(TEXAS) — A 21st birthday party turned deadly when two men in their 20s were fatally shot in San Jacinto City, Texas, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
The party had about 50 people in attendance and a live band. Police said it was unclear whether the deceased were partygoers or suspects, according to a post from Sheriff Ed Gonzalez on X.
Shots were fired and at least two people were struck. The two were then transported to the hospital where they were pronounced dead, Gonzalez said.
Police initially received a report that a third person was shot dead, but they have not been able to confirm that.
The investigation is still underway and officers remain on the scene.
(FLORIDA) — Scientists are puzzled over what’s causing hundreds of fish to wash up dead in South Florida, including an endangered species native to the region.
The fish are “spinning and whirling” onto shore in the Florida Keys, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC), which is labeling the incident as an “abnormal fish behavior event.”
But there are no signs of a communicable pathogen, the commission published in an update on Wednesday, based on fish necropsy data.
In October, fishers and fishing guides began to notice erratic behavior of fish spinning in circles and upside down, Mike Parsons, professor of marine science at the Water School at Florida Gulf Coast University, told ABC News. The university is working with the FWC, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and other agencies to determine the source of the unusual behavior.
Dissolved oxygen, salinity, pH and temperature are not suspected to be the cause of the fish behavior or kills, according to the FWC. Red tide toxins have not been detected in water samples either.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection conducted a lot of analyses looking for different pollutants, pharmaceuticals and other chemicals and nothing showed up, Parsons said.
A different kind of harmful algal bloom or neurotoxin could be at play, Parsons said, adding that the affected fish stopped spinning when they were placed in “clean” water. Researchers are essentially approaching the tests as a “needle in a haystack,” he said.
“This is unusual,” Parsons said. “We really haven’t seen this before — so trying to figure out what’s going on is a bit of a mystery.”
The critically endangered smalltooth sawfish are the species among the fish deaths that marine researchers are most concerned with, Adam Brame, NOAA Fisheries’ sawfish recovery coordinator, told ABC News. NOAA Fisheries has launched an emergency response effort due to the sawfish deaths and is attempting to rescue sick sawfish — an complex effort that has never been attempted before, according to the agency.
Additional sawfish tissues are still being processed for analysis, according to the FWC, which sent 52 fish, including and 12 smalltooth sawfish to University of South Alabama for analyses.
While researchers have several theories on what could be causing the unusual fish behavior, it is too soon to speculate, Brame added.
“As it stands currently, it’s a mystery that’s yet to be solved,” he said.
Dozens of carcasses of smalltooth sawfish have been among the piles of dead fish, according to the FWC.
There have been at least 28 confirmed sawfish mortalities and 265 reports to the hotline for fish deaths, according to data from the FWC.
Most of the sawfish mortalities have been in the lower Florida Keys, but wildlife agencies have begun to get reports of sawfish displaying similar symptoms outside of the Keys, including near Everglades National Park, Brame said.
NOAA Fisheries has been getting regular reports of affected sawfish since January, Brame added. Health officials are warning residents to not eat any spinning fish or fish caught in areas where spinning fish were reported, Parsons said.
It is unclear how many smalltooth sawfish are left in the wild, Brame said. They historically ranged from North Carolina to Texas, but they are now only found regularly in South Florida.
The population of this species was decimated as sawfish were captured in fishery bycatches, Brame said. Coastal development has also impacted their habitat, as they rely on shallow steam waters for their nurseries.
“It reduces the amount of habitat that’s available for these mothers to come in and concert them,” Brame said.
The smalltooth sawfish was the first marine fish to receive protections under the Endangered Species Act in 2003.
Genetic analysis of the species has shown that a limited number of breeding females could be the reason why the smalltooth sawfish population has been unable to recover quickly, Brame said.
Brame stressed the importance of public participation and urged anyone who sees unusual behavior to report it to the hotline at 1-844-4SAWFISH (1-844-472-9347) or Sawfish@myfwc.com.
(NEW YORK) — Gas prices have surged higher at the outset of 2024, stressing household budgets and complicating efforts to cool inflation.
Since the beginning of the year, the average national price for a gallon of unleaded regular gas has jumped nearly 14%, amounting to an increase of more than 40 cents per gallon, according to AAA data shared with ABC News.
In some states, prices have climbed dramatically over the past month. In Utah, the average price of a gallon of gas has increased by 60 cents, while prices over that same period have jumped 55 cents in Alaska and 43 cents in Oregon, AAA data showed.
Drivers may be distressed by the eye-popping price hikes but they roughly match the typical bounce in spring, when warm-weather travelers drive up demand and refineries switch to a more expensive blend of summer fuel, analysts told ABC News.
“Prices are doing what they always do: rise in the spring,” Andrew Gross, a spokesperson at AAA, told ABC News.
“Spring break travel is here,” Patrick de Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told ABC News. “This is the time of year Americans start using more gasoline.”
Alongside that uptick in demand, refineries have begun shifting to a more expensive, less-polluting blend of summer fuel. The summer blend accounts for changing weather conditions in an effort to mitigate environmental impacts, de Haan said.
Over the past six years, excluding a pandemic-related anomaly in 2020, gas prices in the U.S. have risen an average of nearly 50 cents between Jan. 1 and late March, de Haan said.
“We’re basically right on par with what we tend to see,” de Haan said.
Gross, of AAA, differed slightly, saying gas prices are seven cents higher than they were at this same point last year. However, Gross said he expects the gap between this year and last year to close within the next two weeks as price increases moderate.
The added cost, however, arrives at an inopportune time for U.S. consumers. Inflation ticked up in February, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data showed, offering the latest sign that the path toward lower inflation has struck a rough patch.
Energy and housing costs accounted for more than 60% of the overall price increases last month, the BLS said.
Price increases have cooled dramatically from an inflationary peak of about 9%, but inflation still stands more than a percentage point higher than the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.
Additionally, a range of factors could exacerbate gasoline price increases in the coming months, analysts said. Crude oil, the key component in gasoline, accounts for more than half of the price, and oil prices have climbed so far this year, owing to supply limitations and geopolitical unrest, de Haan said.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures price has jumped 16% since Jan. 1, reaching $83 a barrel on Friday.
The Atlantic hurricane season from June to November also risks damage to major refineries in Louisiana and Texas, de Haan said. “There can be disruptions,” he added.
Looking ahead, de Haan said gas prices will rise further as the summer nears but he doesn’t expect the peak national average to exceed $4 a gallon.
Fortunately, the spike in consumption over recent months will reverse itself in the fall as temperatures drop, bringing supply and demand into better balance, de Haan said.
“By the end of the year, lower gas prices will return,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — Electrical engineer Katya Echazarreta made history nearly two years ago when she became the first Mexican woman in space.
Echazarreta was aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin flight as part of The Space For Humanity initiative.
Before that feat, she was already a star through her viral social media posts about her field.
Echazarreta spoke with ABC News’ Phil Lipof about her career.
ABC NEWS LIVE: I guess just first off, because so many people would like to know what it’s like [in space]. What was it like?
KATYA ECHAZARRETA: Thank you so much. First of all, thank you so much for having me and truly this experience, I really wish I could put it into words. I wish I could explain it in such a way that people would be able to understand the full magnitude and extent of it. But really, just to sum it up: It is the most incredible and beautiful experience a human being can have.
ABC NEWS LIVE: I can only imagine there are so many people who would love to have that experience, and you really can never truly understand it until you’re there in some situation. So I get what you’re saying.
From your early days in Guadalajara, Mexico, to your work with NASA and pursuit of a master’s degree in electrical engineering, when did your passion for reaching the stars first take flight? When did you set your sight on doing that?
ECHAZARRETA: Well, I really love that question because for me, I made my official final decision at just 7 years old. That is the age when I just decided and I started telling my parents, started telling everyone, and from that moment on, my mind did not change.
ABC NEWS LIVE: And that’s amazing. And, and there you were. You also lead the Katya Echazarreta Space Foundation known for its educational initiatives like the Air and Space Camp. Talk to us a little bit about your mission, your second year of camps in Mexico.
ECHAZARRETA: Yes. So all of this started after I came back from my experience in space. This for me, this experience is something that I thought was going to take me the rest of my life.
And so when you’re 26 years old and the mission you have for the rest of your life, you’ve already achieved it, what’s next?
And I actually had an amazing conversation with the vice president. And she said to me, you know, I really relate to what you are going through, what you will go through. Because for people like us or the first to do something, the job is not to be the first. The pride and the honor is not in being the first, but in making sure you’re not the last. So that’s why we decided to create these camps and these training educational programs for people of my own community.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Well, you’re not just an electrical engineer and a citizen astronaut. You’ve graced the covers of Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Vogue in Mexico. Plus, you were Glamour’s “Woman of the Year,” and you even have your own Barbie. That’s amazing. How do you use this diverse career that you’ve had so far in your life to sort of challenge stereotypes?
ECHAZARRETA: I think that the last portion of what you just mentioned is so important and it’s so vital to our entire mission.
Part of breaking down those stereotypes has also been breaking them down within myself first.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Back home, you were told this dream of yours would never come true. And I know for so many people, that can be one of the best motivators. As we conclude Women’s History Month, what message do you have for young girls out there beyond those aspiring to join STEM fields?
ECHAZARRETA: I think the biggest message is just no one is going to hand you opportunities out of the blue. If you want something, and that thing that you want is very large and sometimes larger than life itself, then you are going to be the one that has to go out there and believe in yourself first.
I really just want to encourage all women to think that way, that maybe that one dream that you have for you is just the biggest thing you can come up with. Maybe that’s not the biggest thing you will achieve if you truly commit and really believe in what you can do.
(NEW YORK) — “The Godmother” of Manhattan’s go-to spot for everything bling has neither a cat nor cannolis, but she has cemented her position as a leading jeweler in a field dominated by men.
Kerri Lavine, who earned her nickname after a photo captured her holding a cognac snifter in one hand and a cigar in the other, has been a longtime jeweler in the Diamond District, a strip of 47th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues that is home to over 2,600 businesses, according to the Diamond District Partnership, a business improvement coalition.
Lavine, the co-owner of Diamanti NYC who has been a jeweler for over 43 years, told ABC News that her business has always been a hustle — not only because she had to compete in one of the busiest jewelry shopping districts in the world, but also in an industry controlled by men.
“The only thing that matters is your reputation. You have one chance to give a first impression. If you lose that opportunity, it ruins you forever,” she said.
As more women get into the business and set up shop in the district, some are taking their hustle to new avenues and adding their own chapter to the district’s legacy.
The Diamond District has encompassed several locations in Manhattan since the 18th century, but its 47th Street location has been around since the 1940s, according to the Diamond District Partnership.
Some European Jewish refugees who fled to New York set up shops in the district and many of them are still in operation, the partnership said.
Lavine said that while the stores may have more modern amenities, such as lavish lights, more high-tech security and web retail options, owners still follow a lot of the old-time traditions of working with customers to find the right item and, more importantly, a bargain.
“Everything was always done on a handshake in our business. It was like you shook a hand, [and] you said ‘mazal,’ [it] meant the deal is done,” she said.
Lavine, who said she once had to duck for cover during a shootout in the district in the 1980s, said she has no intention of retiring.
“They’ll take me out in a wooden box on 47th Street because I don’t look at it going to work as a job,” she said.
She added that she’s excited by the growth of female jewelers in the area, including one of her younger colleagues, Julia Azeroual.
Azeroual, who specializes in watches, told ABC News that she’s drawn to the hustle of the industry and also feels pride in putting her own stamp on a sale.
“I came from nowhere, and I’m a woman and I put my name on it,” she said.
Azeroual said she, too, anticipates the challenge of working in a male-dominated industry
“And having the respect on men, that they’re like 20 years in the block. It’s the best thing ever. Your ego goes up,” she said.
And Azeroual’s talents go far beyond 47th Street. She started social media accounts for herself, Lavine and the store and they quickly took off, especially on TikTok.
Videos of the jewelers feature them showing off their bling, talking about their expertise and sharing their personalities to a new audience.
Lavine said she is pleasantly surprised when very young customers come in and recognize her from social media.
“The young kids today come to me like I’m their mother. ‘Help me. Talk to me. You’re the OG,'” she said, referring to the term “original gangster,” describing someone who has a pioneering impact on an industry.
Azeroual said her goal was to get more women in the watch industry and to become an even bigger seller than she is now.
“I would like to inspire more women in the business, to be honest, and to grow,” she said. “And to be first successful watch dealer woman on 47th Street or in the word, who knows?”
(WASHINGTON) — The Environmental Protection Agency announced its new emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles on Friday, which the agency claims will avoid 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
The move comes in an election year when the Biden-Harris campaign is working to demonstrate achievements in their climate agenda.
The new standards impact vehicles such as freight trucks and buses manufactured for model years 2027-2032. This follows last week’s announcement of updated standards for light and medium-duty vehicles.
“In finalizing these emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles like trucks and buses, EPA is significantly cutting pollution from the hardest working vehicles on the road,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a news release. “Building on our recently finalized rule for light- and medium-duty vehicles, EPA’s strong and durable vehicle standards respond to the urgency of the climate crisis by making deep cuts in emissions from the transportation sector.”
The new performance-based standards reduce the allowed emissions across manufacturer fleets, but are technology-neutral, according to the EPA. This means manufacturers can utilize different combinations of emissions control technologies in order to meet the emissions requirements, including advanced internal combustion engines, hybrids, battery electric vehicles and others.
Over the period covered by the new standards, model years 2027-2032, the required emissions reductions will gradually increase each year.
The administration noted in its announcement of the new rules that heavy-duty vehicles are “vital to the United States economy,” but said that they do create about 25% of greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.
“The 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions avoided by these standards is equivalent to the emissions from more than 13 million tanker trucks’ worth of gasoline,” the EPA said in the release. “With this action, the Biden-Harris Administration is continuing to deliver on the most ambitious climate agenda in history while advancing a historic commitment to environmental justice.”
American Lung Association President and CEO Harold Wimmer celebrated the announcement in a statement on Friday.
“Transportation is the largest source of pollution driving climate change. These strong standards that will help drive toward a zero-emission future for trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles are a critical part of the solution The American Lung Association celebrates this new rule, which will improve the health of people across the U.S.,” Wimmer wrote.
The administration estimates the new standards will also provide $13 billion in net societal benefits via savings related to public health, the climate and for truck owners and operators.
“EPA’s clean truck standards will cut one billion metric tons of climate pollution by 2055. They’ll also reduce smog-forming nitrogen oxides by 53,000 tons in 2055,” the Environmental Defense Fund noted. “And they’ll save our country money — $3.5 billion in average annual savings for fleets, $300 million in average annual health benefits and $13 billion in total annual societal benefits.”
The Heavy-Duty Leadership Group, a self-described “informal alliance of the nation’s leading heavy-duty manufacturers and supply companies,” responded to the new standards Friday, emphasizing their own commitment to reducing emissions from their products. The companies also credited the EPA’s prior rules for “accelerating the industry’s adoption of advanced technologies while minimizing market disruption.”
Cynthia Williams, Ford Motor Company’s global director of sustainability, homologation and compliance, said the EPA’s new rule is “challenging,” but that “Ford is working aggressively to meet the moment.”
“Our industry is making important progress to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in both light- and heavy-duty vehicles,” Williams said in a statement. “We also need policymakers to pair emission standards with incentives and public investment so that we can continue to deliver on the next generation of vehicles and for our nation to lead the future of this industry.”
(NEW YORK) — Numerous weather alerts have been issued for California, Nevada and Arizona, including a flood watch for Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Diego, with a significant storm on its way to the West Coast.
After a storm brought 10 to 13 inches of snow from California to Utah earlier this week, a bigger storm is on its way to Southern California with flash flooding, strong winds and heavy snow.
The heaviest rain will move into the San Fransisco Bay area late Friday morning into early afternoon before moving down the coast into Santa Barbara and Los Angeles by the evening and into Saturday morning.
On-and-off showers with thunderstorms will continue Saturday into Sunday for Southern California, including San Diego.
Most areas will see 1 to 3 inches of rain; locally, in the foothills of southern California, up to 6 inches of rain is possible. This could cause cause flash flooding, mudslides, rockslides and debris flow.
In the mountains, from the Sierras to southern California, about 1 to 3 feet of snow are expected.
By Sunday, part of the same storm system will move into the Rockies with heavy snow possible there — locally 1 to 2 feet.
By Monday, the storm will move into the Heartland with severe weather possible from Texas to Illinois. The biggest threat with these storms will be damaging winds, hail and a few tornadoes.
By Tuesday, severe weather will move into the Ohio River Valley and the Mid-South from Alabama to Ohio with damaging winds, heavy rain and isolated tornadoes.
(LONDON) — Friday marks a year since Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia. The first American reporter to be imprisoned by Moscow since the Cold War, he remains trapped in jail while the United States struggles to find a deal with Russia to free him.
Gershkovich, 32, has now spent 12 months in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison on espionage charges that his newspaper, dozens of leading international media organizations and the U.S. government have denounced as false. He has pleaded not guilty.
The fight to free Gershkovich has become a cause championed by defenders of press freedom around the world, as well as a grueling personal battle for his family. His detention has also changed how international media cover Russia, with most leading outlets no longer basing correspondents in the country.
In an interview this week with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Gershkovich’s parents expressed hope that the Biden administration‘s efforts to have their son released, saying from prison he is also striving to keep their spirits up.
“I think if you let the pessimism in … the game is over,” Ella Millman, Gershkovich’s mother, told George Stephanopoulos in the interview. “And our saying in the family is we’re moving forward. Moving forward.”President Joe Biden has said bringing Gershkovich home is a top priority, and his administration has indicated it is continuing to negotiate with Russia to try to find a deal to release him.Gershkovich, who had worked as a journalist in Russia for several years and was accredited by the Russian foreign ministry, was detained by the FSB domestic intelligence agency last March while on a reporting trip in the city of Yekaterinburg. FSB officers seized him as he sat in a steak restaurant.
Since then, he has been kept mostly in a two-person cell in Lefortovo, a former KGB jail, awaiting trial. A court this week extended his pretrial detention for a fifth time. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
A native of New Jersey, Gershkovich worked for The New York Times as a news assistant before moving to Russia in 2017 to work first for The Moscow Times and later Agence France-Presse. His parents were Soviet Jewish émigrés, who left Russia in 1979, and Gershkovich grew up speaking Russian, later becoming fascinated with the country. He joined the Wall Street Journal in January 2022.
“Our main focus at the Journal has been to keep Evan’s story front and of mind, to remind people that an innocent journalist is behind bars, in prison of doing his job,” the Journal’s editor-in-chief Emma Tucker said in the “GMA” interview.
Gershkovich is one of several Americans seized by Russia in recent years — among them the WNBA star Brittney Griner — as part of an apparently intensifying campaign of hostage-taking. A former Marine, Paul Whelan, has been imprisoned since 2018 on espionage charges the U.S. and his family say are fabricated. Another U.S. journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has been in detention since October, charged under a law used to censor criticism of Russia’s military. Press freedom groups have condemned her arrest and joined RFE/RL in calling for her release.
Griner was released in a prisoner exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in December 2022.
In recent months, Russian officials have indicated that they view Gershkovich as a bargaining chip, hoping to exchange him for Russians held in Western countries. President Vladimir Putin, in an interview in February, said he wanted a deal with the U.S. to free Gershkovich. Putin signaled he may want to trade Gershkovich for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian man jailed in Germany as an FSB assassin.
The U.S. in December said Russia had rejected an offer that would have freed Gershkovich and Whelan.
President Biden has met with Gershkovich’s parents. He mentioned Gershkovich and Whelan in his State of the Union address in March, saying, “We’ll work around the clock to bring home Evan and Paul,” as Gershkovich’s parents sat in the audience.
“We were happy that both governments have expressed willingness to negotiate,” his father, Mikhail Gershkovich, told Stephanopoulos. “We are confident that [the White House is] doing everything they can, and we want them to continue to do that.”
The U.S. and the Kremlin have both indicated that talks about a deal are ongoing. Those close to the late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who died in prison last month, have claimed there were discussions for a possible trade that would have freed Navalny, as well as Gershkovich and Whelan, in exchange for the Russian assassin, Krasikov.
The Wall Street Journal this week reported Biden and Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz had discussed such a trade but that Navalny had died before it could be proposed to Putin. Navalny’s team has accused Putin of killing Navalny to prevent the trade.
Tucker, the Wall Street Journal’s editor-in-chief, this week expressed confidence that a deal can still be reached.
“Evan will be released, but it’s complicated to get there,” she said. “There are a lot of different people and governments involved. So I think, you know, we just have to be patient, and optimistic.”
The Wall Street Journal has been leading an international campaign among his colleagues and friends to keep attention on Gershkovich’s case, including holding runs for him and 24-hour “read-a-thons” of his work. Time Magazine this month put Gershkovich on its front page.
Gershkovich is able to send and receive letters from prison, keeping in contact with friends and family, who say he retains his characteristic humor. He has even been arranging via others to have gifts delivered for friends’ birthdays and other occasions. The Journal has encouraged people to send letters to Gershkovich via its site.
“He remembers his friends’ birthdays. We received flowers from him for International Women’s Day on March 8,” his mother told ABC News. “He really cares. He wants to thank people for their care about him, for keeping his story front and center.”
(BALTIMORE) — Just after midnight on Tuesday, the fully loaded container ship Dali lifted anchor and prepared to depart the Port of Baltimore with 23 crew members aboard, destined for Sri Lanka nearly 9,000 miles away.
There was no apparent indication of the catastrophe awaiting the vessel. Authorities said the bridge was undergoing maintenance at the time and that one lane in each direction remained open.
Here is how the incident unfolded:
12:39 a.m. — The 984-foot-long, Singapore-flagged cargo ship pulls out of its berth at a marine terminal southeast of downtown Baltimore, according to ship’s voyage data recorder (VDR) reviewed by the National Transportation Safety Board investigators.
1 a.m. A livestream camera captures light traffic, including a tractor-trailer rig, moving across the 1.6-mile Key Bridge.
1:07 a.m. — The cargo ship enters the Fort McHenry channel and begins to head down the Patapsco River toward the Francis Scott Key Bridge, according to the VDR.
1:24 a.m. — The livestream camera shows the cargo ship’s lights suddenly going off and then coming back on.
1:24:59 a.m. — Numerous audible alarms go off on the bridge of the container ship. The VDR temporarily goes off.
1:26 a.m. — The Dali appears to lose its lights again as it drifts slightly to the right in the direction of one of the bridge’s main center columns supporting the arched steel trusses of the span. At the time, vehicles can still be seen crossing the bridge. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said that about this time a mayday call was made from the vessel, giving transportation officials just enough time to order a halt to traffic approaching both ends of the bridge, likely saving lives.
1:27:39 a.m. — The pilot aboard the ship makes a general VHF radio call for tugboats in the area to assist. At the same time, a Pilot Association dispatcher phones Maryland Transportation Authority duty officers regarding a blackout on the Dali.
1:27:04 a.m. — The pilot aboard the Dali orders the vessel’s port anchor be dropped, according to the VDR.
1:27:25 a.m. — The pilot aboard the cargo ship issues a VHF radio call reporting the Dali has lost all power and was approaching the bridge. Around the same time, a Maryland Transportation Authority duty officer radios the agency’s units, informing them to hold traffic at the south and north ends of the bridge, saying, “There’s a ship approaching it [that] just lost their steering,” according to a recording of the dispatch from Broadcastify.com. The livestream camera shows the cargo ship lights suddenly going off as the vessel appears to drift to the right in the direction of one of the main center columns supporting the arched steel trusses of the span.
1:28 a.m. — Dark smoke appears to be coming from the cargo ship, which is moving at 7 knots, or 8 mph.
1:29:33 a.m.– The VDR on the cargo ship records sounds consistent with the vessel hitting the bridge. Officials said at the time of the collision no traffic was crossing the bridge, but parked vehicles, apparently belonging to the maintenance crew filling potholes, were still on the span. Two maintenance workers survive, one by running from the bridge and the other by going into the water and swimming to shore. Six other maintenance workers remain unaccounted for. A law enforcement officer makes a desperate radio transmission to dispatch, saying, “The whole bridge just fell down. Start whoever, everybody. The whole bridge just collapsed.”
1:39:39 a.m. — The pilot on the Dali tells the Coast Guard over the VHF radio that the Key Bridge is down.
1:40 a.m. — The Baltimore City Fire Department’s 911 center dispatch receives a call about a water rescue in the Patapsco River near the Key Bridge. As fire crews race to the bridge, they receive numerous calls indicating multiple people in the water.
1:50 a.m. — Fire crews arrive at the scene and report a complete collapse of the Key Bridge and that multiple people were likely on the span when it occurred.
6:26 a.m. — At an early morning news conference Tuesday, Baltimore City Fire Chief James Wallace said sonar detected the presence of vehicles submerged in the water and that an all-out search-and-rescue operation involving police, firefighters and U.S. Coast Guard crews was underway to locate survivors.
FBI officials said agents were immediately sent to the bridge, arriving an hour after the collapse. At the White House, President Joe Biden held an early morning meeting with his advisors and ordered the use of resources to help in the rescue operation.
10 a.m. — At a mid-morning news conference Tuesday, the governor announced that the preliminary investigation showed the incident appeared to be a tragic accident.
“The preliminary investigation points toward an accident,” Moore said. “We haven’t seen any credible evidence of a terrorist attack.”
12:46 p.m. — During a press conference Tuesday afternoon from the White House, Biden addressed the bridge collapse. “We’re going to send all the federal resources they need as we respond to this emergency,” he said, referring to his conversation with Baltimore officials.
“We’re incredibly grateful for the brave rescuers who immediately rushed to the scene. And to the people of Baltimore, we want to say, we’re with you, we’re going to stay with you for as long as it takes,” said Biden.
The president echoed local, state and federal officials who said investigators have found no evidence linking the incident to terrorism. Biden called it a “terrible incident and accident.”
2:30 p.m. — Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, says at a news conference that the agency’s investigators arrived at the scene at 6 a.m. Tuesday and were launching their probe of the bridge collapse.
7:30 p.m. — On Tuesday night, the U.S. Coast Guard said it would be suspending search and rescue efforts and began recovery efforts at 6 a.m. Wednesday.
“Based on the length of time that we’ve gone in the search, the extensive search efforts that we put into it, the water temperature — at this point, we do not believe that we’re going to find any of these individuals still alive,” Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath told reporters.
(BALTIMORE) — Six construction workers were killed when a cargo ship struck Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday, sending the workers into the water below, officials said.
The bodies of two victims were recovered on Wednesday, found by divers trapped in a red pickup truck that was submerged in approximately 25 feet of water near the middle span of the bridge, Maryland State Police said.
The other four victims have not been recovered.
The workers found on Wednesday were identified by police as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, a native of Mexico who lived in Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, a native of Guatemala who lived in Dundalk, Maryland.
Among the four still missing is construction worker Miguel Luna.
Luna, 49, was a father of five from Usulutan, California, in El Salvador, his family told ABC News.
Luna called Maryland home for over 19 years, according to Court Appointed Special Advocates, a group that works with immigrants.
Another missing victim was identified as Maynor Suazo Sandoval, a father of two who migrated from Honduras over 17 years ago, according to Gustavo Torres, the executive director of CASA.
He dreamed of starting a small business and brought joy and humor to his family, Torres told reporters on Wednesday.
The final two victims have not been identified.
One missing worker is a 35-year-old from Camotán, Chiquimula, in Guatemala, the country’s foreign ministry said.
The last missing worker is from Mexico, the country’s foreign ministry said.
Two construction workers survived the collapse.
ABC News’ Kristina Abovyan, Davi Merchan and Dhanika Pineda contributed to this report.
