AURN News with Ebony McMorris

Transportation Secretary Lays Out Focus Areas After Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse

Ebony McMorris
March 27, 2024

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Operations have gone from a search and rescue mission to a recovery mission as search crews desperately try to find the bodies of six missing construction workers who fell into the water after a cargo ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing it to collapse.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg met with President Biden and spoke with members of the media about the next steps. Here are the areas they say they’re focusing on.

“Reopen the port. Deal with the supply chain implications until the port does reopen, rebuild the bridge, and deal with the surface transportation implications until the bridge is rebuilt. We are concerned about the local economic impact with some 8,000 jobs directly associated with port activities, and we are concerned about implications that will ripple out beyond the immediate region because of the port’s role in our supply chains,” said Buttigieg.

A container ship rests against wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Baltimore, Md. The ship rammed into the major bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday, causing it to collapse in a matter of seconds and creating a terrifying scene as several vehicles plunged into the chilly river below. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

The Port of Baltimore is one of the largest shipping hubs. As many as 30,000 people use that bridge daily and 15,000 jobs are dependent on it.

Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.

White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris is a native Washingtonian and University of South Carolina alumna. Her passion is mentoring young adults by teaching community empowerment and media education. She is an NAB member and board member of the Thurgood Marshall Center and was presented the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award for contributing more than 4,000 hours of community service under the Obama Administration.