Baltimore bridge collapse live news: White House says ‘our hearts go out to families’ of victims amid recovery operation

Key events

Show key events only

Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature

President Joe Biden has met with the secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, and US Coast Guard vice-admiral Peter Gautier and spoken to Gen Scott Spellmon about the coordinated federal, state and local response to the collapse of the bridge, the White House said.

Biden also spoke with Maryland’s governor, Wes Moore, and “reiterated that his administration will be with the people of Baltimore every step of the way, a statement from the White House reads.

The collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge could cost insurers billions of dollars in claims, according to analysts.

With little clarity on when the Port of Baltimore will reopen, insurers and analysts are assessing the likely losses borne by underwriters across several product lines including property, cargo, marine, liability, trade credit and contingent business interruption, Reuters reported.

Marcos Álvarez, managing director for global insurance ratings at Morningstar DBRS, told the agency:

Depending on the length of the blockage and the nature of the business interruption coverage for the Port of Baltimore, insured losses could total between $2bn and $4bn.

Mathilde Jakobsen, senior director of analytics at insurance ratings agency AM Best, also said the claims would likely run into “billions of dollars”.

The two Mexican nationals who remain missing are originally from the states of Veracruz and Michoacán, Mexico’s foreign affairs ministry has said.

A third Mexican worker who was rescued on Tuesday is also originally from Michoacán and is “recovering satisfactorily from his injuries”, a statement from the ministry said.

Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, earlier today confirmed that two Mexican nationals are missing and that their families have requested privacy.

Audio of Baltimore dispatch call released

Audio has revealed dispatchers telling police to close the Francis Scott Key Bridge to all traffic because a ship had “just lost their steering”.

Responders can be heard asking whether construction workers were on the bridge as police tried to halt traffic moments before the structure collapsed. A police officer is heard saying seconds later:

The whole bridge just fell down.

Here’s the audio clip:

Michael Sainato

Statehouse and senate leaders in Maryland have drawn up plans for emergency legislation to cover the salaries of port workers hit by shutdowns in the wake of Tuesday’s collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, as we reported earlier.

Details about the bill, such as the extent of the aid and how it will be disbursed, have not been disclosed yet.

Bill Ferguson, president of the Maryland senate, said more than 15,000 people in the region rely on the Port of Baltimore “to put food on the table”. He stressed that time was of the essence. Until the channel to the port is cleared, “there is enormous cost to families”, he said.

An estimated 140,000 workers in the region are indirectly supported by activities at the Port of Baltimore, which is the ninth busiest port in the US, which had more than $80bn in imports and exports in 2023. It is a major port for coal exports, automobiles and parts.

Carnival Cruise Line said it was temporarily moving their Baltimore operations to Norfolk, Virginia, for the duration of rescue efforts and cleanup.

The US secretary of transportation Pete Buttigieg responded to a question about whether Republicans could hold up attempts to fund bridge reconstruction if Biden were to tap Congress for assistance:

“Infrastructure is, or at least ought to be, a bipartisan priority. I know that partisanship has gotten in the way of some important functions and expenditures, but I would also note that the infrastructure package that was passed is known as the bipartisan infrastructure law for a reason,” Buttigieg said.

Buttigieg added that some Republicans “crossed the aisle” to support the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Buttigieg noted that a private company could be held financially “accountable” for the bridge collapse, though did not expand on how much that could mean.

“Any private party that is found responsible and liable will be held accountable,” Buttigieg said, though did not detail what possible consequences could look like.

Buttigieg added that Biden’s commitment to funding the bridge is to prevent Baltimore and Maryland more broadly from having to wait for financial resources needed for bridge reconstruction.

The crew remains on board the Dali ship, the Coast Guard vice admiral Peter Gautier said.

“The crew is cooperating with what we need,” he said.

The crew is predominately made up of Indian nationals with one person from Sri Lanka, Gautier added.

Buttigieg said that he was unsure of how long it would take to rebuild the Key bridge or how much it would cost to rebuild, noting that the original bridge took five years to construct.

“We need to get a sense of the conditions … we just don’t know yet, especially in terms of their foundational infrastructure,” he said of the extent of damage to the bridge.

Buttigieg also added that he is unsure when the Port of Baltimore may be able to reopen.

“The vast majority of the port is inside of that bridge, which means most of it cannot operate,” Buttigieg said.

Authorities trying to remove ship, but crude oil and other hazardous materials on board

The Coast Guard vice admiral Peter Gautier confirmed that authorities are attempting to remove the vessel from the area, but said it has crude oil and other hazardous materials on board.

Gautier said during the White House press briefing that 1.5m gallons of oil are on the Dali ship as are at least 56 cargo containers of “hazardous materials”.

The cargo containers are not a threat to the public or in the water, the US Coast Guard representative said.

Buttigieg added that the death toll from the Key Bridge accident could have been much higher, if not for several factors.

Buttigieg highlighted the efforts of emergency responders, the mayday call from the ship, and other factors as preventing the death toll from increasing “in the dozens”.

“If not for several factors, including those responders’ efforts, the mayday call, the maintenance closure that was already underway, and the time of day of this impact, the loss of life might have been in the dozens,” Buttigieg said.

Buttigieg did not speculate about what any investigation might find, but added that the bridge was not meant to withstand a direct hit from a vast cargo ship.

“What we do know is a bridge like this one, completed in the 1970s, was simply not made to withstand a direct impact …. from a vessel that weighs about 200m pounds,” he said.