Baltimore It was two in the morning on Tuesday when James French’s cell phone rang. A colleague who is also a truck driver was calling him to warn him to avoid the Francis Scott Key Bridge. “I just knew something was happening and he was telling me not to go there. The whole time he was telling me ‘The bridge is no longer there,'” explains James to the ARA. He was just finishing his shift when he took the call. After hanging up, he started watching the videos with the footage of the bridge collapsing from the impact of a ship. “I can only be thankful that he is okay and sad for those affected. I still can’t believe it. I walked over the bridge 30 minutes before it collapsed.”
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James, who is 52 years old and precisely a neighbor of Dundalk, the neighborhood next to the collapsed bridge, works delivering goods for Amazon, which has a logistics center in the port of Baltimore. The building is very close to Dundalk, about 15 minutes’ drive from the now disused bridge. “Almost every day I pass by here. Usually, I take this route to pick up loads at Amazon’s facilities,” reports James, and remarks: “Thanks to word of mouth among colleagues, many were prevented from going to the bridge”.
Beyond the tragedy that resulted in six workers who the authorities believe to be dead and two injured, the collapse of the bridge will also have serious consequences for the economic activity of the city and the entire country. The Port of Baltimore is one of the most important on the East Coast and throughout the United States. It is estimated that around 50,000 jobs depend on their activity. The importance of this enclave is such that, in an emergency appearance, President Joe Biden has promised that the federal government will pay for the reconstruction of the bridge.
Until the wreckage of the ship stuck on the collapsed bridge span can be removed, however, the channel connecting the port of Baltimore to the Atlantic Ocean will be blocked. For now, the Maryland Port Authority website announces that vessel traffic to and from the port has been suspended “until further notice.”
During the afternoon of Tuesday, activity was still seen at the unloading dock, from where many trucks kept leaving. When asked about what would happen in the coming days, the truck drivers shrugged their shoulders from inside the cab of the vehicle. “I’m worried, it looks bad,” said a man behind the wheel of a giant van towing a green Evergreen container as he waited for the traffic light to turn green.
A port worker (who prefers not to be named) was still wearing his orange fluorescent vest and goggles when he was inside the car. “Today they made us close earlier, now I’m going home. But they told me to come back tomorrow, that there will still be things to do,” he explained. As for James, he says he doesn’t think his work will be affected, although he acknowledges that “Amazon hasn’t told us anything yet. I’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
There are approximately 3,200 factories and distribution centers located within a radius of about 48 kilometers that depend on the port, according to the Washignton Post. Within global supply chains, the bridge collapse and port closure further complicates the picture. Right now maritime transport is already dealing with the attacks of the Houthis in the Red Sea, in the framework of the Gaza war, and with the historic drought that the Panama Canal is suffering.
2024-03-27 06:59:07
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