A first search-and-rescue operation has now turned into a recovery project at the site of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore after it was hit by a shipment and collapsed early Tuesday, sending cars and others into the water. The U. S. Coast Guard The U. S. Department of Homeland Security said the shipment reported a waste of propulsion and when it left the Port of Baltimore, before the collision occurred around 1:30 a. m. ET.
Two survivors were pulled from the water shortly after the collapse, authorities said — one unharmed and one seriously injured — who were treated at a hospital and later released, CBS Baltimore reported.
Six people were missing and presumed dead. Authorities said the bodies of two victims were discovered Wednesday.
Maryland Department of Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said all six were structures that filled the bridge’s potholes at the time.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore declared a state of emergency, and municipalities, states and federals converged on the scene.
The Key Bridge crosses the Patapsco River, a key waterway that, along with the Port of Baltimore, serves as a hub for shipping on the East Coast. CBS News Baltimore reports that the four-lane, 1. 6-mile-long stretch used through some 31,000 more people a day.
The Maryland Transportation Authority said all lanes were closed in both directions on I-695, which crosses the Key Bridge. The firm said traffic was diverted to I-95 and I-895.
The part of the bridge that collapsed into a span connecting Hawkins Point on the south side of the canal and Dundalk on the north.
The video captured the moment the heavily loaded container crashed into a bridge support and sections of the viaduct fell into the river.
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Authorities said at a news conference that the ship reported a loss of strength and a rescue call issued before the collision, allowing the government to impede traffic on the deck. Authorities did not say how many cars were on the bridge at the time of the collapse.
Moore said he “can verify that the team reported an electrical issue to the government” and said the resolution to impede traffic on the bridge “saved lives last night. “
Early Tuesday morning, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott declared the cave an “unthinkable tragedy. “
“First of all, we want to pray for all those affected, those families, pray for our first responders and thank them,” he said. “We want to think about the families and others affected. We have to check them out, locate them safely. “
The Dali, flying the flag of Singapore, operated through the company Synergy Group, chartered through Maersk and authorized to do so. It had left Baltimore Harbor, just north and west of the bridge, before heading south and east along the Patapsco River.
The shipment had been in port for two days, according to shipment tracking site VesselFinder, and was expected to spend about a month at sea before arriving in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
CBS News analyzed the trajectory of each and every shipment that traveled in this direction over the past month and found that Dali had veered more than a hundred meters from the same previous direction when he crashed into the bridge support.
Click the arrow below to see an interactive timeline of how the collision occurred.
Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which opened to traffic on March 23, 1977, was an artery in the region that handled about 11. 3 million cars a year.
The images below show what it looked like after Tuesday morning’s collapse and how it looked intact a few days earlier.
A witness who lives near the bridge told CBS Baltimore that the cave resembled an earthquake and sounded like “wonderful thunder. “
“The whole space was vibrating, like my space was collapsing,” he said. “I’ve lived in this community for 57 years, I don’t forget the structure of this bridge. I can’t, he’s gone. “
Another resident reflected on his presence on the bridge yesterday. “To see the bridge disappear knowing that I was on that bridge just 10 hours ago, it’s devastating. “