MADISON, N.C. — Six people are still missing and presumed dead after a container ship lost power, and rammed into a major bridge in Baltimore.
This sent many cars into the water.
The incident happened early Tuesday morning, causing the Francis Scott Key bridge to collapse.
Two people have been pulled out so far.
Officials said the ship’s crew issued a mayday call moments before the crash took down the bridge, which enabled authorities to quickly limit traffic going over the bridge.
A construction crew and many cars fell into the river.
Lieutenant with the Madison/Rockingham Rescue Squad, Ayden Murphy said a lot goes into these search and rescue missions.
"That bridge is a very busy bridge. There are a lot of cars, so there might be people on the top of the water still. With it being night time when it happened, it’s going to take a lot of people. If that were to happen around here, that would very much exhaust the resources around here," Murphy said.
Chief of the Guilford County Association of Scuba Personnel(GASP), Michael Tasman said there are inherent risks when diving for recovery.
"Running your hands through the mud, running it over sharp objects, getting poked or stabbed, overall being in the cold water for long periods of time,” explained Tasman.
The collapse is almost sure to create a logistical nightmare for months, if not years, along the East Coast, shutting down ship traffic at the Port of Baltimore and snarling cargo and commuter traffic.
WFMY News 2's Amber Lake spoke with NC A&T Civil Engineering Professor, Taher Abu-Lebdeh about the rebuild of the bridge.
He said if the ship hit a different spot, the damage wouldn't have been so catastrophic.
"The location that the ship hit, that was a critical point, which is the point of support. So once that support is gone, the whole thing will go. If it was shifted to another place it might just have local damage, not the whole thing," Abu-Lebdeh said.
The governor of Maryland declared a state of emergency and said he was working to get federal resources deployed.
The FBI said there was no credible information to suggest terrorism.