baltimore as crews prepared Friday to begin clearing debris that has hindered the search for four missing and presumed dead workers. and blocked the entry or exit of ships from the city’s important port.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore called the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge following a freighter collision an “economic catastrophe” and described the challenges ahead in recovering workers’ bodies and removing tons of debris to reopen the bridge. Baltimore Harbor.
“What we are talking about today is not just Maryland’s economy; This is about the nation’s economy,” Moore said at a news conference, with the massive crane in the background. “The port handles more cars and more farm equipment than any other port in this country.”
Moore went to the scene Friday and said he saw shipping containers smashed “like paper mache.” The broken pieces of the bridge weigh up to 4,000 tons, Moore said, and crews will need to cut the steel beams before they can be removed from the Patapsco River.
Available equipment will include seven floating cranes, 10 tugboats, nine barges, eight salvage vessels and five Coast Guard vessels, Moore said. Much of it comes from the Navy.
“When you go out and see it up close, you realize how daunting this task is. You realize how difficult the work ahead of us is,” Moore said. “With such a complex rescue operation (and, frankly, with an unprecedented rescue operation) it is necessary to plan every moment.”
Water conditions have prevented divers from entering the river, Moore said. When conditions change, they will resume efforts to recover construction workers, who were repairing potholes on the bridge when it fell early Tuesday.
“We have to give these families a sense of closure,” Moore said.
The Coast Guard is focused on removing what remains of the bridge and the container ship that crashed into it to clear the port’s shipping lanes, Rear Adm. Shannon Gilreath said.
Teams of engineers from the Army, Navy and Coast Guard Corps of Engineers, along with some private sector experts, are evaluating how to “break that bridge into appropriately sized pieces that we can lift,” Gilreath said.
The Maryland Department of Transportation is already focused on building a new bridge and is “considering innovative design, engineering and construction methods so we can quickly execute this project,” Secretary Paul J. Wiedefeld said.
Adam Ortiz, mid-Atlantic regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, said there is no indication of active emissions from the ship, nor the presence of materials hazardous to human health in the water.
Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., superintendent of the Maryland State Police, said the Federal Aviation Administration has been asked to establish a tactical flight restriction area that would begin 3 nautical miles in each direction from the center span of the bridge and would extend upwards. at 1,500 feet.
Butler advised people to keep drones away from the area and said law enforcement is prepared to respond to any violation of that airspace.
The victims of the collapse were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, authorities said. At least eight people initially fell into the water when the boat hit the bridge column, and two of them were rescued.
Victoriano Almendares, a construction worker from Rockville, Maryland, originally from Honduras, speaks at a vigil and news conference/ (Mark Schiefebein/AP Photo)
Divers have recovered the bodies of two men from a van in the river, but the nature and location of the debris has complicated efforts to find the other four workers.
“Divers can put their hands on that faceplate and they can’t even see them,” said Donald Gibbons, an instructor at the Eastern Atlantic States Carpenters Technical Centers. “That’s why we say zero visibility. “It’s very similar to locking yourself in a dark closet on a dark night and not being able to see anything.”
One of the two whose bodies were found, Alejandro Hernández Fuentes, left Xalapa, Mexico, 15 years ago to join his mother and sister in the United States, hoping to earn enough money to build a house and open a business in his native country. country. But the 35-year-old put down roots in Maryland and the family decided he will be buried in the United States.
“He already had a life there; That is why they did not return his body,” Wenceslao Contreras Ortiz, Hernández Fuentes’ uncle, said on Friday in Xalapa. He described his nephew as a hard-working father of four who adored his mother.
Another sister still lives in Mexico but remained in close contact with Hernández Fuentes and is asking the authorities for help to obtain a humanitarian visa to travel to the United States and say goodbye.
“She just wants to hug him one last time,” Contreras Ortiz said.
In Baltimore, locals made morning stops at strategic points Friday to watch the cranes. Ronald Hawkins, 71, who could see the bridge from his home, recalled seeing it being built in 1972. It opened in 1977.
“I’m going to come here every day because I want to see the bridge emerge from the water,” Hawkins said. “It’s kind of painful.”
President Joe Biden’s administration approved $60 million in immediate aid, and Biden has said the federal government will pay the full cost of rebuilding the bridge, which Interstate 695 passed over.
Ship traffic at the Port of Baltimore remains suspended, but the Maryland Ports Administration said in a statement Friday that trucks were still being processed at marine terminals.
Federal and state officials have said the collision and collapse early Tuesday appeared to be an accident that occurred after the ship lost power. Researchers are still trying to determine why.
The crash caused the bridge to break and fall into the water within seconds. Authorities had just enough time to stop vehicle traffic, but were unable to alert the construction crew.
The loss of a highway carrying 30,000 vehicles a day and the disruption to the port will affect not only thousands of port workers and travelers, but also American consumers, who will likely feel the impact of shipping delays.
Scott Cowan, president of International Longshoremen’s Association Local 333, said the union was scrambling to help its roughly 2,400 members whose jobs are at risk of drying up.
“If there are no boats, there is no work,” he said. “We are doing everything we can.”
Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield in Washington, Kristin M. Hall in Nashville, Tennessee, Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, Alba Alemán in Xalapa, Mexico, and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, contributed to this report.