Maryland lawmakers launch effort to aid workers impacted by Baltimore bridge collapse

As rain fell in the Baltimore region, the United States Coast Guard continued their second day of operations on the Patapsco River after Tuesday's early morning collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Two individuals, one resident of Baltimore and one resident of Dundalk, Maryland, were found dead on Wednesday while one individual rescued on Tuesday was released from the hospital, said Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., Maryland State Police superintendent, during a Wednesday evening press conference held at a state facility in Dundalk near the collapsed bridge.

Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, of Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, of Dundalk, were identified by Butler as the deceased. Four other individuals, all related to construction work that had been taking place on the bridge, were still unaccounted for by officials as of Wednesday evening.

State flags at the capital complex in Annapolis on Wednesday were flying at half staff, following Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s order.

Bridge collapse shocks residents: Francis Scott Key Bridge 'connected family, communities, jobs' in Baltimore

Maryland Senate president said legislation being drafted to aid port

The work by federal and state officials to address the situation near the Port of Baltimore continued on Wednesday on site, but also took place across the state.

“The ship and the debris are in the channel,” U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., told a morning meeting of the Western Maryland delegation to the Maryland General Assembly via Zoom. Van Hollen, along with other federal officials, spent much of Tuesday at a Maryland Transportation Authority outpost in Dundalk within sight of the bridge, hit by a ship before 2 a.m. that morning. “There are four ships at port in Baltimore, there were 12 ships waiting to come in,” he said.

Inside the State House, Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson, D-Baltimore City, told reporters on the chamber’s floor Wednesday afternoon that a bill, the Maryland Protecting Opportunities and Regional Trade Act, is in development.

“Fundamentally, it’s about protecting the economic engine that we have in the city of Baltimore,” said Ferguson, whose district includes the Port of Baltimore. He said the legislation, which was being worked on by bill drafters Wednesday afternoon, is intended to assist with income replacement for workers displaced by disruption at the port and funding for small businesses reliant on the port.

Ferguson called the port an “economic behemoth,” indicating that $3 billion of personal income is created by the port every single year. “But it’s in the background and it just happens,” he said.

Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman said in a release on Wednesday that the Port of Baltimore handled more than 50 million tons of foreign cargo worth $80 billion in 2023.

Lierman, who previously represented the district in the state Legislature, said she supported the General Assembly’s legislative efforts to help workers displaced during the closure of the port.

Original story on bridge collapse: Gov. Moore: Ship traveling at high speed in Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore

What goes in and out of the Port of Baltimore?

Van Hollen told members of the General Assembly during the Zoom meeting on Wednesday that the port is “one of the busiest in the country,” calling it the “biggest port for roll-on, roll-off cars in the United States.”

Reporting from the Herald-Mail in 2022 indicated that the Amazon Robotics Fulfillment Center on Broening Highway near the Port of Baltimore (and the site where officials gathered Tuesday) was a top shipper for Amazon in the world.

“We’re one of the largest facilities in the world, Top 15 for sure,” said Cole Fisher, general manager for the Broening Highway Fulfillment Center, during a December 2022 interview. Fisher said the Sparrows Point Amazon facility, built nearby in Baltimore County in 2018 on the site of the old Bethlehem Steel shipbuilding locale, is a Top 5 shipper for Amazon in the world.

Millions of products, all specifically under 18 inches, have poured into the East Baltimore site near the port, while larger items like televisions and kayaks have been sent to a Hagerstown site.

A release earlier this month from Van Hollen’s office indicated that the Port of Salisbury has the second-highest commercial volume of Maryland ports.

Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Baltimore bridge collapse: Lawmakers launch plan to help workers.