Baltimore Key Bridge collapse full coverage: 2 bodies recovered; remaining workers presumed dead as cleanup effort continues

• Julio Cervantes, one of eight construction workers who were plunged into the Patapsco River when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed early Tuesday morning, did not know how to swim, according to his wife.

• Speaking Thursday at Camden Yards baseball park alongside the ownership group of the Baltimore Orioles, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore called on citizens to lend a hand in helping with the arduous task of rebuilding the fallen bridge.

• The Orioles kicked off the 2024 season on Thursday with a moment of silence to honor the victims of the bridge collapse.

• The bodies of Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, a native of Mexico, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Guatemala were recovered Wednesday, ABC News reported.

• Family members of the men still missing but presumed dead have not given up hope.

• Maryland officials asked the Biden administration Thursday for the “quick release” of an initial $60 million in emergency relief that would go toward recovery efforts.

Read more from Yahoo News.

Three Maryland Transportation Authority Police officers who were responsible for stopping traffic onto the Francis Scott Key Bridge before it collapsed Tuesday morning were honored during the third inning of Thursday's Orioles game in Baltimore.

The officers were identified as Sergeant Paul Pastorek, Corporal Jeremy Herbert and Officer Garry Kirts.

In a joint statement, they said that "no amount of training could have prepared anyone for the events that took place on the Francis Scott Key Bridge."

A man employed by Brawner Builders, the employer of the workers who were victims of the bridge collapse, told CNN he requested a last-minute shift change the night of the accident.

Moises Diaz said the decision saved his life. He also told CNN via text that he had worked with all six of the men who were victims. The bodies of two of the men were recovered on Wednesday.

Brawner Builders Executive Vice President Jeffrey Pritzker had told CNN, “These were wonderful young men. They were doing a tough job. These guys were hardworking, wonderful people, and now they’re gone."

Most of the six construction workers who were killed or presumed dead following Tuesday's bridge collapse were originally from Latin American countries, calling attention to the growing Latino labor force in the U.S. and the risks they face.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration at the U.S. Department of Labor considers construction “a high hazard industry,” in which workers face serious risks like being hit by heavy construction equipment or being hurt or killed by unguarded machinery.

Latinos make up about a third of the U.S.'s construction workers, meaning they are more exposed to these dangers.

NBC News reports:

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People are trying to view the Dali cargo ship wreckage on Thursday, two days after it crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The Dali cargo ship that hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday, leading to its collapse, was about the length and width of three football fields. It can carry nearly 10,000 containers of cargo, weighing up to 116,000 tons.

Pretty massive, right? In comparison to other ships, it's actually not that big.

The largest container ships can hold twice the number of containers carried by the Dali, the New York Times reports.

As global demand has grown for clothes, electronics and other goods, so have the size of cargo ships. The more a ship can hold, the more cost-effective the trip becomes.

As container ships have increased in size, ports, including Baltimore's, have had to adapt by expanding infrastructure to accommodate them, according to the Times.

The Baltimore Orioles kicked off the 2024 Major League Baseball season with a moment of silence to honor of the victims of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. Elizabeth Worthington, a reporter for WMAR-2 News Baltimore, posted this video on X of Camden Yards on Opening Day Thursday:

Manufacturers and shippers have been scrambling after the bridge collapse disrupted shipping at the Port of Baltimore. The port, which handles the largest amount of vehicles in the U.S., has suspended ship traffic "until further notice."

The state of Maryland reported that in 2023, the port moved 847,158 automobiles. Baltimore can still handle some automobile shipments because part of its operations are in a different area, east of where the bridge collapsed.

Autoblog reports:

• Both General Motors and Ford planned to reroute impacted shipments away from Baltimore's port

• Volkswagen Group of America said its operations have not been impacted because its facility is located east of the bridge collapse

• BMW said its operations shouldn't be impacted because they also have operations east of the bridge

• Mercedes-Benz said it's too early to tell if operations will be impacted

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott became the youngest mayor in the city's history at 36 years old when he won the race in November 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. His phone rang in the middle of the night on Tuesday to the news that a massive container ship lost control, causing the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

USA Today reports:

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The wife of one of the eight people who were fixing potholes on the Key Bridge on Tuesday said the workers were taking a break when the bridge came crashing down.

“All of the men were on a break in their cars when the boat hit. We don't know if they were warned before the impact,” the wife of Julio Cervantes, a construction worker, told NBC News.

Cervantes was one of the two people rescued on Tuesday. His wife said he didn't know how to swim.

“It is a miracle he survived,” she added.

Read more from NBC News here.

Maryland officials have asked for a “quick release” of $60 million from the Biden administration for an initial emergency relief request.

The Maryland Department of Transportation and Maryland Transportation Authority made the request on Thursday following the collapse of the Key Bridge — an essential bridge used by tens of thousands of drivers each day — on Tuesday.

Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld wrote in a letter: “We are performing damage assessments throughout the area.

“Currently, it is not possible to provide exact cost estimates for the full assessment; however, our current estimate for mobilization, operators, and debris recovery is $60 million,” he said, noting that the agencies would “provide a second need estimate as early as reasonably possible.”

President Biden has said he wants the federal government to pay to rebuild the bridge.

“We’re going to work with our partners in Congress to make sure the state gets the support it needs,” he said Tuesday. “It’s my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge, and I expect the Congress to support my effort.”

National Transportation Safety Board investigators boarded the Dali cargo ship on Wednesday and released footage of the vessel after its deadly crash into the Key Bridge earlier this week.

Video shows the NTSB team using drones to survey the wreckage from the ship. The drone shots show the aftermath of the Singapore-flagged vessel's collision with the 1.6-mile-long bridge.

Watch the video here:

Four people remain missing after Tuesday's bridge collapse. Among those is 40-year-old Miguel Luna, a father of three who came to the U.S. from El Salvador 19 years ago in hopes of a better life.

"He's supposed to come in the morning back home, and [he] never come," Gustavo Torres, the executive director of CASA, a nonprofit human rights organization that advocates for immigrant communities, told CBS News.

Another missing person who was working on the bridge was Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, a father to a teenage son and a 5-year-old daughter. The Honduran citizen was days away from turning 35 years old.

Sandoval's eldest brother told CBS News that their family is in "tremendous agony."

One day after the tragic bridge collapse, Maryland authorities identified two of the six victims who were unaccounted for following the accident as 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, originally from Mexico, and 26-year-old Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, from Guatemala. Divers discovered their bodies in a pickup truck submerged in the Patapsco River.

Eight construction workers were on the bridge when it collapsed into the Patapsco River on Tuesday. Two of the workers were rescued. Police said Wednesday that they had discovered the bodies of two of the six people presumed dead.

Spiritual leaders all over Baltimore have offered their support to the families impacted by the accident, and residents have donated thousands of dollars in a show of support and solidarity.

Ako Walker, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus, told USA Today, “These families need a lot, a lot of support on all levels — spiritual, physical and emotional.”

Ever since the tragedy began to unfold, Walker said he’s been looking for ways to help the families who have been impacted and the community. “One of the things you unfortunately have to think about when the bodies are recovered are the funerals,” he said. “We stand ready to help.”

Read more from USA Today.

The U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday night that huge barges carrying cranes were heading to the Baltimore area to start clearing the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge from the Patapsco River.

When the 1.6-mile-long bridge — which saw around 30,000 vehicles cross it daily — collapsed on Tuesday, it sent steel wreckage down into the river below. That wreckage created an obstacle for divers searching for victims.

The wreckage also blocks cargo and other ships from accessing the Port of Baltimore, which is closed to vessel traffic "until further notice."

Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., superintendent of Maryland State Police, said during a news conference on Wednesday: “We’re now moving from a recovery mode to a salvage operation. Because of the superstructure surrounding what we believe are the vehicles and the amount of concrete and debris, divers are no longer able to safely navigate or operate around that.”

Rob Long, a broadcaster with the Baltimore Orioles, held a moment of silence during an event on Thursday, which is Major League Baseball's opening day.

Speaking at an event with the Baltimore Orioles ownership group at Camden Yards on Thursday, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore spoke about the bridge’s collapse:

Following Tuesday's bridge collapse, some say protective structures could have helped shield it. But others are saying that's unrealistic given the impact of the massive cargo ship.

Business Insider reports:

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Tuesday's bridge collapse has left members of Baltimore's community reeling. Eight workers were on the bridge when it crumbled into the Patapsco River. Two bodies have since been recovered, while the other four workers are presumed dead.

During a vigil this week at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Dundalk, pastor Rashad Singletary said, "We want to be able to provide support."

"Not just for today and a couple of weeks, but after the cameras are gone, after the services are gone. We need to not only build a bridge, but to build this community."

The New York Times has a powerful report on the last moments before the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed:

Click here to read the full story.

The bridge collapse in Baltimore this week could cost insurers billions of dollars, according to analysts.

Reuters reports:

Maxar Technologies captured satellite images of the Dali cargo ship after it crashed into a pillar of the Key Bridge around 1:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday.

At a news conference Wednesday, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said the cargo ship was carrying 764 tons of hazardous materials including corrosives, flammables and lithium-ion batteries in 56 containers, and that some of the containers were "breached," causing a sheen to be seen on the water.

Homendy said that federal, state and local authorities were aware of the sheen and were in charge of any necessary cleanup.

At a White House press briefing earlier in the day, Coast Guard Vice Admiral Peter Gautier said there is no threat to the public from the shipping containers that were damaged in the collapse.

It's opening day for Major League Baseball, and across the harbor from the collapsed bridge, the Baltimore Orioles will open their season in Camden Yards against the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday afternoon.

The team announced it will hold a moment of silence for the dead and missing bridge workers and honor the "brave first responders who immediately stepped into action."

First pitch is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. ET.

The brother of Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval — one of the construction workers who are now presumed dead after the bridge collapse — told CNN on Wednesday that he is praying for a "miracle."

"We still have faith until this moment, God grant the miracle, it would be beautiful," Martin Suazo, one of Maynor's seven siblings, said. "We still have hope, I know that time is our worst enemy."

Another brother, Carlos Suazo, told the Associated Press that the 38-year-old had been working in the United States for 18 years but "always dreamed of, in his old age, retiring peacefully in Honduras."

Per CNN, the family's priority is to recover his body before "telling their 72-year-old mother back in Honduras the painful news."

That's the headline on the front page of today's Baltimore Sun, which reports that the effort to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge could take anywhere from two to 15 years.

• Police divers recovered the bodies of two victims from Tuesday’s bridge collapse.

• The two construction workers were found in 25 feet of water, trapped inside their pickup truck.

• Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said there was no credible evidence that terrorism was involved in the incident.

• The construction workers who died, as well as the others who are still missing and presumed dead, came to work in the U.S. from Mexico and other Central American countries.

• Some of the eight workers on the bridge at the time of the accident were employed by the Maryland company Brawner Builders.

• Debris from the bridge impeded divers from continuing their search for victims on Wednesday

• President Biden instructed his staff to “move heaven and earth” to rebuild the bridge, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

• Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigie indicated the effort could take time. “Rebuilding will not be quick or easy or cheap,” he said. “ut we will get it done.”

• Maryland lawmakers are working on legislation to provide emergency assistance to port workers whose jobs will be impacted by the loss of the bridge.

• Grace Ocean Private, the owner of the Dali, could face a record payout from the disaster.

• The NTSB said 56 containers of hazardous material were on the ship when it ran into the bridge. “Some of the containers were breached,” NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said.

Read more from Yahoo News.

Jennifer Homendy, chair of the NTSB, said agency investigators are scheduled to conduct interviews Thursday with the two pilots who were aboard the Dali at the time of the crash.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said Wednesday that the Key Bridge was in "satisfactory condition" prior to the crash that caused it to collapse on Tuesday. She said the bridge's last fracture critical inspection was conducted in May 2023.

At a press briefing Wednesday evening, Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, provided an update on the agency's investigation of the ship crash that caused the Key Bridge to collapse Tuesday morning. Homendy said investigators have confirmed that there were 21 crew members and two pilots aboard the vessel at the time of the accident.

Homendy said that the ship was carrying 56 containers of hazardous materials, mostly corrosives, flammables and lithium ion batteries. “Some of the containers were breached,” she said, adding that authorities had been notified.

Flexport founder and CEO Ryan Petersen joined Yahoo Finance Live on Wednesday to talk about the potential ramifications for shipping companies now that the port is closed.

Yahoo Finance reports:

Read more from Yahoo Finance's Brad Smith and Angel Smith.

At Wednesday evening's press conference in Baltimore, Col. Roland Butler Jr. of the Maryland State Police said that two bodies had been recovered at the site of Tuesday night's collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Butler said dive teams "made a tragic finding" shortly before 10 a.m., spotting a red pickup truck in 25 feet of water.

"Divers recovered two victims of this tragedy trapped within the vehicle," Butler said.

Butler identified them as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Mexico, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Guatemala, and said that their families had been notified.

The Baltimore Banner was the first to report that the bodies of two people had been recovered at the scene.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said at a Wednesday evening news conference that efforts to find survivors from Tuesday's collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge had ended.

"Today, we transitioned from search and rescue to recovery," Moore said.

Moore said the impact of the collapse would be profound.

"The collapse of the Key Bridge is not just a Maryland crisis," Moore said. "The collapse of the Key Bridge is a global crisis."

This graphic from the Associated Press offers a stark visualization of the size of the ship that hit the Key Bridge on Tuesday, causing it to collapse.

Maryland is still under a state of emergency a day after the bridge collapse as the state works "to quickly deploy federal resources from the Biden Administration."

On Wednesday, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore visited the site of the crash on a Coast Guard ship to assess the damage, according to CNN.

"This is part of the Governor’s efforts to continue the strong working relationship with the Coast Guard along with our federal partners, thank first responders working on the scene, and to learn more about the events that took place,” the spokesperson added.

The state flag was also lowered to half-staff to honor the victims of the bridge collapse.

On Wednesday, Moore posted a clip on X where he addressed Marylanders directly during a Tuesday press conference.

"But Maryland, we will get through this. Because that is the Maryland spirit and that's what Maryland is made of. We are Maryland tough and we are Baltimore strong."

He also tweeted pictures of downtown Baltimore billboards displaying the same message, "Maryland tough. Baltimore strong."

Moore is slated to speak at another press conference at 5:30 p.m. ET Wednesday.

A GoFundMe has been started to help raise money for the families of the six victims who are presumed dead, as search and rescue efforts turned to recovery efforts Wednesday following Tuesday's bridge collapse.

The Latino Racial Justice Circle, a nonprofit organization promoting community development through immigrant integration, started the GoFundMe to raise a total of $60,000 — or $10,000 per family, as reported by WUSA9. As of late Wednesday afternoon, that goal was surpassed by over $15,000.

Jack Murphy is the owner of Brawner Builders, the company that employed the six men who are unaccounted for. The New York Times reported that he shared the link to the fundraiser, saying, "Unfortunately, this tragic event was completely unforeseen and was not something that we could imagine would happen."

Three of the eight workers fixing the Key Bridge before the collapse are Mexican, officials said on Wednesday. Two of the workers are presumed dead.

"After the unfortunate accident, the Consular Section of the Mexican Embassy in the United States managed to establish that, of the eight workers, three are of Mexican nationality," Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, according to a translation.

"One of them, originally from Michoacán, was rescued alive and is recovering satisfactorily from his injuries. The other two, originally from Veracruz and Michoacán, remain missing."

The Mexican government also confirmed that Rafael Laveaga Rendón, the country's regional consul, traveled to Baltimore to support the workers' families.

Rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge could take as little as two years — or it could take as many as 15 years, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Benjamin Schafer, a structural engineer who specializes in steel structures and is an engineering professor at Johns Hopkins University, told the Sun that in order to rebuild the bridge, funding needs to be secured, a visual design needs to be decided on, materials need to be selected and engineering questions need to be worked out. Clearing the debris in the river will also be an obstacle in and of itself.

“As much as this is a tragedy, and as much as we’re all going to be terribly inconvenienced, it’s people’s lives and jobs in Baltimore if that port stays closed for very long,” Schafer said.

Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg restated during a Wednesday White House press briefing that the rebuilding process will be complex and potentially expensive. “Rebuilding will not be quick or easy or cheap, but we will get it done,” he said.

National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy will brief the media at 8 p.m. ET.

Earlier Wednesday, Homendy said the NTSB recovered the data recorder — otherwise known as the "black box" — from the Dali cargo vessel.

A team of investigators boarded the ship on Tuesday night to gather evidence for their investigation, she said.

The NTSB is building a timeline of events that led up to the crash on Tuesday, which caused the Francis Scott Key Bridge to collapse.

Ten ships are stuck in the Port of Baltimore behind the collapsed bridge, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

The vessels include three bulk carriers, three naval vessels, two cargo ships, one vehicle carrier and one oil/chemical tanker.

Additionally, 12 ships have dropped anchor, and one vehicle carrier is in the port "but outside the bridge."

On Tuesday, Port of Baltimore authorities announced that vessel traffic in and out of the port was suspended indefinitely. But the port remains open for trucks to be processed in the marine terminal.

"To look at a skyline that doesn't even look familiar — that Key Bridge has been there ever since I'd been born. And so this is surreal, looking up and not seeing it there anymore."

— Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on ABC's Good Morning America

Despite modern regulations and design codes in place, experts say there's a long way to go to improve bridges that were made for smaller ships in a different era.

CNN reports:

Read more from CNN here.

When it comes to bridge engineering, protective barriers can help redirect or prevent a ship from crashing into the bridge's supports. The New York Times reports that the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed on Tuesday, did not appear to have an "obvious fender system."

Some engineers told the Times that the collapse might have been prevented if it had more effective barriers in place. This could be anything from pyramids of rocks to padded concrete rings surrounding the supports.

The Transportation Safety Investigation Bureau in Singapore will conduct its own investigation into the crash that took place in Baltimore on Tuesday, officials in the Southeast Asian country announced on Wednesday.

The Dali cargo ship that crashed into the Key Bridge was a Singapore-flagged vessel.

Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore authorities said they're "deeply saddened" by the crash, and will support U.S. investigators with their probes.

The agency said its goal is not to determine who is liable, but to understand what happened in order to prevent future disasters.

The State Department on Wednesday said it planned to reach out to the countries whose citizens were affected by the bridge collapse.

"The Office of Foreign Missions is generally continuing to monitor the situation, and will reach out directly to any foreign missions should we receive information about their citizens being affected," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said during a press briefing, as reported by CNN.

Two of the missing workers are from Mexico, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has confirmed. The others are reported to be from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

With the search operation having shifted from rescue to recovery, the U.S. Coast Guard has pivoted its focus to help get the port up and running again.

"The Coast Guard's highest priority now is restoring the waterway for shipping, stabilizing the motor vessel Dali and removing it from the site and coordinating a maritime casualty investigation," Vice Admiral Peter Gautier said during Wednesday's White House press briefing.

Under the weight of debris from the collapsed bridge, the bow of the ship is sitting on the bottom of the river, Gautier said, adding that there is no threat to the public from the shipping containers that were damaged in the collapse.

Gautier also said that despite the bridge disaster, maritime shipping is "an incredibly safe mode of transportation, not just here in the United States but worldwide."

At her daily briefing Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was joined by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Coast Guard Vice Admiral Peter Gautier, who she said had just come from a meeting with President Biden in the Oval Office.

"After he was briefed on the collapse, President Biden immediately instructed his team to move heaven and earth to aid in the emergency response and help rebuild the bridge as soon as humanly possible," Jean-Pierre said.

The family of 38-year-old Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, one of the bridge workers presumed to be dead, told CNN en Español on Wednesday that they are praying for a miracle that the husband and father will be found alive.

“We still have faith until this moment, God grant the miracle, it would be beautiful,” Sandoval's brother, Carlos Suazo Sandoval told CNN en Español.

“We still have hope, I know that time is our worst enemy,” Sandoval's brother said. He added that the family has not told their mother, who lives in Honduras, about the accident.

Maynor Sandoval, who is also reportedly from Honduras, had been living in the U.S. for 18 years and was known as a "kind and joyful person" with dreams for the future, according to his brother.

“He always wanted to have his own businesses. He always said his elderly years would be in Honduras,” Sandoval's brother said.

On Wednesday, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in an X post that he had "spoken to the families, prayed with them, and assured them that our state will mobilize every resource to bring them closure."

As of Wednesday morning, crew members aboard the Dali cargo ship that crashed into the Key Bridge on Tuesday were "doing good aboard the vessel," according to Andrew Middleton, director of a Baltimore ministry that helps mariners and who has been in touch with the crew. The Washington Post reported that Middleton was waiting to hear if there was Wi-Fi connection on the ship so crew members could reach their families to let them know they are OK.

Middleton explained that it is common for crews such as the Dali's to ask for assistance from the Apostleship of the Sea Baltimore Stella Maris International Seafarers' Center. On the Sunday before the accident, he had taken the ship's captain and a crew member shopping for toiletries and snacks before their planned 28-day journey around the Horn of Africa to Sri Lanka, USA Today reported.

When Middleton learned of Tuesday's accident, he frantically messaged the crew members to see if they were hurt. "Is everyone ok?" Middleton messaged. The response was "yes sir, everyone is safe," Middleton told USA Today.

Middleton expects that the Dali will be towed back into the harbor for a damage assessment.

Following news of the bridge collapse, social media users began floating unfounded conspiracy theories — blaming the crash on immigration and cyberattacks, among other things — that several media personalities promoted on their various platforms.

NBC News reports:

Read more on NBC News.