Full press conference: Mayor, officials give Saturday update on river cruise crash

[0:00] So first, we had 191 people on board. [0:06] That includes crew and passengers on the American Heritage. [0:10] We believe now that we've roughly pulled about 100 people from the water. [0:15] That first responders pulled roughly 100 people from the water. [0:19] We set up a family assistance center at the Hilton Riverside Hotel, [0:24] where the passengers from the ship were staying. [0:29] We now have 50 to 60 passengers still remaining at the Hilton Riverside. [0:35] The crew members have been put in three different hotels across the city. [0:39] The city team, along with everyone who's been part of the family assistance center, [0:45] obviously we've been working to meet the needs of the passengers who are here in New Orleans, [0:50] and along with members of the crew as well. [0:53] Everything from meeting their prescription needs, clothing needs, food, transportation, and beyond. [1:01] Yesterday, we told Joval that we had 32 people at local hospitals, but now all but nine have been discharged. [1:12] So we have nine people still remaining in the hospital. [1:14] NTSB, we have been alerted that they are on the ground, some of the team members, [1:22] and more of the leadership team will continue to arrive today. [1:26] Obviously, due to the flight restrictions that occurred, it took a little bit longer for their arrival. [1:32] I also want to mention that the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness [1:36] has been embedded within our EOC since the onset of this situation. [1:42] The Atlantic asphalt, which is the tanker, it has been towed away from this site. [1:50] But I do want to mention, so we can manage everyone's expectations, that the American Heritage, [1:56] the American Heritage may likely take weeks to ultimately remove from this site. [2:02] I also want to thank the leadership from American Cruise Lines. [2:07] I can tell you that it's really been a good working relationship. [2:13] They have gone above and beyond to do all possible to assist with their passengers. [2:19] And then I just also just wanted to note that we really also appreciate the captain of the American Heritage [2:27] who was on site with us every moment of the critical time yesterday. [2:32] He did not want to leave his ship. [2:35] In fact, he was the last to get off of the ship yesterday. [2:39] And so we just wanted to express our gratitude to him for his bravery. [2:43] He too was injured, but he did not want to seek any type of treatment, go to the hospital, [2:48] anything until he understood exactly where the passengers were and where the crew was. [2:54] And once again, that number remains where we have zero deaths. [2:58] And currently now at this point, nine people, only nine people remaining in the hospital. [3:03] Just on a personal note, let me just say this, that I didn't really get an opportunity to see any of the videos of the accident until last night once I got home. [3:16] And I just still can't, I can't, I can't believe it. [3:21] I mean, I know I've said it before, but it truly is a miracle to see people who are essentially coming off of the boat at the height is higher than essentially the dock is here onto the water. [3:36] Essentially this many of the people who are on the boat, it's an older population to end up with no deaths and nine people in the hospital. [3:47] Once again, I just keep saying that there had to be some kind of divine godly intervention for this outcome. [3:53] So with that, let me turn it over to Captain Burton, followed by Chief Montrell, then Dr. Avegno, followed by Deputy Mayor Harrison, and then to Director Hessel. [4:05] I appreciate it. Again, good afternoon. I'm Captain Melanie Burnham. I am the Coast Guard Sector Commander here in New Orleans, and I'm the captain of the court. [4:19] So as you all know, around 12.30 yesterday, Coast Guard and all of our partners received notification that there was a collision between the tanker vessel Atlantic Asphalt and the cruise ship passenger vessel American Heritage. [4:34] The Coast Guard and the Coast Guard and our federal, state, and local maritime industry immediately served to support local partners here in New Orleans by mobilizing response assets to assist with the search and rescue operations. [4:47] The strong partnerships that we have built over the years was on full display for everyone to see yesterday. [4:56] It is absolutely amazing to rescue all the passengers on board the crew. Everyone from the port to the police, fire vessels transiting in the area, all the good Samaritans that tried to help out. [5:12] It was absolutely fantastic. So I'm probably forgetting somebody, but their efforts were extraordinary. [5:20] So for us now, we have shifted our operations from the search and rescue to now working on fully reopening the river and coordinating salvage operations for the American Heritage. [5:31] As the mayor mentioned that we have moved the Atlantic Asphalt to another location. It's over at the Perry Street Wharf. [5:38] We have been coordinating with the port throughout the evening and early in the mornings to be able to reopen the area to get the cruise ships in. [5:45] So that is that's happening. Our top priority is the now the safe removal of the hazardous material on board the American Heritage. [5:52] That's what we're transitioning to now. We have completed initial assessments on the vessel by conducting soundings to try and figure out how much fuel is on board. [6:02] It's still pretty early. We are estimating about 60,000 gallons are still on board the American Heritage. [6:08] So we're working on a good plan to be able to remove that safely. We're going to have divers in the water so they can do a full assessment on what's the right path to be able to remove it. [6:18] And we're going to do that safely and we're going to take care of that. We also have teams that have been deployed throughout the entire area, the river system to monitor the area for any pollution. [6:30] So far, we have not seen any product that we need to remove out of the water, but we will continue to keep monitoring that. [6:37] And especially as the operations and the salvage operations are ongoing, there's the potential for the release of hazardous material. [6:44] We're going to be there and make sure that we are collecting all that. We have wound that's out. We have all kinds of resources that are here and ready to be able to remove those hazardous materials. [6:54] So we are working closely together with experts from a contracted salvage company who will assist in developing that salvage plan, the Coast Guard and will coordinate with the port and the city to move through this process. [7:07] So we're going to be reviewing all those salvage plans and making sure that everything is going to be conducted in a safe manner. [7:14] And it's too early to give timelines. As the mayor said, we're talking weeks, we're not talking days, we're talking weeks. So we're going to do this safely and we're going to make sure that it's done right. [7:25] We are working with O'Brien's that the American Cruise Lines have hired to be able to coordinate the efforts here. [7:33] They have hired the salvage company, John John Smith, and the oil spill response organization that has been hired is the National Response Corporation. [7:42] So now moving on to what's happening on the river right now on the maritime transportation system. As I reported yesterday, I did open the river to one way traffic last night at 1138 today. [7:57] I did partially reopen to some areas for two way traffic. And so that's our toes under 10 barges in the main channel. So we do still have some restrictions in place, but we're starting to reopen as much as we can. [8:09] Obviously nothing is going to come in the span closest to the city here. Everything's going to transit into the main channel and we will continue to keep coordinating that from the Coast Guard with the vessel traffic system. [8:20] And we also have vessels that are out there to help coordinate that as well. I do still have a 500 foot safety zone that is in place around the area here. [8:29] And as I said, I have vessels that are enforcing that. So please, please stay out of the area for everyone's safety and for the safety of the responders that are going to be working on the vessel over over the next period of time to be able to remove the American heritage. [8:43] The investigations are still ongoing. We are coordinating the Coast Guard with NTSB to make sure that they have all the information that we've collected with our investigative officers to make sure that they are able to move forward with this investigation as quickly as possible. [9:00] We are used to working with NTSB. They are great partners and we're going to be able to make sure that that that they have everything that they need. So I know a lot of folks are probably still asking the questions why and again, that's why there's an investigation that is in place that's going to be ongoing. [9:17] I can't say though, I do not have any indication that this is terrorism related in any way, shape or form. But again, the investigators will continue to keep working through that. So I do recognize the how vital the Mississippi River is to the New Orleans community and the maritime transportation industry, our team is committed to restoring the maritime commerce to normal on the river through a coordinated unified effort as soon as possible. [9:44] But as of right now, I do not have any vessels that are being held up. We are able to coordinate that and move everything through. So I'm not seeing any major disruptions to the system at this time. [9:56] This has been an absolutely tremendous interagency effort. And I do want to recognize again, the dedication and professionalism, all the first responders and our partners in the maritime industry, everybody that answered the call, they heard everything on the radios, they heard the communications that were coming through and everybody just [10:15] just jumped right in. But but that's that that's New Orleans, right? That's Louisiana. That's how it happens around here all the time. And I'm just so thankful to be part of this community. [10:24] This does remain an active and evolving response. The Coast Guard will continue to keep working alongside all of our partners here to ensure the safety of those here that live here that work here. And as we go through these response operations, thank you. [10:40] Good morning, everyone. Chief Melanie Montreux for Porter New Orleans Harbor Police Department. First and foremost, I would like to say that I could not be prouder of the job that the brave officers did yesterday answering that call, obviously coming out being the first on the scene. And as the mayor said, you know, while we were able to get 80 people plus off of that vessel, there still were 100 that would ultimately go into the water. And while it was a tough decision to ask those officers to [11:14] go on to go on to a ship that we knew what's going to sink. Ultimately, preservation of life was important to us. Most importantly, though, I would also like to thank everyone else that came out and help. There were numerous port employees, other civilians that just really stepped in and did what needed to be done. [11:33] And so we're going to be doing. Federal response, federal response, local response, other law enforcement agencies, New Orleans Fire Department, United States Coast Guard. That is really what the true success here is, is that collaboration. And we would not be standing here with the success story with not all of us working together and training and preparing for things like this. [11:52] So as of now, we are still working with the Coast Guard to ensure that we get this vessel out of here. But I would like to mention that this is still an ongoing investigation. And while many people may want to come out and look at the area or see the vessel, we are going to ask that you not do that. This is still going to be a restricted area for the foreseeable future. At that, at this time, I will pass it over to Deputy Mayor. [12:18] And everybody, Deputy Mayor, Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services. As the mayor mentioned, yesterday, we had 32 individuals transported from the scene to area hospitals. Two of those were responders. The other 30 were passengers and crew. Additionally, two additional individuals went sometime last night to be checked out at the hospital. And Madam Mayor Good News, while we were talking, we had an additional person discharged from the hospital. So we're now down to eight individuals in hospitals. [12:51] Two of them are in serious condition. Two of them are in serious condition. The other ones are stable. But those two are being very well cared for. I want to just thank all of our EMS personnel, you know, who have tremendous experience with big scenes like this, potential mass casualty scenes. We drill for this. We have had others before, as you know, and they triaged expertly and got folks really, really quickly. And I want to thank our hospitals. [13:21] And we're up to our panel. And so we're doing a lot of our state. We're going to be a lot of people who have been in a hospital in the city. But every hospital around the city stepped up and took patients. So both Ochsner and LCMC hospitals stepped up, took patients and have been caring for them in a fantastic manner. [13:33] We also had set up a 3-1-1 Family Reunication Hotline. [13:38] We had a number for those out of state since most of the passengers were out of state. [13:42] Fortunately, we have not gotten many calls of those who cannot find their loved ones. [13:46] I think folks were really reassured to learn that we had been able to account for everyone. [13:51] That number, for folks who still might not be in touch or needing to find someone, is either 3-1-1, [13:59] or if you're not in New Orleans, it's 504-539-3266. [14:05] At 7 p.m. tonight, that will transition over to the American Cruise Lines Hotline. [14:11] They are going to take over the communications. [14:14] And that hotline for American Cruise Lines is 203-487-9252. [14:23] We really want to thank American Cruise Lines. [14:24] They have been great partners in trying to help our passengers. [14:28] Last night, our team of health and EMS and others assisted over 46 individuals with their [14:36] medical questions, concerns, and getting their prescriptions filled. [14:39] As you can imagine, the vast majority of their belongings are in the river now. [14:43] So for many of them, that was their necessary medication. [14:48] And I really want to thank Walgreens and our State Department of Health, GOSEP, for helping [14:53] us come up with a process so that we could write prescriptions, and then we're having [14:58] the medications delivered right now to folks who are still here. [15:03] We've also had mental health support. [15:05] I want to thank our partners again at the State Department of Health and Metropolitan Human [15:09] Services who came out last night to be able to support individuals there. [15:12] They are there today. [15:13] Sometimes when the shock wears off, passengers really are feeling a lot of emotion. [15:19] And so we want to make sure we have that. [15:21] We're going to continue to support the needs of all of the passengers until they return [15:26] home. [15:27] Thank you. [15:30] Good afternoon. [15:31] Deputy Mayor Michael Harrison, Deputy Mayor of Public Safety for the City of New Orleans. [15:34] I just want to say thank you to all of the leaders of all of our public safety agencies, [15:39] local, state, and federal. [15:41] And thank you to the men and women who serve in those agencies who jumped right in to save [15:46] lives. [15:47] No one needed to be told to pull people from the water. [15:50] No one needed to be told to get in the water to make that happen. [15:54] They did it because of your leadership, and we all are very grateful. [15:59] And that comes from the relationships that we have from working with each other every day. [16:05] Local, state, and federal, and the incident command system is designed for everyone to know [16:10] their role even when we cross into other jurisdictions. [16:15] This was a multi-agency response in multi-jurisdictional authority, and it worked well because everyone [16:23] knew their role and everyone knew what to do. [16:25] The incident command system worked well, and I just want to commend all of the leaders, [16:29] and I want to publicly commend our mayor for her leadership in this crisis. [16:33] They showed excellent crisis leadership, and on behalf of all the leaders of all the [16:39] public safety agencies, we thank you for your leadership. [16:41] And we want to make sure that we continue to serve the people that need us. [16:46] We're here to help them get home. [16:47] We're here to take care of everything that they're in need of right now. [16:53] But we are so grateful for the work that they're doing, the bravery that was shown. [16:58] Everybody knew what to do, and there was no argument over jurisdiction. [17:01] There was great command and control, great coordination, communication, and collaboration. [17:06] And that's because we work together well every day, which we will continue to do. [17:10] Thank you. I turn it over to Director Hessen. [17:15] Thank you, Deputy Mayor. [17:17] My name is Derek Hessen. [17:18] I'm the Director for Emergency Management for the city. [17:21] NoSUM, along with the Health Department, remains activated in support of the Family Assistance Center. [17:26] Our priority moving forward will be to continue supporting the passengers and crew as needed. [17:32] Our greatest measure of success yesterday is that everyone made it off the vessel alive. [17:36] Yesterday's response from local, state, federal, and private sector partners was truly remarkable. [17:42] I'd also like to take a moment and thank some of our non-traditional, non-public safety partners [17:47] that really stepped in and helped us out during the response yesterday. [17:51] RTA has been providing transportation for family members that needed to go see their loved ones at the hospitals. [17:58] Also to MSY to be able to leave town today. [18:03] Also the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Goodwill, Hilton Riverside Hotel, Dickie Brennan's, [18:10] LCMC Health responded out to the scene yesterday. [18:13] Pop-A-Lock, Pop-A-Lock is at the Hilton Riverside right now, [18:17] helping some of those passengers that lost their keys in the ship. [18:21] So they are working through a lot of different individual issues like that right now. [18:27] And then in addition to those partners, I also want to recognize the members of the maritime community [18:32] who immediately stepped forward to assist with rescue operations. [18:36] While we are incredibly grateful that this incident did not result in a loss of life, [18:40] we recognize how serious it was. [18:42] Our responsibility now is to support the recovery, learn from this experience, [18:46] and continue strengthening our ability to respond to these types of events. [18:51] Thank you. [18:51] Thank you, Derek. [18:55] Thank you to everyone who spoke. [18:56] And so once again, we're just tremendously grateful to all of the first responders. [19:01] It was an all-hands-on-deck approach that led to the positive outcome [19:06] to what could have been a really terrible tragedy. [19:08] And I'll also say this, you know, I visited with some of the passengers who are here, [19:13] still in New Orleans, and they were at our Family Assistance Center. [19:16] And I can tell you that they're actually in really good spirits. [19:19] I met a woman from Wichita Falls, and she said to me, you know, Mayor, just, I don't know, I feel kind of weird. [19:28] I'm like, you should. [19:30] You should. [19:31] You went through a really traumatic experience. [19:33] And so they're still kind of processing and going through everything, but, you know, [19:37] ultimately they are in actually pretty good spirits. [19:40] All right. [19:40] With that, Jonah, you want to take questions? [19:42] Good. [19:43] Thinking about the removal operations considerations are, what it means to have that fuel on board? [19:55] Well, you were asking the exact right question, right? [20:00] Because having that fuel on board and starting to do operations isn't where we want to be. [20:04] It potentially could leak out into the environment. [20:07] So we're going to work and get that removed. [20:10] We're going to take all the hazardous material off as much as we can before we start moving into a salvage operation. [20:16] But the next step that happens after that, while we're going through the planning, [20:20] is we're doing full engineering analysis and calculations to make sure that we can safely do what it is that we want to do. [20:26] We're still very early in the plans. [20:27] There's multiple different ways that we can go about this. [20:30] So we're evaluating all of those things. [20:32] But from a safety standpoint, that's why I'm going to keep the safety zone in place while the operations are ongoing, [20:39] as we ask everybody to stay out of the area. [20:41] Is it 16? [20:43] 16,000 gallons is what we are estimating is on board right now. [20:46] That could change. [20:47] But that's our initial assessment. [20:49] And that was from the American area? [20:51] Yes. [20:51] And it's inside their fuel tanks. [20:52] It appears to be holding inside their fuel tanks right now. [20:55] Josh? [20:56] Yeah, this could go to the mayor. [20:59] It has to do with RTA. [21:01] RTA posted. [21:02] I believe it was earlier today. [21:04] The Chalamet Lower Algiers Ferry is currently suspended. [21:07] And I believe they posted that it was separate, but then they got hit by a tugboat. [21:12] I'm just trying to see why that happened. [21:14] We don't have any information. [21:17] Okay. [21:18] Can you just talk about how critical it was for the passengers to have on the safety vest? [21:23] So, obviously, that was very critical for the success here. [21:29] And when we got here initially, we were doing the rescue from the boat. [21:33] And immediately, obviously, when it became apparent, that call was made for me to ask that everyone start getting safety vests, putting that on. [21:41] So when that vessel did hit the water, that would give them the best chance of survival. [21:45] And also, was there any communications, VTS communications? [21:49] And if so, what did that indicate? [21:51] I'm sorry, I can't hear you. [21:52] Was there any VTS communications? [21:54] And what did that indicate if there was? [21:56] So VTS put out a broadcast for everyone, which is how we got so many help from different commercial vessels, private vessels. [22:04] Everybody in the area came in once VTS put that broadcast out. [22:10] I think that what contributed to that success was the readily availability of those life preservers, right? [22:24] Because whether it's 10 feet of water or 200 feet, having those vests, having that population be able to put those vests on and kind of float upriver while we retrieve them, I think was the best factor of success. [22:36] From the point of impact until the boat capsized, how much time elapsed? [22:44] I don't have an actual estimate on that. [22:46] We arrived on scene pretty quickly. [22:48] We were able to take 80 plus people off before that boat did capsize. [22:53] How much time do you think from the time of impact event? [22:56] I would have to say within 30 to 45 minutes. [22:58] That's approximately. [22:59] Understanding investigation, Ben stated that it was a steering issue. [23:04] Is that an accurate characterization of what we know so far? [23:07] So that is the most accurate information that I have at this time. [23:14] So to get into the actual reasons why that happened specifically, [23:18] but it is something with the steering is the best that we know from all the reports and the information that came out for the call for help. [23:26] So that's that's but there is going to be a lot more that will be forthcoming. [23:31] I think it's good. [23:34] It's good. [23:35] Mayor, too. [23:36] And I just did. [23:37] I spoke with Captain Plessy earlier. [23:39] He runs the three old queen. [23:40] He was one of the people that responded along a lot of other folks. [23:43] I know you kind of touched on it already. [23:45] But when you see a response like that, you know, somebody whose job really is to force. [23:49] Yeah. [23:50] And take on smiling faces. [23:52] They pull to at least one person I know of out of water. [23:55] Can you just shed light kind of on just that response? [23:58] And no one seemed to get in each other's way. [24:00] I mean, it was a lot of boats and a lot of people all trying to get the same goal. [24:03] So can you just shed light on them? [24:04] Josh. [24:05] Josh, thank you. [24:06] Thank you for pointing that out. [24:07] It was a tremendous effort. [24:08] As I mentioned already, our first responders, but also different boats and other vessels [24:13] that were also in the vicinity came rushing toward the scene to see how they could help. [24:20] I got a text from Merritt Lane, and he has a barge company here, and one of his boats alone [24:27] pulled more than a dozen people from the water. [24:30] So really, once again, all hands on deck, first responders, other boats and vessels that were in the proximity, [24:37] all raced to do what they could to help. [24:40] And once again, it's because of that collective team effort that we didn't lose it. [24:45] I just want to follow up. [24:46] You did mention divine intervention, which I think a lot of people would say that looks like could be the case. [24:51] Depending on who you ask. [24:52] You know, I was saying earlier, I made the comparison that, you know, [24:56] NOPD gets a lot of people to come from all over the country and the world to study their crowd control tactics, [25:01] how they're able to do that. [25:02] With something like this, I mean, I don't know if you guys want to hold a class or something like that, [25:07] but it really does feel like something that people could look at in a textbook one day and go, how do they pull that? [25:13] So I'll start with we have some of the best trained emergency personnel in the country. [25:20] We are very good at emergency response. [25:25] And as you know, Josh, also we put on major events that draw in millions and millions of people. [25:31] So this to them is almost second nature. [25:36] So when an accident like this happens, everyone knew exactly where to be. [25:40] There were no questions about what is the next step. [25:43] They already knew. [25:44] And it was because of their training. [25:45] It's really excellent training from all the way from, of course, the United States Coast Guard. [25:49] To our Harbor Police, to our New Orleans Police Department, to our New Orleans Fire Department and all the other different agencies that came together. [25:57] They're they're trained for this type of response and their training led to this type of success. [26:05] So we just heard from all of the agencies who were responsible for assisting with this Mississippi boat crash yesterday, where luckily there were no fatalities. [26:40] We did just hear that yesterday there were 32 individuals that ended up at local hospitals. [26:45] Now there's only eight that remain in those hospitals. [26:47] Emergency crews, they are helping some of those affected individuals who may have lost their prescriptions, may have lost their keys in the water. [26:57] They now have lodging around the city. [26:59] As we just heard them say, RTA has also been helping some of those family members of those impacted by this boat crash get to their families at the hospitals, as well as to airports to leave out today. [27:11] Again, no fatalities. [27:14] So that is the great news here. [27:15] We did just learn that it will take some weeks for the American heritage boat to actually be removed from the water here, and that is because the US Coast Guard is working to remove it safely, making sure that they are able to remove that 16,000 gallons of fuel from the boat safely, as well as just making sure there's no other hazardous materials on board. [27:37] So again, that's going to take weeks. [27:38] So again, that's going to take weeks. [27:39] They have already removed the asphalt tanker from the location. [27:43] They've moved it to the parish wharf is what the US Coast Guard was saying, and right now it's just a matter of cleanup. [27:52] An investigation continues. [27:53] They are reminding individuals who, you know, have heard about this. [27:57] It's made national news. [27:58] Anybody who's wanting to see the vessel in the Mississippi River right now, they're advising them to stay away because this still is an active investigation. [28:06] Right now kind of they're wanting us to be off of the scene shortly here. [28:13] Again, there's tape all around us right now. [28:16] So and that's what we have so far reporting from New Orleans and on the call WWL Louisiana.