RAW VIDEO: Full 'Miracle on the Mississippi' press conference after New Orleans cruise ship colli...

[0:00] That way we have the latest information there for you as we're again, hoping that there was no loss of life with this tragic situation. She's waiting for everybody to get into position, kind of get ready to us with the baseball cap to her right. Yeah, he flew in on his his helicopter to be here today to give that update. We also know this has made its way to the president's desk. President Donald Trump has also been briefed on this situation. Let's take a listen. My name is Helena Moreno. I'm mayor of the city of New Orleans. Just some quick housekeeping real quick. [0:29] The speakers who will be speaking today in this order are Chief Melanie Montrell, who will follow me and then Captain Melanie Burnham of the Coast Guard, followed by New Orleans Police Chief and Kirkpatrick and Governor Jeff Landry will wrap us up. What we had happened today was a collision between two ships on the Mississippi River. It happened at about 1230 this afternoon. The American Heritage cruise ship [1:01] which is operated by American cruise lines, which is operated by American cruise lines. It was docked right at the port of New Orleans when a tanker ship called the Atlantic Asphalt lost control and then collided into the cruise ship. The American Heritage cruise ship, that ship, the passengers began disembarking from the ship after that collision. [1:32] And then eventually, and then eventually, and then eventually, the cruise ship toppled over and flipped. Now, when that occurred, we started to have people in the water. I have to just completely thank our first responders. It was an all-hands-on-deck approach with Harbor Police responding first with just tremendous bravery going into the water even to start pulling people out. [2:04] With ladders over the dock with ladders over the dock to try to get people up. I also want to thank those other ships that happen to be on the Mississippi who also responded as well just as volunteers to try to get people out of the water. So right now we have 32 passengers from the cruise ship who are in our local hospitals. None with any type of critical injuries. [2:35] Now, here is where we are as far as people unaccounted for. Now, here is where we are as far as people unaccounted for. At this moment, the information that we have, we have zero people unaccounted for, which truly is a miracle on the Mississippi. And that is a credit to all of the first responders, local, state, federal, who literally jumped right in to help. I also have to say this, a big thank you to Governor Jeff Landry, [3:07] who when I showed up at this scene, who when I showed up at this scene, I can tell you that, you know, it was incredibly alarming. And I called the governor and the governor immediately said, Helena, what do you need? And jumped right into action, working on getting, you know, state assets here. And he'll talk to you about the federal assets as well as he jumped in into the helicopter and made it right here to the city of New Orleans. [3:37] That's a very recent response to this critical issue with that. [3:41] What I want to turn it over to Chief Melanie Montrell and then Captain Burnham, and then Chief Kirk Patrick, and we'll wrap up with Governor Jeff Landry. And after that we'll open it up for questions, chief Montrell. Thank you, mayor. Good afternoon, everyone. [3:57] everyone. As the mayor said, we did receive a call today around 1230 of a [4:02] vessel elision at the Port of New Orleans. We immediately arrived on scene [4:07] and begin evacuating the passengers that were on the vessel. Unfortunately, [4:12] as we were in the process of evacuating those passengers, the boat did begin to [4:17] take on water and it subsequently would capsize. We did have people that were in [4:22] the water, including two HPD officers who were at the hospital now in good [4:27] condition. And we begin our rescue from there with all of the other partners [4:31] that you see here. As the mayor said, this was an all hands on deck and we are [4:36] grateful for all of the partners that showed up immediately. It definitely [4:40] made a difference in our rescue efforts to get the rest of those people out of [4:44] the water. We have set up incident command myself and Captain Burnham, who's the [4:48] captain of the port, and we will continue to work this incident together to [4:52] ensure that we continue to process everything. At this time, it's active [4:56] and ongoing, so we'll be limited in more information that we give out. I'll turn [5:00] it over to Captain Burnham. Good afternoon. I'm Captain Melanie Burnham. I am [5:09] the commander of US Coast Guard sector New Orleans and the captain of the port [5:13] here. We received information directly after the incident happened at around [5:17] 1230 about the collision involving the tanker vessel that Atlantic asphalt and the [5:22] cruise ship American Heritage Coast Guard immediately mobilized response assets [5:26] including small boats, cutters, helicopters to assert assist with the search and [5:31] rescue operations. We're working in close coordination with our federal state and [5:36] local partners. The coordination between the responding agencies has been [5:40] absolutely exceptional. You can be very proud of your local responders, your [5:45] federal responders. Everybody came to the table and we really made that happen [5:49] together and it's absolutely exceptional. Our immediate priority still remains a safety [5:54] and wellbeing of everyone affected by this response to the incident. Our focus here [5:59] for the Coast Guard will now shift to reopening the river because I did shut down [6:03] that immediately as soon as we heard about the incident. Meanwhile, our partners are [6:07] coordinating assistance, medical care and other necessary support to all those who [6:12] have been safely evacuated and that work is still ongoing. It's absolutely [6:16] tremendous, the work that they're doing. This has been a absolutely amazing [6:20] interagency effort and I want to recognize the dedication, professionalism and bravery [6:25] of all those first responders that were there on scene and everyone who has been [6:28] working tirelessly throughout this entire response. Our thoughts are with everyone [6:34] impacted by this incident and their families. We recognize there's a lot of [6:38] uncertainty that they still facing and we remain committed to providing accurate and [6:42] timely information as soon as it becomes available. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Ann Kirkpatrick, the [6:52] superintendent of police here. This truly was a situation in which partnerships that were established [6:59] a while back actually work. I happen to have been in the 8th district station watching our drone as a [7:07] first responder. It was up in the air as a part of a call for service associated with the theft and we were [7:14] able to catch a person who had just engaged in a theft when this call came out and our drone was [7:22] immediately able to turn and fly right over the scene within moments and I was an eyewitness to [7:31] that. We were able to see that people were in the water and of course all the partners immediately [7:38] came together. I want to thank our partners. We are in a support role as the New Orleans Police [7:44] Department but I thank you for your leadership chief, captain, mayor, governor. I see all of our partners [7:52] here but it's a true partnership and it's unique to this state getting things done and it is unique to [8:00] New Orleans and it's something that we are very proud of. So the fruit is there you saw and are [8:06] witnesses to the fruit of everyone being accounted for. That's because of the teamwork. Thank you governor. [8:15] Thank you. I first want to thank the press for having some patience with us. [8:20] One of the things that is really important when these types of incidents happen is to making sure [8:25] that we get the right information to you. A lot of times rumors can start abounding. We're talking about [8:32] people's lives. We're talking about family members who can't get in touch with other family members [8:37] and so I really do appreciate your patience. We didn't want to come out here until we had as best of an [8:44] accurate count of the number of people that were on the boat, the number of people that were recovered, [8:50] the number of people in the hospital. I want to thank the mayor. She's absolutely right. The first [8:54] she made one of the first calls she made was to me. I was in Baton Rouge and my question to her is what [8:59] do you need? She gave me a list of things. Hey these are some things that we think we want. I immediately [9:05] called secretary of homeland security, Mark Wayne Mullen, got him on the phone. Not long after that, [9:10] the president called me as well and just said, Jeff, whatever Louisiana needs, we will make sure [9:17] that they get. I want to thank the New Orleans Police Department. I want to thank the Port Police, [9:22] the Fire Department, the Louisiana State Police, the Coast Guard, all of our first responders, [9:27] Acadian ambulance. I want you to understand something. This doesn't happen by accident, [9:33] okay. The amount of work that these people do on a daily basis together. I have spoken volumes about [9:41] the partnerships that we have developed both from a local state and federal relationship. What happens [9:49] is is when those people work every day together, these are the kinds of responses. I can tell you the [9:55] mayor is absolutely right. This is a miracle. It is a literal miracle on the Mississippi. When you think [10:02] about the population that was on that cruise ship and the ability for us to get them off, get them [10:09] out of the water. Just in case you know, the Mississippi River is not some quiet pond, right? I mean, [10:15] there were challenges out there. We had first responders that put their lives ahead of the [10:20] people that were in the water and we should thank them as well. The other thing I will tell you is that [10:26] both the mayor and I have personally visited with the passengers who are here today. We have assured [10:33] them we have set up a way that we can triage their needs. We were we are going to make sure that they [10:40] have a place to stay that you know the great thing about Louisiana is I always say hospitality may have [10:45] been born in in the south but it was perfected right here in Louisiana and we're going to make sure [10:50] that we take care of those people that are here. We're going to make sure that we get them to their [10:56] loved ones in a very orderly fashion. Again, this isn't this is the other thing I would ask in the press. [11:02] This is an active investigation. There are things that the Coast Guard may not be able to tell you [11:09] because again we want to make sure that this investigation is thorough. We understand exactly what [11:15] happened so that we can triage those problems and ensure that the Mississippi River remains a very [11:21] safe place. I also say this and and I may be speaking a little bit out of turn but our Mississippi River [11:29] in Louisiana has operated with impeccable safety for a very long time. We are going to get down to the [11:38] bottom of exactly what happened here and make sure that we make any adjustments necessary so that the [11:43] people that travel on the waterways here um can can know that they can do so in safety um and so again [11:51] I just I really want to thank the first responders. I mean it just it's it's um it really is it it to [11:58] know you know when we finally got down to the count that you know the mayor and I were going back and [12:02] forward we were down to single digits and I was like I don't know and when we were able to really confirm [12:07] and and and and we have a lot of confidence that that number is going to hold um if it changes we'll let you [12:12] know but I want you to know that I definitely want to thank God uh for smiling on the city and the [12:17] state as well um and with that we're happy to take any questions. Hang on one just quick thing I just [12:25] wanted to mention so uh right now we roughly have you know uh as far as uh who was on the ship and [12:32] anywhere between 180 190 some of them are making their way out of the city of New Orleans who are [12:37] working to take care of and local hotels making sure they get transportation to the governor's point [12:42] uh making sure that their needs are met some of them do need new prescriptions things like that [12:47] obviously they've lost their items that were on the ship so we're working to accommodate them as [12:52] much as possible with a variety of different partners including the red cross including umc and [12:57] a variety of other partners that are helping us with this so with that Jonah I turn it to you [13:00] uh from what I understand the number is 32 was it where's dr 32 the number of transports is 32 that's [13:16] that's right what do we consider this operation [13:23] well I can tell you what we've had throughout the day is really a unified command uh essentially this [13:28] next phase is really going to be led by the coast guard so I'll turn it over to the captain thank you mayor [13:37] so yes as of right now now we're going to start evaluating how we're going to reopen the waterway [13:43] my intention is to open it up as soon as possible it'll likely be one-way traffic we have the coast [13:48] guard vessel monitoring service that is going to be able to help us um direct all the traffic that [13:53] comes through that's a resource that I have here in in New Orleans that manages all of that to make [13:58] sure that we can be safe so we're going to get the river open as soon as possible so we can keep [14:01] commerce flowing uh and then we are working through with our salvage assistance teams all of our uh [14:07] partners that are coming in to help us figure out how the best way to salvage that vessel so we can [14:12] remove it from that area and then of course we'll continue on with the investigation so any search [14:16] and rescue operation is yes yes it is we got everybody can you talk about the helicopters that [14:22] are still circling and what this means the city in the best the helicopters that are still circling I [14:27] think we are probably seeing mostly coast guard but there are probably some other helicopters there too [14:32] uh they're making sure that the waterway is saved and and providing us a good subject a good overview [14:38] of everything that's happening but we'll be able to start scaling down some of the resources that we [14:43] have here and move them back because they'll have other important duties to do here in the near future [14:47] but we're going to be evaluating that and we'll keep everything here as long as we need it [14:52] they're not going to go away until we're done but they're they're pretty much uh we'll be moving and [14:57] making some changes here soon well the investigation is still ongoing there seems to be some type of a [15:09] loss of uh steering so it's the exact reason why we don't know that coast guard investigators are [15:15] on scene we are starting to collect all that evidence and information and we will pass that [15:19] information and be as transparent as we possibly can as soon as we can [15:23] yes yes but i'll turn that over to chief uh yes so we had that they started evacuating before that [15:36] happened right yes so there were still quite a few people on board including two police officers that i [15:41] had placed on board to start the evacuation and unfortunately we were not able to get everyone [15:46] off before that boat start to take on water and eventually it would capsize so when that happened the [15:52] people that went on board some were actually uh in the water and then some were still on this part of [15:57] the vessel that is out of the water it includes two well i don't have all of the specifics on the [16:23] specific damage obviously the american heritage is significantly damaged um and uh and still [16:30] determining all the rest of it it's going to take some time it's really too early to say [16:35] i should have information internally um and a good direction probably within the next couple days as [16:41] to where i really think exactly what happened but there's going to be a lot more that's going to [16:45] that we're going to need to dig into to make sure that we're clear on it andreas [17:04] so as i mentioned andres uh and the governor mentioned um you know obviously we are uh assessing the [17:11] needs of people right now uh who are with us who are with us in the in the port facility some of them [17:17] have some you know bumps and bruises so we actually are setting up a medical unit for those who may need [17:23] some tylenol advil things like that along with their prescriptions now for those who are in the hospital [17:29] from what we understand they don't have critical injuries you know i don't have the extent of their [17:34] injuries but what we know is that they're not critical injuries lbg injuries on the tanker as well [17:40] there were no injuries on the tanker yeah lbj yeah speaking of the tanker uh coast guard [17:45] is a question for you uh just confirm the pilot of the tanker would have been one of our river pilots [17:50] that that that that is yes i'm sorry i'm sorry sir yeah you are correct yes and uh that being the case [18:01] sort of underscores i guess what you were saying about a loss of either power [18:04] or steering or something yeah so they'll be part of the investigation they'll be helping us out by [18:10] providing information and they'll also be interviewed and is the uh the riverboat i mean not the tanker [18:16] but the riverboat is it totally submerged it's there there's a small portion that is above the water [18:25] line but it that's the that's the side of the ship certainly not driving it is not oh it's not [18:31] male um what was were there any delays at tsp or anything i can answer that we received the call [18:44] immediately and we reached out to our partners there was no delay that had no impact on us we're [18:49] all on region one radios and we are able to communicate clearly and let me just say this one of the [18:54] things that we have done um we just finished uh putting together a contract with motorola to ensure [19:01] inter interoperability and that that contract is not just a state contract but all of our law [19:06] enforcement partners now get to purchase that that equipment at the same price that the state is boost [19:13] that's saving them millions of dollars as well in in improving our ability to communicate also i i did [19:20] i want to thank wildlife and fisheries as well for for mobilizing extremely quickly and getting water [19:25] assets on there on on the river so uh initially what we did is we started to get everybody into the [19:41] port building so that meant that everyone who had disembarked from the ship we wanted them all in the [19:46] port building everyone who we were pulling from the water we were providing them blankets water and [19:52] bringing them into the port building we put everyone in the auditorium the crew members the [19:58] passengers and then immediately essentially started doing roll calls and started to figure out where [20:02] everyone was and then dr avegno who is my deputy mayor of health and human services started working [20:08] with director salmeron with ems figuring out who exactly was in the hospital and getting the list of [20:13] exactly who was in the hospital and then after that you know just trying to meet their needs [20:19] obviously you know they needed chargers for their phones some people didn't have phones how to [20:23] obviously this is now made national news so they needed to contact their families to let them know [20:28] that they were okay so figuring out that level of communication uh food uh hotel rooms transportation [20:35] uh we still have some issues to resolve around you know uh people have lost uh now keys to their cars [20:42] and their cars are parked in new orleans somewhere and so figuring out a lot of different pieces now is what [20:47] we're working and what let me just say this too i've never been prouder of a group of people than [20:55] those people that came off of that boat that they rescued i mean they are true americans you went there [21:00] both the mayor and i both went in there talked to them they were very calm you know of course you know [21:06] it's a pretty tragic situation but i can tell you they have they have adapted and we are making sure [21:12] the state is committed to work right alongside the city of new orleans and to stay right alongside [21:18] of them as long as needed until the last person makes it out of the city and back home [21:25] brandy everybody out of the water and [21:36] so initially the first 87 we were able to get off while the vessel was still afloat and then after [21:44] that the rest that went in we had a lot of help from other vessels that came in through the area [21:48] whether that was tugboats we deployed our police boat we also deployed our firefighting vessel [21:54] so we were all operating at one time so i would say probably the rest of the people approximately [22:00] probably about 30 to 45 minutes to really start separating and getting them to different boats [22:06] and going through different avenues to make sure we got everyone out so it was normal conditions i [22:17] wouldn't say that there was like a high current or anything like that obviously we have cooler [22:21] weather right now the water was cold and so those blankets and other necessities made the rescue a lot [22:27] easier for us margaret president trump or secretary mullen or any of our federal partners visit the scene [22:35] or provide any other assistance i can tell you i spoke directly to the president i spoke twice to mark [22:41] very well and i want to appreciate congressman steve scalise being here as well he may have spoken to [22:47] to them as well he the president said whatever we needed um if we believe that we need him to come [22:54] and visit the scene he would do that as well uh secretary mark wayne mullen said uh jeff whatever [23:01] assets you all need whatever help we need from tsa to get people back because again many of them [23:06] have lost their ids we want to be able to to get them back home but literally there has not been one [23:13] request that we have right now into the federal government that has not been met sure so a little [23:22] earlier i spoke to the chair of the national transportation safety board ultimately they will [23:26] run point with the coast guard on the investigation what exactly went wrong and why they have a team [23:32] deployed that was ready to come here right when the national shutdown of the faa happens so they're [23:40] trying to figure out if they can get that plane going if not they're gonna have to find an alternative [23:44] means but they have a team ready to get here as soon as either the airports open or they have a [23:49] find another means but there will be an ntsb investigation in the chair and i spoke about that [23:55] as well as any other help from the federal government beyond the incredible work of all of our first [24:00] responders local as the mayor talked about state as the governor talked about as well as the coast [24:05] guard who's always there you know our coast guard from katrina save lives they always do so we're [24:11] blessed as we pray for the safety of everybody in a tragedy like this we're blessed to have people [24:16] who are ready to mobilize immediately to save lives really no there were no kids [24:27] haley haley from wbrz rachel lindy jambalaya [24:35] okay perry don't make this feel so good [24:49] well i i can talk to the bridge dotd has inspected and confirmed that the bridge was not hit and as [24:57] far as i mean most of the people yeah yeah so meg we do have the red cross that's collecting everyone's [25:04] information i personally have not seen the list of where everyone is from uh but it does not appear that [25:10] that a big bulk of them are from new orleans so that it appears that they're from out of town [25:20] i don't have an idea of how long they were in the water and and i'm not sure exactly why the 30 [25:27] passengers and the two officers were taken to the hospital but once again i just go back to no [25:32] critical injuries you just articulated it right i mean really and truly look that um we haven't seen [25:53] um a grounding of planes uh at that scale since 9 11 you know um and it is gonna it is gonna become [26:01] challenging that's one of the things that we wanted to make sure that we assured uh the folks in the [26:07] auditorium the passengers that want us both that look as long as they want to stay in new orleans um [26:12] um and and as difficult as it may be getting home we want to make them very comfortable and and that is [26:18] going to be a challenge for us it may take us a couple of days uh to to get them back home i couldn't [26:25] think of a better place to be in new orleans i don't know about you you know but we are we're going to [26:29] make sure that that they get whatever is necessary and then we try to move them to their their homes [26:37] as quickly as possible oh yeah no no we're going to look at that you know um that you know again that [26:46] that is something that we'd offer them uh it may be you know it would be easier if we'd say oh this [26:51] whole group came from say delaware or they came from pennsylvania but unfortunately based upon the [26:57] the conversations that i've had with the passengers they seem to be folks that kind of dotted across the [27:02] united states so that may be a little challenging but look if they want to um if they say look we'll [27:07] take a train back home or a bus back and we will make those accommodations and not to get off to [27:12] talk about how that ground stoppage is impacting the entire state of course i mean yeah look i mean [27:18] i think it's impacting the entire country again like we haven't seen that type of of fa grounding [27:25] since 9 11. i can tell you all i can tell you is that if the fa said if the fa says hey we want to [27:30] halt commercial traffic um i would i'd say no complaints because whatever they know um is in [27:37] the best interest of the safety of americans who want to travel uh via an airline last one time [28:05] i can't answer the question as to when it will be reopened that that's a question for the coast [28:10] guard to eventually determine uh based on logistically what what's able to be done uh but as far as you [28:17] know where the where the collision happened look i mean overall all i can tell you is that first [28:23] responders were ready to go and uh it was immediately uh reported and as soon as it was reported i mean [28:31] it was all hands on deck everybody ran to it i don't know exactly the right term for it but essentially [28:37] in the city of new orleans when it comes to all first responders it was an everybody go type of alarm so [28:43] in fact when when i arrived at the scene i was actually heading to a different news conference [28:48] and then i turned around and headed to this scene when i arrived i can tell you that we had fire trucks [28:54] ambulances police cars from all different types of jurisdictions all here and essentially all hands [29:01] on deck and people running into the river to pull people out and so that that's what that's what um [29:06] ended up happening i don't know if it was based on the location or what but i can tell you that [29:10] when it was reported all hands on deck and everybody was able to arrive very very quickly [29:15] when i can i i can say this too it's absolutely a miracle as well i think i think the fact that it [29:21] happened right in front of the port office certainly helped to make sure that those assets would [29:26] were necessary if it would have happened further up river or somewhere else there would have been a lot [29:32] of different challenges but again like look if you're from louisiana this is this is what we do here [29:39] right we care for people we respond to people i mean look the officers that are in the hospital [29:45] today did they're there because they were willing to put their lives and their health ahead of um [29:51] those particular passengers and just to quickly speak about the safety on the mississippi river you [29:56] know we have for a long time had a long tradition of pilots that have managed these ships up and down [30:02] we got a tremendous amount of traffic on that river and the safety record on that river has been pretty [30:11] impeccable that's why we're gonna wait we're getting we're gonna give the coast guard an opportunity to [30:17] really get down to the bottom of what we have how can we improve that safety um and work work towards [30:22] making sure that we get the river back open as quickly as we can in a safe manner cruise line cease [30:28] operations that that would be a question yeah yeah yeah all right thank you all right thank you so [30:36] very much thank you thank you thank you thank you all right we're gonna