Major bridge collapse in Baltimore

We live about an hour and a half from Baltimore and I was talking to a travel agent last month who said they had a Royal Caribbean ship scheduled to leave out of Baltimore at the end of May. I was stunned.

 

Facebook friend just posted cruise pics that included their Carnival ship sailing past the bridge remains, so yeah - that's a thing.

 

My family's been at Emerald Isle, N.C., this week and twice since we've been here, we've driven over to Beaufort. Once for the kids to do a pirate excursion and once for everyone to go to Shackleford Banks for the horses and seashells.

Anyway the route takes us right past the small port at Morehead City. I've been coming down here for 40+ years and I've never seen the Morehead City port as busy as this week, except in August 1990 when the US Navy used it as an onboarding point for 1,000 or so Marines from Camp Lejeune.

This morning we almost missed our ferry to Shackleford because we got stuck by the port as a semi tractor carrying a massive blade about the length of four normal tractor trailers slowly made its way out of the port. My guess is that it was an off-shore windmill blade.

On the way back this afternoon, we were next to a car hauler coming out of the port loaded with new Mercedes Sprinters. Thinking about those vans is when it finally dawned on me why the port has seemed so much more active than I'm used to.

 

Damn:

https://apnews.com/video/vietnam-br...and-typhoons-a299ea1c51894f6da58bae9a4138b6c8

 

Wow. The dump truck just disappears as the bridge is suddenly gone. And the look the motorcyclist gives the driver of the car, too.

Shades of the Greyhound bus and the Sunshine Skyway incident. Horrifying.

 

The U.S. Dept. of Justice filed a claim against the Dali's owners today seeking more than $100 million in damages. It outlines some key findings from the federal investigation including that its rudder, propeller, anchor and bow thruster were all offline and it blames the company's janky repairs. This is just for the cost of the federal emergency response, including assistance to the port workers who were out of work while the port was closed. I imagine the state of Maryland will be seeking an even bigger claim given the almost $2 billion price tag to replace the bridge.

Justice Department Files $100 Million Claim in Fatal Baltimore Bridge Collapse

 

The Trumpist Congressman from the 10th district of Georgia rises to object.