Laurie DeYoung with Ryan Seacrest

It's been a busy day around the radio station with all the updates about the collapse of the Key Bridge. One of our fellow radio hosts here at iHeart media, Ryan Seacrest, called in this morning from Los Angeles to check on Baltimore!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Laurie de Young is on with usninety three point one WPOC. Today's best
country is where she is, whichis an iHeart station. And first of
all, Laurie, our hearts arewith you, and we cannot believe what
we're seeing. How you doing.How's the community handling all of this today?
We're strong. It's shocking to seethe video, of course, of
what happened, and I think thegovernor said it well to all who call

(00:22):
Baltimore home. The shock of hearingthe Key Bridge is gone is unbelievable.
It's been part of our history forso many years. And obviously we're all
thinking about the construction workers who wereon the bridge at the time of the
accident. They're saying it was anaccident that this cargo ship ran into the
bridge, and they have talked tothe crew, who's all accounted for.

(00:45):
But there were obviously some issues goingon on the ship. They were having
electrical issues, and so at thispoint this looks like it was an accident.
There were eight construction workers on thebridge at the time, two of
whom have been recovered. One didn'trequire any hospitalization, the other one is
in serious condition. So they're stillright now searching for six who are on
there. There are also some vehiclesand it's not clear yet if there were

(01:08):
other people in those vehicles were stillit's very much a search and recovery.
They're not giving a lot of detailsoutside of that. I think they're trying
to stay focused on finding those whoare on the bridge. I'm just thinking
about you know, here we arein a city that is so much of
the life here in southern California,Los Angeles is about the commute. I

(01:29):
mean, we talk about the freeways, we talk about the bridges, the
overpasses every single day. How wereyour listeners reacting to this? Did you
talk to anybody that was going touse the bridge this morning? Oh yeah,
it was on their way. Ohyeah, we talked to somebody that
was running late for work because theyhad to go a different way, obviously.
And you know when people talk aboutthat this morning, they're all with
a heavy heart because they're glad thatthat is the only issue they're having today.

(01:53):
You know, they're thinking about thefolks who were on the bridge.
So yeah, it's a normal commuteon a daily basis. About the thirty
five thousand Marylanders go over that bridgeand where are they're going, where they're
coming from and going to Just togive it an idea of the geography,
it spans the Potapsico River, soas it's running out of the Inner Harbor
out to the Chesapeake Bay basically,but it's a key area where ships go

(02:15):
through. So all of the shipsare obviously their landlocked right now. They
can't go anywhere because they've got toclear out debris as they're also searching for
the folks that were on the bridgeor possibly in some of those vehicles.
Have you talked about or heard about, how do you even begin to put
this all back together? You know, search and rescue Now, then they'll

(02:35):
find out what happened. Then you'vegot to clean out the area there right
where the bridge crashed, and thenrebuild a bridge. It took what five
six years to build in personally,yes, back in the seventies. So
you know, they're not giving timelines, as you can imagine, because I
think until they get into all ofthis and start making a plan, nobody's
going to say much. Everything rightnow is still very fresh. Whenever something

(02:58):
happens in the middle of the night. As you know, Ryan, you
know, you get a call earlyin the morning. Our boss was talking
to us at three o'clock, andyou just can't get a whole lot of
information right away because everyone is scrambling. There was a may day call that
did go out that they say preventedmore cars and people getting on that bridge,
So that's saved lives. So we'regrateful for that. So right now,

(03:21):
I think anyone in Baltimore's trying tobe grateful for the situation not being
any worse than it is. Butyou know this is going to affect our
Like you said, your commute,a lot of people's commute for a long
long time. It is a LaurieYoung who's at our iet radio station there
in Baltimore, ninety three point oneWPOC, And I just have to say,
I know I'm speaking for some peoplein the community. When a city

(03:45):
town is going through a crisis orgoing through a tragedy, just to hear
a familiar voice that you recognize thatyou know can be soothing. So I
know a lot of people are gratefulthat you're there this morning with information and
just to be a friend. Yeah, it's true. I think whenever you
feel sad about something, shocked bysomething, you look to things that comfort
you, and part of that canjust be my routine, you know,

(04:08):
like part of my routine as alistener could be Gee, I listened to
those guys from this time to thistime every day, and knowing they're here
and they're talking about the things thatare affecting me. I do think that
that is a comforting thing. Thanksfor all the hard work you're doing and
for many years you've been there atthe station. Nice to chat with you.
I'm sorry some of these circumstances.Big hugs to everyone there in the

(04:28):
Baltimore area. Okay, love youRyan, Thank you for checking in.
Thank you. That means a lotof course. You take care. Bye
bye, bye bye