Biden vows to ‘move heaven and earth’ to rebuild bridge
Eight still missing after disaster as president says government will pay for reconstruction
US President Joe Biden has vowed to use federal government resources to quickly rebuild Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge and reopen the Port of Baltimore after a container ship struck the bridge, destroying it in a matter of seconds and plunging it into the river in a terrifying collapse.
Speaking from the Roosevelt Room just before departing the White House for a campaign swing through North Carolina, Mr Biden praised emergency responders.
The president said he and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are sending the Maryland officials “all the federal resources they need as we respond to this emergency” and promised that they would “rebuild that port together”.
“We’re incredibly grateful for the brave rescuers who immediately rushed to the sea and to the people of Baltimore,” he said.
“We’re with you, we’re going to stay with you as long as it takes.”
His comments came just under 12 hours after the Singaporean-flagged cargo carrier Dali lost power and issued a distress call saying that the massive vessel had lost the ability to manoeuvre after departing the Port of Baltimore at approximately 1am ET.
The container ship slammed into one of the bridge’s support piers, causing a progressive collapse as the 50-year-old structure tumbled into the Patapsco River — a shocking spectacle that was captured on video and posted on social media. The vessel caught fire and thick, black smoke billowed out of it.
The crash happened long before the busy morning commute in what one official called a “developing mass casualty event”.
Two people were pulled from the water.
Mr Biden said the evidence available to federal authorities has given them no reason to consider the collision and resulting collapse anything except “a terrible accident” and praised the ship’s crew for promptly alerting
Maryland Department of Transportation personnel when they lost control of the container carrier.
Citing officials at the scene, the president said approximately eight people remain unaccounted for at this time, though he conceded that the number of missing may change.
Earlier, six people had been reported missing.
Mr Biden also pointed out that the Port of Baltimore will have to remain closed during search and rescue efforts.
He said the shipping channel would need to be cleared of wreckage before any traffic could pass through what he called “one of the nation’s largest shipping hubs” — a port that handles approximately 850,000 vehicle imports each year and supports 15,000 jobs.
“It handled a record of cargo last year. It’s also the top port in America both imports and exports of automobiles and light trucks... we’re going to do everything we can to protect those jobs and help those workers,” Mr Biden said, adding that the now-collapsed bridge was “critical for travel” for the entire northeast corridor region, carrying approximately 30,000 vehicles per day.
“I’m directing my team to move heaven and earth to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as humanly possible,” he said.
Mr Biden also said he and Maryland authorities would “work with our partners in Congress” to ensure that the Old Line State gets “the support it needs” but he vowed that the federal government would “pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge”.
Though the president conceded that reconstruction would “take some time”, he said he expects Congress to support rebuilding efforts and promised that the people of Baltimore could “count on us so to stick with them at every step of the way, until the port is reopened and the bridge is rebuilt”.
“We’re not leaving until this job gets done,” he said.
Brandon Scott, mayor of Baltimore said: “Never would you think that you would see, physically see, the Key Bridge tumble down like that.
“It looked like something out of an action movie,” Mr Scott said, calling it “an unthinkable tragedy”.
Authorities said a crew of unknown size was working on the bridge at the time of the collapse and that sonar had detected cars in the water, which is about 50ft (15m) deep.
Several vehicles were on the bridge, including one the size of a tractor-trailer truck, according to Kevin Cartwright, director of communications for the Baltimore Fire Department.
From a vantage point near the entrance to the bridge, jagged remnants of its steel frame were visible protruding from the water, with the on-ramp ending abruptly where the span once began.
Mr Cartwright said that some cargo appeared to be dangling from the bridge, which spans the Patapsco River at the entrance to a busy harbour.
He said that as many as 20 people could be in the river along with “numerous vehicles, and possibly a tractor-trailer or a vehicle as large as a tractor-trailer, (that) went into the river”.
“This is a mass-casualty, multi-agency event,” he said.
“This operation is going to extend for many days.”
The temperature in the water was about 8C at the time of the collapse.
Synergy Marine Group — which manages the Dali — confirmed the vessel hit a pillar of the bridge at about 1.30am local time while it was in control of two pilots, local specialists who help navigate vessels safely into ports. The ship is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd.
It said all crew members, including the pilots, were accounted for and there were no reports of any injuries.
The Dali was headed from Baltimore to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and flying under a Singapore flag, according to data from Marine Traffic.
The container ship is about 985ft (300m) long and about 157ft (48m) wide, according to the website.
Danish shipping giant Maersk said it had chartered the vessel, which was carrying its customers’ cargo, though no Maersk crew and personnel were on board.
‘We’re incredibly grateful for the brave rescuers who immediately rushed to the sea and to the people of Baltimore’
© The Independent