Topic: Current Events

[smokester]

I reckon Biden should say that the Baltimore bridge crash was orchestrated by the Russians. When Putin says that's ridiculous and there is no evidence of that, Biden could reply: "DYSWIDT".

[goldshirt*9]

 
A game of chess then.

[6pairsofshoes]

I've driven across that bridge many times and it was a wonderful high route for moving over a wide part of the Patapsco River.  It afforded a broad vista of the more industrial parts of East Baltimore on the way to Dundalk.  It was a real shock to see it collapse and it's so sad that the people working in the middle of the night to repair potholes fell to their deaths into the cold water as a result.  I think many of them were from El Salvador and so were contracted labor doing difficult cold work late when there was little traffic.  The only silver lining was that this collision happened so late when few were using the bridge and that the pilots of the container ship were able to issue a mayday so that traffic could be stopped from entering.  It's going to cause a real mess for local traffic and will undoubtedly really hurt the local economy.  I wonder what kind of insurance the shipper had and what liabilities they might bear for the accident?

[8ullfrog]

Learned a new word from this crisis, allision. It's specifically maritime, but it essentially boils down to "Moving thing hit stationary thing".
The news coverage on this event is as woeful as it is empty. I tracked down the first 90 minutes of the fire channel on youtube, and it is riveting stuff.

One guy set up on the north side of the bridge by the fort was the one who blocked off the traffic. He intended to go out to the work crew to get off the bridge, but that was when the bridge collapsed.

He survived, and was almost the one sane person on the scene. The dispatcher had bubble mouth and repeatedly relayed incorrect information, including that the vessel had sunk.

Multiple sleepy voices demand a clear radio channel, and assume command. Almost to a ONE, they demand to traverse the bridge to take command on the other side.

Dude who stops traffic repeatedly tells them the bridge is GONE, and personally sends the video to their cell phones. That isn't good radio hygene, but I'm glad he did it. After the fourth sleepy commander shows up, they stop demanding to cross the bridge.

One was a petty golly though, he kept implying that "some" of the bridge was still intact. Which is accurate. MINUS THE bless'ed MIDDLE OF THE BRIDGE.

Warning: Multiple very loud sirens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3lz-oBnmYE

[goldshirt*9]

I wonder what kind of insurance the shipper had and what liabilities they might bear for the accident?

I believe Lloyds bank insure all shipping in the world, But I stand by to be corrected

Garden is a bomb site from the builders, Plants are decimated.  :'( :'(
Why do they have to be so messy 

[6pairsofshoes]

Thanks, 8ully for the link.  I'm amazed at how calm everyone is on their radios.  I'd be a good deal more effusive, like "holy s***! the entire Key Bridge is in the harbor! wtf!!!"

goldie, what I understand about the shipping industry is that owners of large vessels do all kinds of odd stuff deflecting the fact of their ownership to avoid 1) paying taxes 2)  to skirt labor laws and other legal restrictions 3) taking responsibility for any damage incurred.  Maersk had hired this container ship to convey containers (most were empty having dispatched their cargo at the Port of Baltimore) but they didn't own the vessel.  It's not clear what kind of insurance there would be but I'm sure there are multiple layers of insurers, too.  There are reinsurers who insure insurance companies against big claims, so the only sure thing about this is that a bunch of lawyers are going to have plenty of work helping whomever is responsible to worm out of paying any more than is necessary.  The harbor pilots from the Port of Baltimore were in command of the vessel when it lost power.  I suspect there were problems with the navigation systems and power before it ever got to Baltimore that were not adequately repaired or maintained.

And, finally, we had our house painted recently and I was amazed at how insensitive the painters were regarding our garden, even after I put tomato cages over plants to protect them, they completely ignored them, dumping trash and storing stuff on top of our plants.  Some people are just oblivious.  Good luck getting yours back into shape.

[goldshirt*9]

Heard that Divers had found bodies ref the bridge

[6pairsofshoes]

They did find 2 men who were in a red pickup truck that ended up in the water.  Two other men fell in and were rescued.  That's amazing.  It makes me believe in fate.  Why those two and nobody else?  It's strange to think that the difference between life and death depended on whether one was in a car at the time or out trying to fix a pothole.  I think the other 4 were probably also in vehicles but the currents, the twisted remains of the metal truss and the cold water probably pose too much of a danger for divers to do much else.  I feel for their families.

[8ullfrog]

Could have been an on/off work cycle thing. It was cold as hell that night, I could see them working six on two off, and the lucky guys were warming up in the truck.

Which incidentally, is likely why they died. That fall is already terminal, but being in a vehicle... I'm guessing impact trauma, but I'm not medically trained.
I'm guessing the two that survived were on a clear bit of the deck, so the truss didn't come down and trap them, but that fall still must have been brutal.

The question now is if the remaining missing are in a vehicle, under debris, or have drifted.
Fairly morbid stuff.

One thing that pisses me off is even during the first press conference, people wanted information on the economic impacts, rather than the rescue and recovery of those who were on the bridge when it collapsed. Like give it a few days, your amazon package is not that important, CBS guy.

[goldshirt*9]

Having a new back door in OMG what a  chore and mess.
Gave up trying to sleep

[8ullfrog]

I sadly had my opinion confirmed, another worker has been recovered from the bridge debris, and he was in fact in the work vehicle.
The progress on the bridge cleanup seems glacial, but they are lifting 40-ton chunks of the bridge at a time. They were saying that the crane they use for that is rated for 100 tons, but that in structural engineering terms, you never want to push the envelope on such things.

The current ARMY plan for the area is to clear a temporary channel that will allow single lane traffic to the port, which will be run at night, while recovery and refloating will be attempted during the day. I was going to say that the events seem scheduled out pretty far, but May is sneaking up on us alarmingly quickly.

[6pairsofshoes]

Despite re-routing several ships to other ports, there's still added costs that are hampering supply chains for vehicles, coal, tractors and all kinds of other goods.

Strangely, I couldn't find any updates in the NY Times about the recovery efforts or even the plans to open even a limited channel.  So I found a Baltimore station that says the temporary channel has limited width and draw, so 300 ft wide and 20 feet deep w/a vertical clearance of 135 feet.  But that eliminates the kind of container ship that killed the bridge in the first place.  They're working on a larger channel that they're trying to open by the end of April. 

I guess there's 2 bodies left to find?  It's pretty sad that most of these workers were immigrants who were just trying to make a better life for their families.  They were filling potholes on the deck surface, I guess, when the collapse occurred. 

The Harbor Tunnel doesn't allow containers of flammable gas, so people with RVs or industrial vehicles have to take a long way around to go north or south.

It's a major mess.  I'm curious about who will end up paying for this.  The shipping company that owns the Dali (no relationship to the surrealist painter) have filed a petition to limit their liability (they had 6 months to do this but managed to file it in 6 days).  If they're successful, all they'll have to pay for is the cost of the vessel & its freight, minus repair and salvage costs.  So, probably under $44 million.  That's ridiculous.  As far as the bridge goes, "oops! sorry about that..."

[smokester]

I've been following the French election pretty much from the point that Macron threw his toys out of the pram. It seemed scary for a while, but now it just farcical.

I now understand that the left is made up of at least 4 coalitions, the centre is made up of at least 3, and the right also has 3 or possibly 2. Now some of those grouped coalitions, have to coalesce with other groups to ensure the remaining coalition cannot take power.

W   T   F?

[smokester]

We aren't far away from that in the UK, it is simply that here most of the various similar parties all pretend to be from one of the main two. The Conservative Party has at least three major factions (that in France/ Germany/ Italy/ etc. would be separate parties), and similarly the Labour Party (it is difficult to see how Corbynityes and Blairites can pretend to have the same ideology!). Party leaders here have to operate as if they were managing a coalition most of the time (hence Truss). Maybe the new Labour bloke (Sir Can't-make-his-mind-up Wossname) has a big enough faction in his party to make his leadership straightforward, but I wouldn't bet on it.

At least here the system is pretty much like it or lump it. It seems in France, if you don't like it: create another party that you do and drag enough voters away to ensure a seat or 2.  I can't understand how that helps. Mind you, that does smack of the Liberal Democrats' way of doing things and they are, ever so slightly, on the up.

[smokester]

Ask Nigel Garage. He has done it at least twice.

I would, but I can't speak his little-twit language.