An ‘economic catastrophe’: Maryland governor outlines cleanup process after collapse | FULL UPDATE

Good afternoon let me first start by saying again and always that we’re praying for all victims of the keybridge collapse and also their loved ones we continue to pray for you and we always will I also want to thank again and always our remarkable First Responders and all of our emergency Personnel who

Have been working around the clock in advance of everything today and take caring and leading on our response and I want to thank everyone who has been part of the response from the private sector to the public sector to the Armed Forces to philanthropy to all parts of society and all of those

Who have offered prayers from all over the world I want to let you know that your prayers have been felt all who have offered kind words I want to say that your kind words have been heard and also I want to thank trade point Atlantic this horrific human tragedy was also an economic

Catastrophe in the early hours it was tradeo who said let us help the Port of Baltimore is one of the busiest ports in the world and the collapse of the Key Bridge has shut down vessel traffic to the port tro Atlantic immediately began mobilizing and accepting some cargo

Ships from vessels that were bound from the Port of Baltimore immediately began preparing for those arrivals and they accepted their first shipment of cargo Bound for the port just yesterday we will continue working closely with their team and we are grateful for their support and grateful for their

Leadership now today I will provide updates on the four directives I’ve issued to our team as a reminder the directives are first we need to continue to focus on recovery because we have to bring a sense of closure to these families second we need to be clear we

Need to clear the channel and open the vessel traffic to the port because the health of the Maryland economy and the national economy depend on it third we need to take care of all the people who have been been affected by this crisis that means the families that

Means the workers that means the businesses that means the First Responders that means everybody and fourth we need to and we will rebuild the Key Bridge so first on our recovery efforts as I mentioned yesterday we need to do more work clearing the channel to move forward this is a remarkably complex

Operation and our Focus needs to be on unity of command and unity of effort every morning we have a unified command briefing which includes State Police the US Coast Guard the Army Corps of Engineers our federal delegation and other leaders who are Central to this Mission now during that briefing Colonel

Butler the superintendent of the Maryland state police discussed that conditions in the water makes it unsafe for divers but as soon as those conditions change his divers will go back in the water second on clearing the federal Channel and opening vessel traffic to the port as of this morning I’ve been

Briefed by the Maryland Department of Transportation on clearing wreckage and moving forward our team went out with the Coast Guard just a few hours ago including the co the Coast Guard commant to survey the damage to see the wreckage up close to see a freight that is nearly the size of the Eiffel

Tower and to see that same Freight with a key bridge resting on top of it to see shipping containers that were ripped in half as if they were papier-mâché to know that out there you have to navigate high winds and electric wires to go out there and to see it up

Close you realize just how daunting a task this is you realize how difficult the work is ahead of us with the Salvage operation this complex and frankly with a salvage operation this unprecedented you need to plan for every single moment and every time you take action to move a piece of wreckage you

Understand that that requires you to reassess the situation so when I led soldiers in combat I knew that preparation was everything you do not go into the field of battle without getting the intelligence that you need first so as the mission continues you need to stay frosty you need to

Reassess and you need to adapt that’s the mindset the Army Corps is applying with their Partners in unified command we have the best inspectors the best surveyors and the best engineers in the world working and setting up and executing a plan of action right here in Maryland and I’ve been informed by the

US Navy that they are supplying us with four heavy lift cranes two have already arrived one arrives tonight and the fourth is arriving on Monday one of the cranes is called the Chesapeake 1000 and it can lift about 1,00 th000 tons but the big part and one of the

Challenges is that the Key Bridge which sits on top of the vessel right now that that weight is somewhere between 3 and 4,000 tons so our team needs to cut that trust into sections in a safe in a responsible and in an efficient way before it can lift those pieces out of the

Water this crane that we’re looking at is massive the thing we also know is this so is the challenge ahead of us so in the coming weeks we expect to have the following the following entities inside of the water seven floating cranes 10 tugs nine barges eight Salvage vessels and five Coast Guard

Boats I’ve said it before I will say it again and I will keep on saying it this is not just about Maryland this mission is not just about Maryland and what we’re talking about today is not just about Maryland’s economy this is about the nation’s economy the port handles more cars and

More farm equipment than any other port in this country at least 8,000 workers on the docks have jobs that have been directly impacted by this collapse our economy depends on the Port of Baltimore and the Port of Baltimore depends on vessel traffic Maryland’s economy and Maryland’s workers rely on us to move

Quickly but that’s not just Maryland the nation’s economy and the nation’s workers are requiring us to move quickly third on taking care of our people I want to talk a little bit about the work that we’re doing with the Maryland legislature I want to thank speaker Adrien Jones Senate President Bill

Ferguson and minority leader Steve Hershey they have been in touch with our team since day one I also want to thank delegate Luke clippinger Senator Johnny Ray saing and other members of the district 6th and District 46 teams and I want I want to thank all of the Maryland legislators who have

Reached out and offered their support legislators frankly on both sides of the aisle and I want to thank our federal delegation too to include jamy Rasin who was here earlier but uh but unfortunately canot be here now but to the members of the Maryland general assembly we know this we are 10

Days away from the conclusion of this legislative session and there is a lot of work to do the top priority in that work is going to be finalizing our budget my Administration proposed a responsible budget that makes important investments in housing and child care and Environmental Protection and

Transportation so now it is vital that the house and the Senate find compromise as soon as possible pass the budget and provide certainty at this challenging and uncertain time we also need to ensure that we pass legislation to support the families and the victims of the bridge collapse and

Everyone else who has been affected by this emergency I be proposing the creation of a permanent State scholarship for the children of surviving spouses of transportation workers who lost their lives on this job we will continue to push for legislation that seeks to protect protect workers like the six victims of the keybridge

Collapse I’ve also asked the general assembly to ensure that any legislation we work on provides the flexibility our Administration needs to support Port workers businesses and our transportation Network we cannot possibly find every answer to every problem in the next few days before session ends but we can give

The state the ability to respond over for the coming months fourth on rebuilding as I said yesterday we cannot rebuild the bridge until we have cleared the wreckage I’ve always believed that you never learn anything about anybody when times are easy if you really want to understand someone’s metal watch them when it’s

Hard watch them when it’s difficult watch them when the stakes are high well that time is now and we are going to rise to meet this moment because we are Maryland tough and because we are Baltimore strong so in this moment I’m going to hand it off to the US Coast Guard over

To Admiral Gil reath and then after that we’ll be briefed by Colonel pachin from the uh uh P pin Chason from the Army Corps of Engineers the Maryland State Police the Maryland Department of Transportation EPA administrator Ortiz Congress Congressman qu and fum and County Executive Johnny oesi Alan gy thank you

Governor thank you sir good afternoon I’m rear Admiral Shannon Gil speaking on behalf of the unified command as I mentioned last night our number one priority of the unified command is to reopen the Port of Baltimore and to do that we’ve broken that into three phases number one phase is reopen

The shipping channel number two is remove the ship and number three is to remove the debris from the bridge from the rest of the Waterway we’re beginning to make progress on those phases in the phase one we talked about that we need to do the assessments of the bridge both

Above the water line and beneath the water those assessments continue as the governor said we were out there today and we could see the engineers and the divers and the survey boats out there on the water in these difficult wind conditions doing their job doing their

Work to assess that bridge to figure out how we can cut it up into the pieces we need to be able to lift and back at the UniFi command the governor the commod all the elected officials they could see those Engineers working on those very plans Engineers from the Army Corps of

Engineers Navy supervisor of Salvage we had State Engineers there there were some private Engineers helping us and we had some Coast Guard Engineers there and they’re all working diligently to figure out that right plan to be able to break that bridge up into the right size

Pieces that we can lift and the second part of that is we need to get the heavy lift equipment here and we’ve been telling you that those cranes are on their way and that equipment’s on that way and behind us you can see the first of those things that are arriving

They’re arriving they’re going to continue to arrive for the next several days and we’re going to continue that planning so that we will be ready to Able take advantage of that as soon as possible and do it safely I I turn it over to Colonel pin Jason okay Governor Moore elected officials

Thank you so much for having us here as we just transition to the most critical mission that we have to open and restore the channel to clear the shipping channel and open the port of Bal Baltimore we’ve now begun surveying and conducting engineer analysis and assessing in order for us to conduct the

Integrated Salvage operations within the channel and also to refloat the vessel as well as remove the wreckage of the bridge however the top priority for all the equipment that we’re marshalling right here is going to be focused on clearing the channel now that doesn’t happen overnight and the work that our

Team is doing is just phenomenal I can’t say enough about the team that we’ve assembled here kind of had a little bit of a dress rehearsal when we did the ever forward and that’s the same team that we have on the ground that industry muscle memory that incredible wealth of

Knowledge expertise skills experience all those lessons are being applied here and it’s a really powerful partnership I can’t say enough about what those folks are doing we should all be super proud to see state federal Partners DOD partners coming together should give the Baltimore the Port of Baltimore the

People of Baltimore the state of Maryland and our nation so much confidence to know that they have the right people here to execute this Mission we’re going to be doing that safely and as quickly as possible so with that sir I’ll turn it over thank good afternoon I’m Colonel Roland

Butler Secretary of the Maryland Department of State Police uh to build on what Colonel pin Chason just told you there’s an incredible Synergy going on within the unified command with everyone working together working hard towards a common goal you heard the governor’s objectives we’re working hard to accomplish those

Objectives the MSP has a team of divers on standby waiting for the first word that it is safe and it is clear to go in and examine what’s beneath the wreckage and recover any of these individuals that perished in this unfort incident in addition to that the MSP Aviation

Command is providing aerial support to all the parties involved be it surveying photographs whatever we’re all looking forward to doing whatever we can to help this come to a conclusion the aviation command has also reached out to the FAA to establish a tactical flight restriction area that area begins three

Miles nautical miles in every direction from the center span of the bridge and goes up 1500 ft we cannot impress upon the public enough please stay away from that area with drones or any other type of equipment like that if there are any violations of that airspace law enforcement remains Poise F federal

State and local Partners to act upon any of those violations locate those individuals and bring them to justice the most important thing is that you exercise patience understanding compassion for the people lost in this and allow the workers to do their job safely and effectively thank you good afternoon Paul weld Secretary of

Transportation uh thanks to the $60 million that approved Yesterday by the Federal Highway Administration the department is working closely with the Coast Guard and the core of engineers on Salvage operations in fact a team is currently out out at the site in doing survey so that we can begin this Salvage

Work as the governor mentioned additional support resources will be arriving over the weekend our Focus continues to be in three areas the impact of traffic on our communities and moving traffic throughout the region addressing the economic impacts to the Port of Baltimore and work with our federal Partners to rebuild the Franc

Scott ke bridge in terms of traffic our Department’s dedicated team is working on a number of traffic issues the State Highway Administration and the Maryland Transit Authority have deployed additional traffic resources throughout the region this includes the deployment of additional emergency response Vehicles so quickly to quickly assist

Motorists in need of assistance and clear crashes we are also looking at making any changes to the system to help improve the traffic flow such as making adjustments to the timing of traffic signals in addition we are looking at all the ongoing work work projects we

Have along the along the region and any detours we may need to do uh to support traff smooth traffic our efforts in include coordinating with our partners in the trucking Community to inform them about alternative Roots I’m pleased to say that our transportation system is working well in

Fact there’s been a 10% increase in Daily ridership on the Maryland Transit administration’s core East bus service in terms of bus in terms of Port operation then our support for the workers as I mentioned last night we are just concluding a a meeting that we had with the poor Community businesses and

Labor to see what assistance we can provide them I’d like to thank the Department of Labor and the Department of Commerce for being part of this as we move forward in terms of building the bridge as our team is actively working on that front as well we are considering Innovative design engineering and

Building methods so that we can quickly deliver this project in closing I appreciate everyone’s contined patience as we deal with the with the significant impacts this may have and also please drive safely and respect the speed limits around all of our workers thank you good afternoon everybody my name is

Adam martinz I’m the administrator for epa’s Mid-Atlantic region Governor thank you for convening us here today and it’s great to be up here with our co-regulators at the Maryland Department of the environment as well as members of our federal Family First our thoughts and prayers are with the families who

Are feeling the impacts of this tragedy Salos alos espe I want to thank our EPA Response Team our Water Division and Emergency Response Team for the work that you are doing in support of the US Coast Guard in response to this terrible tragedy we have been here since day one and today

We have Laura Casas who’s our on scene coordinator who is in coordination and part of the unified command I want to provide a little bit of background on the structure of the response and epa’s participation and how we’re looking out together for Environmental Protection for the Federal National contingency plan which oversees and

Guides on how environmental responses are carried out the Coast Guard in this case is the lead Agency for for incidents related to potential and actual spills or discharges in navigable waterways this means that the Coast Guard under the Admirals leadership oversees the priorities operations and strategies in the protection of human

Health the environment of that response EPA as many of you know is known as a regulatory agency and that’s an important role that we have but we’re much more than that we’re also a partner EPA has been here as I said since day one providing support and guidance to

The Coast Guard and all the other partners we play a key role in supporting and leading responses and cleanups involving of oil into waterways as well as Inland areas and we’ve been doing it for decades thousands and thousands of incidents we’ve been on the ground working with local leaders state

Governments and our sister agencies at the federal level in this response epa’s role is that of an adviser we’re here to use science and our experience to carry forth the US Coast Guard and the Maryland Department of of environment unified commands objectives for managing this event and our various

Roles here EPA evaluates information provided by the Coast Guard on dangerous goods on the vessel and provides recommendations on developing plans and strategies as needed at this time there’s no indication of active releases from The Vessel nor of the presence of materials that are hazardous to human health in the

Water however monitoring is ongoing and we will work through the unified command to report and review and be transpar parent of any results from this monitoring as they become available I will defer to the Admiral who’s captain of this ship for for more details most importantly as the governor

Said the unified command will evolve and adapt as necessary and we are on the team the work that we do together helps heal the land and our Waters the economy and our social Fabric and we never ever do anything alone on team environment so so thank you to everybody here in

Whatever capacity you have it matters and we’re honored to be on the field with you K and fum member of Congress 7th District of Maryland um my thanks to all of you particularly who are here in the Press I know you don’t hear it often enough but thanks for telling this story

It is an American story that so many people are depending on you to convey to them as I thanked the governor yesterday I want to thank him again for making this such a very open and transparent progress process so that people understand what’s going on here and that

It’s more than we can even comprehend sometimes now Senator Ben Carton and Senator Chris Van Holland were with us most of the day they’ve both been called away on official duties and Congressman Jamie Rasin from the western side of the state left just a few moments ago but

But they are and we are together the team that’s working in a bipartisan way here in Maryland all of us all members of the house and both members of the Senate to find a way to get the resources in that the governor so desperately needs and that all of us

Need quite frankly to be able to accomplish the three priorities that the rear Admiral laid out to us we had a great briefing this morning with the commant of the Coast Guard I want to thank the Coast Guard in particular as well as the army core of engineers for

Doing what they have done they are really running a unified command and when you look over our shoulders at the bridge and what’s left of it you’ll understand why this city this state and Ed our nation cries at this moment because we can never replace what was

There and we mourn the people who were lost there and that will forever be a reminder to all of us now I want to just say to the 8,000 doc workers out there we know you’re there we’re going to find a way to get you back to work and we

Want to find a way also to increase the ability for people to realize that this affects Supply chains all over the country as the governor said it is happening here but it is an American story I spoke just a little while ago with the administrator of the SBA so

That we can start Expediting a way to help small businesses who rely on import export items to be able to survive and I just want to thank as everybody has all of those many people who are nameless and faceless who’ve given so much to this effort now

And going forward thank you governor for the opportunity to be here and your Congressional Delegation is on it I’ve spoken twice today with speaker Johnson’s office we’ve been missing each other but I’d have to say that he hasn’t a in my opinion a real desire to want to

Try to assist in any way that we can so thank you all for being here again I’m going to yield back to the governor I guess at this point and all your oh Johnny I’m okay Congressman uh good afternoon Baltimore County Executive Johnny elesi uh again I want

To thank Governor Moore and his incredible team uh for their efforts in Partnership I want to thank and acknowledge uh mayor Brandon Scott and County Executive Stuart Pitman who have been uh local colleagues and partners in this work uh and I also want to thank our federal Partners especially the US

Coast Guard and the Army Corps of engineer as we plan to reopen our shipping lanes and to rebuild the Key Bridge I also want to thank the president and secretary budajudge for their tremendous outpouring of support in our time of need in the greater Baltimore area and today I especially

Want to thank our partners here at tradeo Atlantic especially Carrie Mark and Aaron uh for those of you who don’t know uh this is home to me uh as it is for so many others and as I read this morning residents have said the Key Bridge Is Us and for those

Of us who grew up in the shadow of that bridge it has truly been a lifetime of connection those of us here at home we mourn the loss of our neighbors the workers on the bridge we worry about the future of other neighbors who work at the Port of Baltimore and

Beyond and we’re even grieving the loss of the structure itself a strange emptiness in the sky that’s hard to explain to people who aren’t from here but we are a town that literally was built on steel at this site and coming together and persevering is what we

Do we are a community that honors our First Responders we are a community that rallies around our impacted neighbors this tragedy will not Define us and the wreckage will not divide us I think it’s fitting that over 200 years ago the anthem of our country was written where the structure of the

Bridge once stood and in that moment in our nation’s history we were being bombarded day and night relentlessly and in this moment it feels like we’re being bombarded relentlessly day and night but with the partners we have here just then as now we are coming together

In the same way that in recent years we came together at this site as we lost and said goodbye to our steel plant but we were able to transform this site through Ingenuity partnership and the kinds of collaboration we’re seeing now we know this will take time as the

Governor has said but we will also be bold in insisting that we work as quickly as possible and also as safely as possible because it is who we are and because the stakes are Beyond just Baltimore it’s beyond just Maryland as Governor Moore said this has Global implications so we stand ready to

Continue working with you Governor uh we thank our partners again and we look forward to showing that steel resolve as we’ve always do thank you I’m sorry um rejected after 911 uh I I I I can’t uh say what what uh what was done after 911 uh uh I know

That that the evaluation of all of our critical infrastructure is something that has been consistent and thorough and ongoing um so I can’t speak to exactly what happened after 9/11 but we know that the that the infrastructure protection is something that has been a priority it’s something that will

Continue to be a priority and as the investigation continues to uh uh continues to endure about what happened specifically with this incident that uh that we will that we will uh continue to make sure that uh we are keeping the people of our state safe question no listen and and and Trust Me

Brad I I I I really appreciate the question um you know I when we went out there today to go take a look at the at the wreckage and we got a chance to get up close to this massive vessel that had two to three th000 tons of steel sitting on

It going in a place where the Key Bridge once proudly was erected and to be able to go under where it was and look up and see the blue sky and not see the bridge it um it underscored the long road that we have ahead of us the so I

Can’t say right now if this is going to be if this how what’s the time period I can tell you it is not going to be days or weeks or months this is going to take time every single phase we have to focus on safety of the people who are doing

The work we have to make sure that we’re doing it in cooperation and collaboration with all the parties that are need to be involved inside this work we have to make sure that we’re doing it in an environmentally sound way and we have to make sure we’re focusing on

Completion so I can tell you I am uh we are focusing on moving speedily and getting it done quickly I want this done quickly I want it done right we are committed to getting it done and you can bet on it we are going to get this done

But this is going to be a long road could Des so I I can now so why I bring out Colonel pin Chason if you want to speak to the exposes so as I mentioned right now we’re in the stage of assessing it it’s uh it’s still too early especially for

The time it’s entirely too early to give you a schedule and also to to determine whether or not we’re going to use that that option there are so many assets that are being brought and Marshal here and the work that’s happening now I know you’re looking at all this equipment

That’s sitting here but you have to know that behind the scenes what was described as the engineering analysis that’s taking place the divers in the water all the survey work that’s going on all this information that has to be compiled to make sure we get the engineering right so that every lift

That’s happening is happening correctly and it’s going to be this iterative process of lifting and reassessing making sure that it’s stable making sure that what we’re going to send folks down to observe and confirm is safe for them to handle and then we’re going to take it very methodically and that’s going to

Allow us to go faster by doing by investing this time now in the engineering we’re going to be able to move faster later and I know right now everyone wants to see things moving you need to know you need to trust that behind the scenes it’s moving and that

Speaks a lot to what we’ve got with our Salvage with our Salvage Community they have come together just incredibly I keep saying it’s like this Brotherhood you can see it they are bringing all the experiences not just from here in the Chesapeake but from around the world wherever they’ve been and they’re

Applying it here uh together with the Salvage community and the unified command I think we’re on the right course to be able to do this as quickly as possible and as far as movement of equipment I don’t know did I answer your question or I’m just wonder if we’re

Going to land some of this oh yeah you got this thank you and so right now we’re going through the assessment of of how we can use tradeo to be able to assist with uh to assist with all these efforts you know we know that the priority is

We’ve got to get the not just the channel cleared but we’ve got to get the Port of Baltimore reopened that it is such a unique asset not just in the region but frankly it’s a unique asset to this country so getting it reopened is a priority but we also know that we

Are going to uh going to look to and explore leveraging elements such as trade point to be able to get this flow of Commerce going ncor cly aough yeah I I’d say the the first the investigation is is still ongoing uh the the thing that we know is that the

Work that the First Responders did the work that the uh that the MTA officers did uh in terms of being able to move quickly as soon as they heard the information about the MayDay uh it undoubtedly saved lives uh the ability to stop flow of traffic um to make sure

That there were no additional cars that are going to end up on the bridge and in addition to that uh it did not just uh support those and save those who did not end make it on the bridge but also anyone who would have come out or even

After the collapse uh the investigation is still ongoing as to uh as to the communication flow that was taking place with the uh uh with the people working on the ground but um who are working on the on the bridge but again our our de of gratitude to these uh to these First

Responders is is boundless to the to the families I would uh I would continue to say that you have an entire State and Country and World who’s who are lifting you up in prayer uh we know and I indicated that our first priority was making sure that we can help to bring a

Sense of closure to these families um that they are living a nightmare right now one that um that sits with me one that sits with each and every one of us and um and we know that uh that the priority that we have is making sure that those families feel supported and

That they can have a sense of closure well the the fact that we’re we’re here at trade point and we’re able to uh uh to look up and see uh and see see see these cranes I mean it’s showing that that we’re already moving and putting

Things in place to make this happen I I think it is important to recognize that that ever since the we hours of the morning when this first happened this work has not stopped people have been working uh in multiple different ways in order to uh in order to get us to the

Point that uh that we we’re having momentum in progress and that is going to continue to be the case we are not going to stop we are not going to stop working this team is not going to stop working together in order to get to our

Final completion so um so the uh the the thing I I would say is that the work pace and the fact that people just have not have worked have worked consistent ly on creating progress results and getting us to a sense of completion and accomplishing our four goals that has

Not stopped and it’s not going to Peter with Politico um in the 1980s a similar kind of uh bridge collapse happened in Florida after that Federal researchers recommended that a warning system for bridges in case of collapse was urgently needed wondering if mot has ever considered a railroad style uh

Warning system for bridges in case of collapse or is that something you would consider moving forward well I I can tell you that uh we are and will explore any and all options because there’s nothing that I will not do to make sure that the people of my state are safe uh

You know when you think about what’s Happening Here There is a there there is an unprecedented uh uh a measure of unprecedent nature of what we’re talking about we’re actually speaking when we were out with the Coast Guard earlier uh speaking with the with the Coast Guard

Comedon and saying that uh that you know we have Tampa in Minneapolis and the and the in the bridge claps in in uh in in in Minnesota uh the you uniqueness of what we’re seeing here uh where you not only have a a massive vessel uh that is

Then stuck but then you also have a bridge that is collapsed on top of it and all the other factors makes this a uh makes this a a remarkably complicated situation so we know there are going to be there are lessons learned that we’ve seen from other tragedies that we will

Incorporate into our thinking going forward there will be lessons learned that will take from what happened here with uh with the with the Key Bridge that we know that will’ll incorporate how we’re talking about our work going forward and that will just be uh our ability to be able to continue to assess

And make better is going to be something that’s going to be consistent it’s uh do you want to speak about M um that was uh 45 years ago so we’re actually researching to see what was done at that time um and as we get to that information we’ll share it

Post um I I’m wondering what percentage of Port cargo shuttered from the bridge collapse can be handled here at Tradeport Atlantic and do you have any plans to expand the capacity here and if so how soon will these public resources be deployed to expand

Capacity I I can take it first if you I can take it first if you want to uh well so I think part of the thing we’re doing right now is assessing uh what percentage and capacity you know there is a there there is a uniqueness about

Uh about the Port of Baltimore um both you know size capacity of vehicles I think you can just look at simply at the dolly to get an example of the size and the enormity of the kind of vessels uh that that um that we can take on in the

Port of Baltimore so I think what we’re doing right now is doing a continued assessment of of what type of what type of cargo can be taken in places like trade point and how can that serve as not just a not just a a a stop Gap but potentially an additional implemental

And so we are consistently looking at different options of continuing to increase capacity uh for here uh for for here in other locations as well in terms of the um what’s happening here right now with with the materials we’re working with um with the group here and they will do

Some Paving and things like that to support that in terms of the overall business model we’re looking at things for instance we do a lot of the procing processing of vehicles that come to this port so right now we’re getting cars in other ports and bring them here for

Processing so again we’re going to keep working the model the business model to see how we can keep business here and keep labor employed Chris Peterson ABC News um there’s been media reports that uh crw may have detected a large vehicle underwater in the wreckage is that the

Case and additionally um you have the Chesapeake 1000 behind you uh can you confirm that it’s the largest crane on the east coast and is it currently in use and if not when will it be in use and how will it be used in terms of um anything that that’s

Been discovered um it it’s way too early I mean the people you know we have divers down there as has been talked about they’re maybe seeing a foot to two feet in front of them so as we start the the removal of some of those materials

That will become clearer to us and we’ll deal with that issue and we’ll deal with those Souls that are down there as we find them in terms of um I’m sorry the second part of your question there there’s been different things detected but until you get down

There and start to removing things to see what you really have that’s a that that’s a different exercise my understanding it’s the largest that was available that we could get down here as quickly as we could get it down here and it will be made available as

Soon as the engineering and the safety aspects of starting that process begin then that is when it will begin

Maryland Governor Wes Moore, along with other officials, provided an update on cleanup and recovery efforts underway.

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