The road to reconstruction will be “long and difficult” after the collapse of a bridge in Baltimore, the United States Transportation Secretary warned Wednesday as the investigation accelerates and the veil gradually lifts of the six victims of the tragedy.
• Read also: Baltimore bridge collapse: ship’s black box found
• Read also: Ship crashes into bridge in Baltimore: pilot’s ‘mayday’ could have saved several lives
• Read also: Collapsed bridge in Baltimore: a rescuer explains how the search for corpses works
Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, 38, was one of the construction workers on the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed after the unthinkable impact of a gigantic container ship, the MV Dalíagainst one of its pillars, early Tuesday.
The Honduran man immigrated to the United States 18 years ago, hoping to find a better life, his brother told CNN. He was married, had an 18-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter, he detailed.
Although the six victims are presumed dead by the authorities, “we still have hope (of finding him alive by a miracle),” another of his brothers told the American channel, speaking of a joyful being.
“But I know that time is our worst enemy,” he said.
Getty Images via AFP
DVadorian in his forties, was also identified as a victim by an immigrant aid organization. “He is a husband and father of three who has been at home in Maryland for over 19 years,” the organization said.
Two bodies recovered
On the ground, divers and investigators mobilized in large numbers until the early evening in the hope of providing answers to the families, in extreme conditions due to wind and rain.
Authorities said they found the bodies of two people, aged 26 and 35, in a red van in the middle of the collapsed bridge structure in the Patapsco River, CNN reported.
They are Hernandez Fuentes, 35, from Mexico, and Dorlian Castillo Cabrera, 26, from Guatemala.
The latter loved his job in construction and had immigrated to the United States to help his mother, according to his sister-in-law and his and Alejandro’s cousins, those close to him told CNN.
Total devastation
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), in charge of the investigation, managed to get its hands on the data recorder, better known as the “black box”.
The six hours of recording will provide a better understanding of the events leading up to the fateful moment, including the ship’s movements and conversations on board.
“It’s total devastation,” said President Jennifer Homendy last night, who went aboard the container ship where her team identified more than 50 containers with hazardous materials, some of which fell into the water. ‘water.
She warned that the investigation could last up to two years.
Long reconstruction
At the White House, United States Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned that rebuilding the bridge, inaugurated in 1977 after five years of work, would be a “long and difficult” road.
It will be “neither quick, nor easy, nor affordable, but we will get there,” added this former candidate in the Democratic primaries.
“If it were not for several factors”, such as the speed of the first responders, the distress call from the crew and the moment of impact – in the middle of the night – “the loss of human life could have been counted by the dozen,” he stressed.
The elected official did not want to comment on the time it will take to rebuild the infrastructure or even to relaunch the activities of this nerve port, linked to 8,000 direct jobs.
According to him, a structure such as this, completed in the 1970s, “was simply not designed” to withstand a direct impact with a behemoth of the type Dalí, which is almost three football fields long, much bigger than what we saw at the time.
The container ship, flying the Singaporean flag, reportedly experienced electrical and propulsion problems in the moments preceding the spectacular accident.
CNN also reported the testimony of a port employee according to which the ship had experienced a “severe electrical problem” in the preceding days, while it was at the dock.
— With Anouk Lebel, CNN and AFP
