BALTIMORE — Dive teams early Wednesday resumed the search for the six construction workers presumed dead after a large cargo ship rammed into and toppled the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday.
Coast Guard search teams are braving the Patapsco River’s cold waters and rain while investigating the wreckage of the major span of Interstate 695, commonly known as the Baltimore Beltway.
“I can’t stress enough the heroism of these folks,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Wednesday morning. “They are in frigid conditions, they are down there in darkness where they can literally see about a foot in front of them. They are trying to navigate mangled metal. And they’re also in a place that it is now presumed that people have lost their lives.”
Mr. Moore said dive teams had resumed their search in the early morning.
The search has shut down ship traffic in and out of Baltimore Harbor, which is affecting cruise ships slated to return to port.
Carnival Cruise Line said its Carnival Legend ship now will depart from Norfolk, Virginia, instead of Baltimore. A cruise liner scheduled to return Sunday to Baltimore now will dock at Norfolk. Passengers will be bused to Baltimore.
SEE ALSO: Key Bridge collapse closes Baltimore’s busy economic artery to shipping traffic
Federal officials boarded the cargo ship Dali on Wednesday morning and are talking with the crew.
The Dali, which is registered in Singapore and chartered by a Danish company, lost power and crashed into a support beam on the Key Bridge early Tuesday, causing the structure to fold into the river.
Officials said it sent at least eight workers and several cars into the water below. Two were rescued shortly after the bridge collapsed.