these are serious conditions, dangerous conditions for anyone who would have ended up in this water obviously, they're all kinds of scenarios, as you mentioned cruise looking for potentially 20 d people who could have been in the water. we don't have the latest on injuries, but it has been described as a mass casualty event but look, casey, again, out here in the elements, it is brutally cold and dangerous conditions and you just think about the people who might have been affected here, drivers who were on that bridge and the rescuers who are out there trying to save them it is a chilling scene here. >> a chilling scene in so many ways that video, of course, if a moment of the bridge collapsed. we are heading in to the top of the six an hour here

cnn breaking >> news good morning everyone i'm kasie hunt live, in washington dc we begin this hour with major breaking news overnight. a bridge in baltimore collapsing after it was hit by a large container ship. video from a livestream shows the moment of impact with the francis scott key bridge. that is the belly container ship you can see the bridge crumble into the water. this happened at one around 01:30 a.m. eastern time this morning. officials say that multiple cars fell into the river below and right now, rescue crews are searching the river for at least 20 people. one official called the collapse. it quote deve, developing mass casualty event this bridge is 1.6 miles long. there are four lanes of traffic on it. it is important to note

for those of you who may be local to this region, this is the francis scott key bridge in baltimore. it is not the key bridge in washington, dc that that connects dc and virginia kenya. >> we do >> have team coverage of this this morning at gabe cohen is live on the scene in baltimore. we also have with us a cnn senior law enforcement analyst, andrew mccabe, and cnn national security analyst at juliette kayyem, they are all with us i'm dave, i want to start with you because you have spent the last few hours making your way as close as possible to the scene you noted last hour that you were in the backyard of a home that where you can see this bridge behind you. i also do want to note we are starting to get reaction from local officials who are actively engaged. there is an anorectal county executive, stuart pittman, who is writing on the platform x that he has spoken with other local officials, including the governor of maryland, the mayor of

baltimore, the county executive, baltimore county he notes that he is praying for drivers on the bridge construction workers on the bridge, crew on the ship and their families. so he is telling us that there was also there were also construction workers potentially working on this bridge game bring us up to speed. what do we know about this at this hour >> okc, as we have mentioned, this is a significant search and rescue operation at this point to bring everyone back up to speed. this container ship a collided with the key bridge here in baltimore around 01:30 a.m. eastern time if we can actually push in on the view that we have behind it gives you a sense of how much of the bridge or her, how little of the bridge is left at this hour, you can see the point where the bridge just suddenly ends, just to the right of that is the container ship that

collided with a column of the bridge in the very early hours of this morning ascending most of it crumbling down into the water. you can see chunks of the bridge around that container ship in that is what said at off this massive response and search and rescue operation, fire crews worried that as many as 20 people might be in the water. there were reports, as you mentioned, of cars that had fallen into the water, a potentially a tractor trailer or something roughly that size as well as maybe we even construction crews that were on the bridge. we don't know what the latest is on any potential injuries at this point, but as you mentioned, it is considered a mass casualty event and we know that there are divers and crews in the water. and as i mentioned, just a few minutes ago, just being here on the river heading into the harbor baltimore conditions are frigid. the waves are choppy, the water is not common

at all, and i'm not sure what the temperature is at this hour, what is supposedly it feels like, but i can tell you from my vantage point, it is freezing cold. i'm in a heavy winter coat and it is still extremely chile out here. the water potentially 47, 48 degrees. and so casey, that is that is why this was such an urgent search. are these people who could be in the water because if they're not in their cars, people can only live so long in water that temperature. one to three hours maybe. and so i can see from my vantage point, a lot of police his lights around the bridge. it's hard to tell whether their boats in the water or cars on land. we know though this is about as close as we could get to the bridge at this hour, kasie, because police have both side of the bridge locked down at this point closed off to any vehicles that are not those emergency first it's responders and look, when we pulled up to the scene, we spoke with an officer. and ask where they were from. they

said, well, this is not their jurisdiction. they're getting called in, so it's several agencies from across this area, this part of maryland that are getting called to the scene. federal agencies also involved in this rescue operation at this point and we're hearing of course, from a lot of officials, including brandon scott, the mayor of baltimore, who a couple of hours ago and said he was aware of the scene. he was heading to the scene. but we can tell just from where we are, kasie, that there is the bridges gone. i mean that's it it is shocking and just speaking with people in this little neighborhood where we are, we talked to the family that lives in the home were in the backyard of and the woman we spoke with wasn't shocked. she said this is unbelievable to see. this is a bridge that as you mentioned, is critical. it's part of baltimore's identity. it is critical for travelers across this entire region. so they're gonna be, there's gonna be a huge ripple effect. but as of now we are

still from a very far vantage point watching a rescue operation unfolding. and it is stunning to see that container ship just sitting there dark in the middle of water with nothing around at what was a bridge going over interstate 695 heading over the river here it's just gone just gone game. i mean, it's it's a it's a stunning, stunning reality to wake up to at this. it's just a few minutes after 06:00 eastern time. this incident occurred around 01:30 a.m. eastern time this morning, the singaporean flagged container ship dalai colliding with the support structure on the francis scott key bridge in baltimore, maryland. one of the key arteries that carries traffic. it's four lanes of

traffic over that bridge and it's named for francis scott key in no small part because it's about 100 yards from where key wrote the star-spangled banner. this overlooks the sight of four mchenry and this stunning video, is what you can see. what first responders heard this morning as they were trying to grapple with what happened. this is very brief, but it's very stark. listen you advise the entire bridge, entire key bridge in the harbor >> the entire key bridge is in the harbor. and you of course can see that because it was on live stream right there. andrew mccabe. if you're with me, i'd like to bring you into this conversation because again. you can see this when you watch it and i know it's a question. a lot of people are already asking and i want to make sure that we are thoughtful in how we talk through this, this ship

hits that pylon directly. that support structure and just causes the entire bridge to collapse into the harbor as investigators are looking at that, this is obviously an incredibly heavily trafficked area going into the harbor, baltimore. we know this ship was actually on its way out with a destination of sri lanka apparently. but this is something that drivers i mean, if you remember that bridge, you drive in a back-and-forth over this all the time. none of us even really think about it. when you're driving out towards the chesapeake bay, you will see container ships like this by the dozens waiting for their turn to kind of navigate. this route what are your questions right now? what questions are investigators? first going to be asking about how this happened >> sure. so you're absolutely right key. so you look at that video and it tells a big part of the story, appears just from the video for for those, many

of us who are not trained and steering massive cargo ships the odds of hitting that post are infinitely smaller than, than getting into the space around it. so there's some, there is a reason that that boat hit that post. >> it's >> probably enormously more likely that those reasons are founded on causes this is like mistake, lack of training, negligence, things like that, but but investigators are going to put all of that on the table and are going to be wanting to press into and really establish a very clear, minute by minute, almost second by second. timeline of all of the events. the actions, the thoughts, the decisions that conversations that were taking place on that vessel in the lead up to that impact. so when that's that's really where they start again

to put this in proper perspective, there are folks that i'm sure are working on those problems right now, but the majority of the law enforcement response here is on rescue and recovery. we are still well in that phase of the disaster. i think it's probably important to point out that the road 695 is of course, a toll road and so those toll facilities both before and after the bridge on either side of the bridge can help first responders and establishing just a number of vehicles that they may be looking for in the minutes surrounding that impact? all right. so they're going to want to start with the question of how many vehicles were there on the bridge at the time. and if there's not really perfect video or live streaming coverage that enables you to figure that out. they have resources like those toll facilities to be able to see

well, we know how many cars are passing in either direction at about the approximate time. and then there'll be locating those vehicles, identifying their owners, trying to contact people to ensure that they got off the bridge before before disaster struck these are not these aren't time-tested skills, this stuff doesn't happen every day. >> but >> fortunately, we have incredibly well-trained folks who are, are understand the resources and the infrastructure around that bridge, the highways that feed it to communities that better in that area. >> and they'll be relying >> on all that knowledge and expertise to try to understand exactly how many folks and how many vehicles they need to be looking for that and that cold, dark water >> well. and this is why we say thank you to our first responders and the people who i do this every day because they're the ones who take the

calls at 01:30 in the morning when something like this happens, and suddenly there are people whose lives are depending on them. and now we know there are divers in the water here, that cold water, as has been pointed out, risking their own safety to try and rescue these 20 people that reportedly, according to law enforcement officials, at least are in the water i'm gabe. let me let me come back to you because we are learning it's 06:12 a.m. eastern time we've been alerted that they plan a press conference i'm at 06:15 a.m. eastern time. so we do want to be aware of that. we're going to take that live when it comes in to us. if we do here, officials at that time, we should also note that responses have been rolling in from local, state, federal officials. we've heard from the transportation secretary cherry this morning, pete buttigieg saying he has offered federal resources, the governor, wes

moore of maryland has declared a state of emergency and says that he's working with inter-agency teams. we've also heard from the mayor of baltimore that they are monitoring this and the way things are setup in maryland, there also are county executives who are involved in this response. we also know that the coast guard is involved. they have given us some details about their resources coming from annapolis and other coast guard stations, a helicopter from the coast guard station in atlantic city actively engaged in this search and rescue. what else are you hearing it? and are you? to seeing if you want to show us your vantage point over the river, we currently have up some live pictures of the bridge from are affiliate, but i know you have a unique viewpoint as well. >> yeah. kcl. i'll step out of the way and just give you a look at what we're seeing behind because it, it really paints a clearer picture even from this distance. look, we can't get any closer. those police and first responders

still have the area around the bridge on both sides completely shut down as the rescue operation is underway. but you can see enough from our vantage point to see where the bridge just suddenly ends and where that container ship just to the right of it is still sitting it seems in the middle of the water no lights on it. it seems to be dark and around it is seemingly nothing except the remnants of the bridge that was the key bridge. you can see some chunks of the ridge and it's what's left from the video. you clearly see the moment where the container ship collided with the column and send the bridge collapsing into the water, broken into several pieces and some of those pieces are still above water by casey. yeah, we're we're waiting for an update from first responders because up to this point, they really having said how many injuries there are, what they know about how many people are in the water. and they said it

could be as many as 20 people that they were searching for here in the river. but that number was a little unclear. it was seven at first and we know that diverse had been in the water. they are trying to pull people out, but the concern was that people were inside their cars, which had fallen when the bridge collapse. and so we can see from our vantage point, a lot of police lights it's unclear if any of those are boats that are in the water assisting, would that rescue operation. but really the information is limited right now, but kasie, again, i can't emphasize enough just how brute how brutal conditions are out here along the water far more so than i would've expected as i drove up here and i looked at what conditions this morning would have been, temperatures near 40 degrees, the water temperature around 48 degrees but it is not mild out here. it is extremely windy the water is

choppy. it is from our vantage point, frigid. i can feel the cold, brutal wind and i can only imagine what it's like for the crews out there and for anyone who might have ended up in that water and that's why crews are particularly those rescued first are worried because a person could only last so long in water of that temperature >> yeah. no, absolutely gave to that point. i want to bring in our meteorologist, derek van dam to give us a little bit more context. on this, derek has, as gabe is reporting and experiencing himself, it might be spring, but it is cold out there and 48 degree water is much colder. when you are in it, then 48 degree air. what are these people dealing with? >> yeah. in fact, cold water drains body heat about four times faster than cold air physically does. so that's really saying something about the survivability times of the

potential of people in the water. we don't know how many people. but assuming what we've seen on video and the reports we're getting from authorities on the ground that it is likely that people here are in the water. so what are they dealing with? what are they contending with? well, you know, uh, 50 degree water temperature might not seem like that cold, but it can be very deadly and et is because of the risk of hypothermia, because of the risk of cold shock. your heart rate increases, your breathing, increases your blood the pressure even changes and we've gotten this graph to just give examples of how long this is plus or minus an hour or two on either side of this, but water temperatures within 40 to 50 degrees. a human survivability on average, is between one to three hours. and we're approaching the five-hour mark since this event occurred, roughly 130 in the morning. so there's a lot to be said in a lot to unpack with what conditions are like in the water, but also above the water

as well. think about the search and rescue operators that are on the scene as we speak, you heard gabe talk about how frigid it feels like outside. well, that is just because of the wind chill right now, the air temperature is roughly 37 degrees near baltimore, but the winds are enough of a factor. i know it looks like here, but that's enough of a factor to bring down those windchill temperatures. that is your apparent temperature on your exposed skin as you step outside to roughly 36 degrees. so as we look, as temperatures through the course of the day today will bottom out about 34 and reach a high of 51 today. so water temperatures absolutely rigid and could be deadly. casey >> yeah. now, derek van dam, derrick, thank you very much. for that again, for those of you who are just joining us, it is six 18:00 a.m. here on the east coast. we are waking up to this just horrific breaking news. the francis scott key bridge in baltimore, maryland, collapsing into the tapscott river after it was hit by a

container ship, you saw it there, hit the support pylon on the left side of your green and collapsed down into the river. the reports coming over the trans as emergency response officials were grappling with this, say the bridge, the francis scott key bridge? is in the harbor. this is a major a commuter root in the baltimore-washington region. it is known as the baltimore beltway. it is 695 is the name of the highway. it's circles at the city of baltimore. it is the main transit route for many, especially trucks carrying hazardous materials we have heard early are early reports from baltimore city fire officials were the 20 people were in the water as well as the number of vehicles, including one vehicle that was the size of a tractor trailer. unclear if that's actually what it was, but it was described as being the size of a tractor

trailer, the shipping question called the dalai. it was outbound from a baltimore harbor heading for sri lanka and as we said, it hit that pylon, according to the coast guard at 01:27 a.m. et. this morning. so we are now waiting for officials to brief the media with what they know or don't know about how this happened and the current search and rescue efforts that are underway. way we know that there are divers in the water at trying to rescue people that may have come off that bridge at one county executive, the ana rundle county executive, noting that he was praying for construction workers who may have been on that bridge at the time of this collapse as well. so you've got cars that were driving across it potentially actually construction crews that we're working on it. of course, there's the crew of the ship itself that is also feeling the ramifications

potentially endanger and of course you have first responders in the water trying to do the best they can to pull people out. we've also heard of from the coast guard at this hour. they say that they have sent boats as well as helicopters from their station in annapolis, their station and curtis bay, the helicopter coming down from atlantic city air station. so this really a response at all levels of government. now, juliette hi, am, i know this is actually exactly your area of expertise. government response risk management, crisis management. can you help us understand how these agencies are working together at this hour and what happens next? >> right? so the focus is on response is going to be led by the coast guard and then local and state officials. so i want to juliet excuse me. let me just interrupt you briefly. i have not yet mentioned that we also heard from the federal bureau of investigation from the fbi that i feel baltimore personnel are on scene. so if

you could help us understand their role here too? yeah. >> okay. so there's different pieces. so let's start with a response or responses were hoping that people are still alive. i have to admit i can >> i only want >> it's a low probability event that people would have survived for this long. we just know that. and so relatively quickly that response apparatus, and especially with daylight, will then and begin to shift to the pieces that we're discussing the first is the investigation. >> look, there, we have >> to find out whether there's something called a harbor pilot on this ship, harbor pilots are brought in by the jurisdiction and help a ship get out of a high risk areas. we're seeing this this looks to me and i've i've i've talked to people in the coast guard this morning that this was such a direct hit that we have to assume either mechanical error, in other words, they could not control the ship and there might be radio discussions to that

extent >> or no one was in charge. in other words, someone just left the steering. so you're gonna look to how could this happen. the third is, is the bridge itself. this is a span bridge. it means as anyone who's ever been over 1, that it's connected like a domino and so a single hit in an area is going to bring the whole bridge which down it is not survivable. this is not a patch. fix. we're seeing what is going to happen. so then the fourth piece, as we're discussing with all these federal agencies, is now the alternative. the city has to move. the nation has to move and what alternatives are available first for hazardous materials, this to me is the big because focus this bridge was the alternative to putting hazardous materials in the tunnels that are around baltimore. that was a post 911 shift when cities got a little bit more serious about what was coming into their jurisdictions so you're going to have a hazardous material problem of

things getting out of these waterways. so what alternatives are available and then you have the citizens of not just baltimore but of course maryland and dc. and we're going secretary of transportation working with state transportation officials and local transportation officials are going to have to find alternatives and also work with the private sector to relieve the traffic and transportation demands that normally exist on a a regular day. these alternatives are often works through, but normally for short-term weather events, you have let's say you have to close a bridge a couple of hours. this is going to be months and is going to have a national impact. our waterways are supply chain systems or navigation systems, the maritime system are all connected and something like this happens. however rare, it

become its ripple effect yes, we impact commerce and other other transportation demands that this nation has. so i'm not surprised that the secretary of transportation is on this. their job is to start to help the city and state get alternatives because that's what we need now as well as we, as we look at this horrible incident and try to hope that people are still alive. so response, investigation and then the alternatives are the three different areas that we're looking at now in any, in any crisis. and then the federal piece since we're going to fit into all of those at this stage >> okay. juliette kayyem standing by for us. thank you, julia. very much for that. we've got what looked like officials walking two microphones here at this news conference that we have been anticipating. we are going to listen in here. we're going to bring you at whatever details we can about who these folks

are. let's hope they identify themselves at the top ecf de thats baltimore county fire department, and they of course, have been providing much of our information this morning. let's listen hey good morning >> my name is chief james wallace, some achieved for the baltimore city fire department >> i'm joined this >> morning by our mayor, brandon scott. council president moos be councilwoman porter county executive. jonny, oh, chef ski and baltimore county fire chief joann run our brief this morning will be an update on the search and rescue operation is ongoing at this point so at approximately 0140 hours this morning are normal one center dispatched a call to the baltimore city fire department for report of a water rescue in tapscott river in the area of the key bridge as units were responding, they began to receive numerous calls indicating multiple people in the water. >> at >> some point during that chain

of events of calls we began to receive indications that a a ship may have struck the key bridge. we got further information through multiple calls that the key bridge portions of the key bridge had actually collapsed at about o1 50 hours. our first unit arrived on scene and reported a complete collapse of the key bridge. we were also given information at that time that there were likely multiple people on the bridge at the time of the collapse? and that as a result, multiple people were in the water we were able to remove two people from the water one individual refused service and refused transport. essentially, that person was not injured however, there was another individual that's been transported to a local trauma center that is in very serious condition at this time. we have multiple air assets from the

maryland state police as, well as the baltimore police department as well as multiple marine assets from around the region, including baltimore city and arundel county. baltimore county as well as multiple local and state police these agencies, national resources police bpd, special ops unit is in here. maryland state polices here. we have multiple resources we are still very much in an active search and rescue posture at this point. and we will continue to be for some time we have a large area that we have to search this includes on the surface of the water subserve profess, as well as on the deck of the ship itself we believe at this point, we may be looking for you may be looking for upwards of seven

individuals that's the latest information we have. >> however, >> what i will say is is the information that i'm giving you right now, is as of right now, that's what we know right now. this is a very large incident it involves a very large footprint multiple agencies are operating, therefore information is subject to change. as we get more intel. and our crews work through the morning over the next eight to 12 hours, you can expect to continue to see our air and maritime assets functioning out on the water and in the air above, we need to do damage assessment of the ship itself before we can board that ship. and we need to continue. our subsurface search, which is including different types of sonar. we have side scan sonar, we have other sonar capabilities here. we have underwater uavs that we're working with and throughout the

night, we've also been working with infrared technology, both from the air and on the water surface. so i'm going to wrap up here which is saying this continues to be a search and rescue operation. it continues to be very dynamic operation with multiple local state, and federal resources involved with that, i'm going to turn it over to our mayor. mayor brandon scott thank you. thank you, chief >> everyone, >> this is a unthinkable tragedy. >> we >> have to, first and foremost pray for all of those who are impacted, those families. pray for our first responders and thank them all of them working together. >> city, state >> local to make sure that we are working going through this tragedy of this is an ongoing, active research that we're having right now we're going to continue as you heard from chief wireless tube throughout as long as we have to be doing that, we'll do it but we have

to be thinking about the families and people impacted. >> folks who >> we have to try to find and say, this is what our focus should be on right now. we're going to continue to work in partnership with every part of government to do everything that we can to get us through the other side of this tragedy. with that, i'll turn it over to county executable chesskid >> thank you. scott i think we all awoke this morning to an unspeakable tragedy. is married to k1. we know that there will be families and individuals impacted by this, regardless of what what happens the rest of the way out so i would just echo the maire and lifting up prayers for those who are impacted. but also asked that our residents pay pray for our first responders. they had been on-scene since very early in the morning not only conducting initial search and rescue operations with planning for the additional ones as the sun comes up and the work that they

do cannot be understated and i want to just thank them for all that they are doing and will do in the hours and days ahead we know that we have a long road ahead, not just in the search and rescue, but in the fallout following this. i think we appropriately we have our attention on the search and rescue efforts currently and just here alongside our partners in the city to say that they have our full support. just as we want to thank our state partners for the resources they've offered up as well as the federal partners who have already reached out the maire and i have talked to the governor. we've heard from the secretary transportation so collectively, we thank everyone for their thoughts, their well-wishes but again, this is a very active situation and we want to just thank the chief and our teams for all the great work they're doing without turn things back over to the chief but some, q&a right now. now it's going to go around. i've everyone you tell

us where the crew of the ship is you also mentioned too that the two people in rescue who made the first 911 call and there were reports that it was crew on the deck of the ship working at that point, can you confirm any of that blaze information we have on the on the crew of the ship is that they are still on board the ship there's been cams between the ship crew and the coast guard. so as as part of the overall operation we communicate through the coast guard with the ship. and i'm sorry, your other questions. >> there were two people take it who made the first 911 call? >> i don't know who's who made that call yet >> were there other workers on the the deck of the ship or a deck of the rigid this point we have heard that inferential. can you confirm that we were being told there were workers on the bridge? we have yet to confirm that. will work with mdt aid obviously to get that information on how many cars were on that ship. last question on the deck of the

bridge at the time of class, golden have a number i can tell you our sonar has detected the presence of vehicles submerged in the water. i don't have a counter that yet. >> you mentioned i've worked with individuals that you're looking for. her reports of money payment, work there? around about or actually what or how many might be looking to rescue and also be give an idea of how many vehicles were religious i'll start with the last one, so i don't know how many vehicles yet. i know that we have detected the presence of vehicles as far as the number between the 7.20 that's been a dynamic count throughout the morning. just given the fact that we haven't yet nailed that number down, we do believe that at least seven are involved in that, at least seven at this point yes, ma'am >> i know you said the crew was accounted for it's hard to

know if any of group members seven water. >> we do not throughout this so we'll be >> guided by by our dive teams. we will determine what temperature the water is. the other issue that we have out there is this water is current influenced. so right now, we think the tide is coming back in that adds a bit of a challenge to us also we can certainly dive in these conditions, but we have to take a lot of factors and to play the fact that there may be trauma involved, they have been in the water and extended period of time, but also remember, we're battling darkness. so it's quite possible that we may have somebody there we've not seen yet and as they work closer to the debris field though, obviously make those

determinations. but we're going to rely on the experts which are our dive masters that are here are dive team to tell us when they believe we've reached that non survivability we do not have that information with regard to the investigation, i would refer that to to law enforcement my my focus since 140 this morning has been that rescue operation i have no information about that man up for the pilot the american pilot on that bridge? >> the the pilot on the vessel. we have not talked to the pilot on the vessel. the rescue personnel rescue operation. we have not interacted back over

here i don't have agent >> i'm sorry >> yeah. i don't i don't have age and gender on either one. patient refused service, right really, they weren't injured. the second patient, however, was seriously injured. and is that an area trauma center >> seven at least seven >> we don't know yet if they're part of that seven the patient is injured severely enough that we've not been able to debrief that patient more than just a phone, are no. that >> was the initial information that we got as we were arriving on the scene, that number and that number again, as i said earlier, has fluctuated, right. >> but that seven has been a consistent now number

>> well >> it doesn't. so i mean, locally you fire department wise, baltimore county's here, howard county c or harford was here, pg was here in a rundle of course, baltimore city and a lot of those agencies are here by virtue of the fact that they may have specialized equipment that we need during an incident like this. so we're we're bringing in the equipment specific to the operation right now. and then even even law enforcement agencies have a lot of the same marine ops equipment as we do so given the incident is so big, we tried to force multiply and just bring as many resources as we can so that we can really blank at a large area for a search we don't we've not been able to confirm that we actually have an active fuel spill from the vessel. we've had odors, a diesel fuel. >> the

>> maryland department he environment is here as well as the coast guard. so they would take leads on that as well. we hope as the sun comes up a little bit with the air assets that are up to get a much better picture if we do have a field spill, what the impact has been so far maryland state police has been here. foxtrot is also working this there are two air resources right now >> i don't >> know that we won't bring any more in, but right now, they're the two primary air reconnaissance on something on the open water is just it's an invaluable resource and we've been very fortunate to have it because as we put people out in the dark on the water to conduct searches, they have that degree of overwatch from those assets. so it's been an invaluable resource executives were talking about search and rescue. i know that my focus is right now. i was awakened with this news. we're all awakened.

i've seen the video what do you make the totality of this incident, whether what do you thinking about what you've seen and what this community is experiencing? >> well, this is a tragedy is you can never imagine right? and i was awake when chief wireless called me, but never what you think that you would see physically see the key bridge tumbled down like that it looked like something out of action movie and you just think about most importantly in which is what we all should be thinking about right now nothing but those families and people that are impacted and those people who are risking their lives, right now from not just baltimore city and baltimore county, but all over this state to try to save lives. that should be our focus the preservation of life, because no one wants to see that happen, let alone someone in their family is someone that they know be injured in a the incident like this >> more force, hear your thoughts about what you've what this community is experiencing

>> look i think that folks are stunned. i think folks are reeling. and i think that's particularly true for people who are worried about their loved ones right now i think there'll be plenty of time to talk about what this bridge means to the community, what it means for commerce, but at the end of the day right now, this is about the humanity >> of people who are impacted and the metrics women who were out there trying to save lives and recover folks off the bridge. so i think there'll be plenty and plenty of opportunity to talk about that. but really right now, and for the foreseeable hours ahead, this is really about focusing on the search and rescue efforts and alim, just again, thank the chief for his leadership and for all of the affiliated partners that we have working on this that's >> that's not my focus here, ma'am. it's pouring for the law enforcement investigations. i would i would defer to the proper authorities for that

night. you made any comment about everyone is on the line or nothing thank you. i spoke with secretary boogers directly he his team. i'll say that they cannot obviously work with us throughout this incident and work with not just the city and county were really the state of maryland to make sure that we have every resource at that he and the federal government can provide how long is it going to take to rebuild this matter? >> i think right now, sir listen, we shouldn't even be having that discussion right now. the discussion right now should be about the people will souls, the lives that we're trying to save there'll be a time to discuss about a bridge and how we get a bridge backup. but right now, there are people in the water that we have to get out. and that's the only thing we should be talking

about >> go back to the question about the terrorism. there is absolutely no indication that there's any terrorism that the was done on purpose are criminally until is working with the fbi and other federal in. state agencies to get all the intel that we have. but there's absolutely no indication that it was intention >> everybody. >> i want to thank you all. >> i will be five >> that'd be here. kevin all. >> right we have been listening to a baltimore county chief, james wallace the mayor of baltimore, and other city officials who are grappling with this massive tragedy that has been unfolding this morning. as the francis scott key bridge in baltimore collapsed into the taps go river. there has been a dynamic count officials tell us of the number of people who landed in

the water and who they are actively right now searching for and trying to rescue in very difficult conditions, very, very cold water. >> and >> as the at chief noted, there, water that has a current, they believe he says that the tide is coming in. so that of course, makes it that much more difficult for officials who are engaged in a search and rescue for the individuals that landed in the water. when what you are seeing right now happen, this morning at about 01:27 am this morning eastern time. if you are just joining us, if you are just waking up to this news with us, you are seeing on the left side of your screen, the moment of impact. we've got a live shot. this is honestly the best we've been able to see all morning of the aftermath of this incident on the right side of your screen, this is video coming in from an affiliate as the sun is coming up the other challenge that chief said with these

rescues is of course, the darkness and they are really just getting their first daylight look at what has happened here. that container ship you could see it a little bit better on the right-hand side of your screen just a moment ago directly connecting with that support pylon of the francis scott key bridge and leading to its complete collapse. we heard some of the calls that came in when officials first got to the scene and the line was the thaier bridge is in the harbor. the bridge is in the harbor. that is what happened here. again this kind of a ship transiting, this waterway an incredibly every day occurrence in this area to massive up port. it's not usually something we have to think about at all, but just to the set and give you the breakdown that we just heard here from officials who took those microphone shortly after 615 this morning, there is an active search and rescue

operation. they are currently using the number seven. we've heard it this morning as high as 20 but they say that what they know right now is that it is seven people that they they're actively searching for that number. could change like i said, it's been dynamic throughout the morning. they said that they did rescue to people. they say one person refused treatment. the fire chief described him as him or her as not injured, said that they refused treatment, walked away from the scene another person they say was transported to an area of trauma center in critical condition. so critical that they have been unable to talk to that person about what happened. now, there are a couple categories of people that they are actively searching for at this hour there are reports that there were construction workers and they acknowledged that they have been told but there were construction workers on the bridge at the time, but that the fire department in baltimore county does not have active conformation of that they are working with the

maryland transportation authorities to try to ascertain if there were construction crews on the bridge there were, of course vehicles on the bridge and chief wallace did tell us that they're sonar, they're using sonar to search underneath the water. does show that there are vehicles in the water. so they are actively looking for any individuals who may be affected by that. there are of course also questions about the crew that's on board, that container ship. and they say that they are concerned about the stability of the ship. they've got to figure out what is safe before they can board that ship and figure out if they are able to or need to help people who are there. the he did also say that the fire department has not talked to the pilot on the vessel yet? so that is again, the report from the baltimore county fire department in that in that instance, this would of course investigation has

already just exploded in size with local, state, federal agencies all involve the baltimore fbi on the scene here we did have one of those officials, although all the officials that just spoke underscored that the focus at this time is trying to save lives that may have been impacted by this crash. they did note that they have absolutely no indication at this time that this was terrorism. they are looking at this right now as an accident when you watch that video that shows this boat hitting that direct pylon causing the complete collapse. important to underscore that that officials are saying at this time that they have absolutely no indication that this was terrorism. now we did here, of course, the emotion in the baltimore mayors voice as he spoke about what it was like to wake up to this, to watch this unfold. um, he called it something out of an action movie. and he said that the focus at this time, i should be on those souls whose lives are

potentially lost. here. i also do want to note as we get to our gabe cohen, who is on the scene, that they did raise the possibility that there's an active fuel will spill. they say they're trying to confirm that. they did say that there is a smell of fuel and that environmental agencies are also being involved in this search, rescue, recovery at mission. gabe cohen, let me bring you in because i know you've been working to get yourself to the best possible vantage point to cover this story. what have you learned? what are you seeing right now >> well, casey, as we finally have some daylight here in the last few minutes, it's stunning. what we can see from our vantage point. i want to step out of the way so we can push in on this scene where we're finally getting a sense of? the rescue operation that as you mentioned, is currently underway on the taps go river those lights that we are showing you over the past couple of hours. it does look like they are police boats. first responder boats that were in the water on this rescue

operation trying to find those people, as you mentioned, sonar has picked up that for our cars in the water and they're trying to rescue people who could still be inside. and as we zoom in on the ship, take a look, casey, you can see chunks of the bridge, the key bridge that tumbled down toward the water still on the deck of that shipping container. pieces of the bridge mangled on top of the boat itself, on top of the ship itself. as they mentioned during the press conference, first responders authorities have been in touch and the coast guard have been in touch. it sounds like would the crew of the ship we don't don't know the latest of everyone who was onboard >> but look >> you may look at a river like this and say, okay how significant is the rescue operation as we pan to the right, this gives you a sense of how much of the bridge was lost. it was a huge chunk of it from our vantage point. it looks like the majority of the

bridge is gone down into the water here and so first responders, these rescuers, really have a lot of ground to cover. and as you can see there, that appears to be a coast guard helicopter, also, flying just over the water perhaps looking for any one who might be down in these intense waves, if you can't get a sense, it is not gentle conditions on the water this morning. it is freezing out here. the wind has been whipping all morning so certainly rescuers have their hands full and they're particularly concerned for the condition of anyone who could be in the water now, hours into this operation, but bookcase, you can see if i can count from my view, maybe 810 boats that are part of this rescue operation. and that's just from what i can see. you know, at least a half-mile from the bridge. they have both sides of the bridge locked down the area

shutdown to anyone who is not part of this rescue operation because you heard you heard the urgency from both the mayor as well as those agents and sees that this is still very much an active scene and rescue operation that is the focus trying to save people's lives and that's what we're watching from this vantage point. but but again, casey, as we're finally getting daylight, it is a shocking to see these pieces of the key bridge broken apart and either in the water or sitting broken on top of that shipping container or the vessel there? >> okay. but i mean, just this is as you point out, this is our first daylight glimpse of the aftermath of this horrific scene in baltimore with the francis scott key bridge collapsed on top of the dalai container ship bound for sri lanka our juliette kayyem noted that there would have been a harbor pilots and specifically

trained to navigate these waters on board. this ship underscoring again, official tells us there's no indication of terrorism. chief wallace of the baltimore city police department and not baltimore county. and i misspoke earlier the baltimore city at police department telling us the efforts right now are on the search. and rescue as they really are racing against time to try to get anyone impacted by this out of water. that is so cold. are derek van dam told us that humans survivability is only around three hours or so in water. that is the temperature, the 48 degree temperature that we understand that water to be. again, this unfolding at 01:27 a.m. we've been showing you the moment of impact. now we're able to show you the i mean, the baltimore mayor is absolutely right. this is this is out of an action movie that twisted metal on top of that ship as we see those rescue boats there i just

someone who with a lot of personal ties to baltimore as well. i mean, it's just my heart goes out to all of the families that are impacted and affected here. let's get to our kevin liptak, who's at the white house when understand that the president in the united states actively monitoring the situation, kevin, what can you tell us >> yes, certainly white house officials like the rest of the country, absorbing the totality of destruction as the sun comes out today. and we are hearing from whiteouts, officials who do say they're closely monitoring this incident and i think the most important thing that we've heard from the white house this morning is telling us that there's no indication of any nefarious intent. terrorism, or otherwise. and we obviously heard that from the local officials as well, but certainly as we start to piece together what exactly happened here, that option it seems to be off the table as the federal law enforcement begins to engage. we are hearing from a white house official that

there's no indication of nefarious intent of what we have also heard from the white house is that the coast guard is sort of taking in the lead in terms of the federal response at the moment in terms of the search and rescue for those who remain uninsured, unaccounted for as part of this. and obviously what us officials are in touch with officials on the ground there. and you heard a number of officials in that press conference just now saying that they had spoken to the transcript titian secretary pete buttigieg, we know that he spoke to the governor wes moore. he spoke to the baltimore mayor, brandon scott, and now we should say president biden himself was scheduled to travel today on a campaign trip to north carolina. oh, we haven't gotten word that that trip is canceled as of now, but certainly it gives you a sense of the balance that any incumbent president running for reelection will have to strike when we have this sort of incident, this sort of tragedy unfolding that he will certainly want to keep an eye on. but as of now, a white us

officials saying there very closely monitoring what's happening there in baltimore yeah. >> all right. or kevin liptak for us at the white house. kevin. thank you very much are we bring in briefly andrew mccabe is we approach the top of the hour at andy, we did here from official saying very clearly that at this point they have no indication that this was a terrorism. what do you make of official being able to make that claim at this point also, knowing of course, the fbi is on the scene and involved in this investigation >> well, i think that makes a lot of sense. i mean, they're basing that no doubt on the fact that there's a dearth of or an absence of intelligence or information that would point in that direction? now, you have to, of course, always caveat that with the very beginning stages of this effort. as the officials there and the press conference indicated 99% of their focus right now, if not 100%, is on rescue and recovery every like

identifying victims and pulling his many of those folks out of the water as quickly as they possibly can. so you don't really know where things are going to go after after we get through this phase and they make more substantial contact with the individuals on the vessel that are actually able to sit down and start asking some questions about how this whole thing happened. as we've said as we've discussed earlier this morning, kasie, it's entirely more likely that they are mechanical failures or mistakes and competence failure of training, things like that human error for that we're behind this >> those, those >> chances are all far more likely than intentionality, some sort of sabotage or terrorism. and i think it's good that we're hearing from officials that they're considering that. but at this point, they have no indication that that's the case here. i'm sure if we us than the

follow-up question, they would probably also say they have a they have a long way to go before they have a solid understanding of exactly what led to this horrible event. >> yeah, of course. >> juliette, we're >> approaching at the end of the hour here, but just briefly, can you explain there would've been a harbor pilot on board the ship >> yeah. >> yeah. so any complicated system in which you're going through a city, there'll be, there'll be a presence on the ship that's not owned by by the company you want someone to be able to navigate and help these ships that are coming from around the world through tighter areas under bridges. so i'm waiting in the press conference, they said that there was such an individual on board, not at all surprising that no one from the ship has has been interviewed or contact yet, even though we don't think anything nefarious was done, there's going to be an investigation, even a civil one just given the damage that was

done, so everyone is being cautious about what they say without lawyers that that would be typical what are you looking at right now is whether the ship was disabled or not? when it hits the bridge. the reason why i say that is hard to happen right now, there was this this looks like a ship that could not get out of its own way. we will have reports from the ship, will be able to tell when it went, whether it's a system went to and so that's what, that's gonna be the number one investigation right now. >> of course, juliette kayyem, andrew mccabe, i want to thank you both for joining us early in this morning and i do just want to take a moment of personal privilege. i mean, i keep those oils mug on this desk every single day that i broadcast here, i've very strong family roots in the baltimore area and watching these pictures of this bridge that i my family have driven across many times our hearts goes out to baltimore. it is one of the strongest places in our country and i know it is

going to bounce back from this,