Rescue operation underway after Baltimore's Key Bridge collapses

this morning an impressive

bridge

collapses

in the port of

baltimore

the entire key

bridge

is in the port the francis scott key bridge sank into the water overnight after being hit by a cargo container ship i wanted to know what the explosion was ship that hit the Key The bridge sinks, the bridge is gone, video shows smoke billowing from the ship before it hit the bridge, the bridge is normally a major artery crossing the Patapsco River and although the collapse occurred early in in the morning, at 1:30 a.m. m., the video shows moments of cars crossing.

Before the boat entered traffic, she stopped, but the vehicles were still on the bridge when she collapsed into the water. Fire department and Coast Guard crews rushed to the scene. Rescuers searched the water overnight, still in an active search and

rescue

posture. detected the presence of vehicles submerged in the water, the ship is on a nearly 950 OT container ship called do that was heading from Baltimore to Sri Lanka, the Synergy Marine Corporation said it collided with the bridge pillar and all members of Its crew, including the two pilots, have been accounted for. The ship reportedly lost power while in the water this morning and dawn search crews continue to look for survivors in the water as the Baltimore area reels from a major collapse.

Tom, we know there were vehicles in the water, as that official pointed out. The weather is very cold, so if there are survivors who are still in the water, how long can they safely stay in those cold temperatures? Yeah, 40 45 degrees in the water 32 outside right now, where we are. We checked with the University of Minnesota to Luth and They say that at about 7 minutes, if you're in the water, you start to get exhausted and then you can feel it, if you're lucky, if you have ice flotation, if you have the right equipment, you could be able to survive for an hour, so we are now several hours, almost 6 hours into this episode, the ability to survive is really, potentially, very, very challenging, but the aerial helicopters continue to search the water for any signs of survivors and this is an all-hands-on-deck effort. terms of state authorities in Baltimore and Maryland and surrounding counties, all sending Mass resources to this area trying to find anyone who may be in the water, let's talk to Tom, if we could, about this freighter before you and I We were in the air, we couldn't even. we made out in the dark whether the ship was still afloat, now we see that the authorities have told us that the crew remains on the ship, including presumably the pilot of this ship, what will the investigation be like now, as I understand it.

By law, if you travel through these very complex waters in and around Baltimore Harbor and Chesap Bay, you must have a local marine pilot because it is very complex, if we can even shoot the video Tom in the moments before it hits this structure this key part of the pylon of the bridge structure the ship looks dark it looks like it has lost power yes and there was a report that it had in fact lost power uh the chief of the Fire Department is saying that they will not put people on board that ship until they do a full damage assessment to determine how safe it is and then they will have to evacuate the crew and determine how seaworthy the ship is, however at the moment it appears to be fine.

The NTSB will actually conduct the investigation into how this happened, but I have to say that the locals here are stunned that this ship crashed into one of these pylons again in the first place. We don't know if they had control of the ship and secondly, they would stun. that this bridge would be so vulnerable to collapsing with the ship hanging from a pylon, just a whole series of questions that you can imagine the whole city asking. I would like to point out that we are facing very close to I95, that critical north. The southern corridor on the east coast I95 is open 695, however, it is closed, so if you plan to tour the east coast, be aware that the area around Baltimore will be really difficult and problematic just in terms of traffic and the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest in the country, will be affected by this and will try to determine how safe it is to move ship traffic in and out.

Yes, live footage of Baltimore as the sun rises. Tom the Francis. The Scott Key Bridge perhaps completely collapsed this morning about a mile and a half from the fair just around the city of Baltimore. Hey, thanks for watching, don't miss today's show every weekday at 11:00 AM. m. this 8 Pacific on our broadcast channel today all day to watch. to today.com allay or click the link here