Rescuers are working hard on Wednesday to find the bodies of six workers presumed dead in the icy waters of the port of Baltimore, on the American east coast, the day after the spectacular collapse of a bridge hit by a container ship .
• Read also: Reconstruction of the Baltimore bridge: several Quebec companies are in the running
• Read also: Collapse of a bridge hit by a boat in Baltimore: an unlikely disaster scenario in Quebec
• Read also: Distressed freighter destroys bridge in Baltimore
Divers are scouring the waters in “dangerous conditions” to try to find the victims, who according to the American press are from Latin America, explained Maryland Governor Wes Moore.
Rescuers are faced with “freezing temperatures, high tide, violent winds, pieces of twisted metal,” he said. In the mist and the cold, coast guard and police boats were deployed in large numbers, very close to the debris and the damaged container ship, reports an AFP journalist present on site.
AFP
The six victims sought are workers, “fathers, sons, husbands” who were repairing potholes on the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed into the Patapsco River around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, authorities say .
“We don’t think we’ll find these individuals still alive,” Coast Guard Vice Adm. Shannon Gilreath said as two members of their team were rescued Tuesday.
Among the missing are workers from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico, reports the Baltimore Banner.
- Listen to the latest developments with Yves Poirier, TVA special correspondent in Baltimore via
:
Miguel Luna, a Salvadoran father of three children, left for work late Monday and never returned, said Casa, an association helping migrants.
His wife, Maria del Carmen Castellon, told Telemundo 44 television that she felt “devastated” by waiting for news.
Getty Images via AFP
Wes Moore stressed that he had spoken to the families of the victims and promised that he would “exhaust all options to facilitate their mourning”.
“Terrible accident”
The toll of this “terrible accident”, in the words of President Joe Biden, would have been worse if the ship, which suffered a “momentary loss of propulsion”, had not managed to launch a distress call.
This alert allowed the authorities to interrupt part of the road traffic at the last minute. The preliminary investigation shows that it was an accident, according to the authorities.
AFP
Impressive video surveillance images show the container ship MV Dali veering off course and hitting a pier of the bridge inaugurated in 1977, causing several arches to collapse in the port.
In these videos, we see lights from maintenance vehicles on the bridge, before it buckles and falls apart.
The crew, unharmed, had tried in vain to slow the ship’s course by dropping anchor.
Maryland’s governor promised a “full and thorough investigation.”
Jennifer Homendy, head of the US Transportation Safety Agency (NTSB), said a team had recovered the container ship’s data recorders, a crucial element for the investigation.
Reconstruction
Joe Biden pledged that the bridge, which bears the name of the poet who wrote the words of the American national anthem, would be rebuilt, admitting that it would take time. Wanting to get ahead of the insurers, the president said he wanted “the federal state to pay the entire cost of reconstruction.”
Because the issue is economic: this four-lane bridge, 2.6 km long, is located on a north-south axis crucial to the economy of the east coast of the United States.
Getty Images via AFP
And with access to the port blocked by debris, maritime transport there is “suspended until further notice,” authorities said. The Port of Baltimore is the ninth largest in the country in terms of activity and generates more than 15,000 jobs.
Transportation Minister Pete Buttigieg called it a “major and prolonged impact on supply chains.”
The MV Dali is a recent container ship, 300 meters long and 48 meters wide, flying the Singaporean flag, and which was sailing towards Sri Lanka.
It was operated by shipping company Synergy Group and chartered by Danish shipping giant Maersk.
Singapore’s port authority said on Wednesday that it had passed two inspections in 2023 and that a faulty fuel pressure monitoring gauge was repaired in June.
Chilean port authorities reported a defect in the ship’s machinery in 2023, an anomaly quickly repaired by the shipowner according to the Chilean navy.