Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So yesterday we saw this insane eventthat happened at the Key Bridge in Baltimore,
and I was thinking about it thismorning. The whole thing is so
surreal that it doesn't it doesn't feelreal. You watch the video of it,
it looks like it looks like aspecial effect in some kind of movie,
(00:23):
you know, a terrorist attack oran alien attack, or well,
an earthquake and the bridge falls down. But it really happened, and it's
a big deal. And of coursethe most important thing is the loss of
human life, but after that,there are a lot of other things that
are still very very important about thisstory, not least because the Port of
(00:43):
Baltimore is one of the biggest portsin the country, and for specific kinds
of cargo, it's actually the biggest, at least on the East Coast.
Joining us to talk about the economicimpact of this disaster. Alina Shirazi is
a Washington correspondent for News Nation.I get to see her smiling face from
(01:03):
time to time as I watch NewsNation, as I do very frequently.
Elena, Welcome to Kaoa. It'sgood to have you. Thank you,
and thank you for watching. Iappreciate that. Glad to It's become my
favorite. So tell us something,tell us what we need to know about
sort of big picture economic impacts ofwhat happened yesterday. Yeah, I mean
(01:26):
you said it really well, right, I mean, it's devastating for the
families and for the city of Baltimoreand the rest of the country as well.
It's going to be feeling really theripple effects of this financially, right,
I mean, so there's a lotof hurt on a lot of different
fronts. There's a few statistics andjust kind of like facts I've been going
off of today during a few ofmy reports, but it's just important to
(01:47):
note that Baltimore, where this happened, has the seventeen biggest port in the
nation overall, and I think it'sabout eight or nine for international cargo.
So, like you mentioned, alot of goods are traveling to and from
these waters here. They're known mainlyimports and exports, coal, sugar,
automobiles, course, So essentially,I mean even things that impact us like
(02:10):
Amazon deliveries, right, so maybeyou won't see same day delivery on certain
things. So this has a bitmore of a personal impact economic impact,
and a lot of us might havethought, but a lot of these goods
that are going to from that port, I'll have to take a longer route
to get from those cargo ships toyour doorsteps now, right, So even
(02:30):
restaurants will be feeling that pain withdeliveries and shipments and things like that.
So I mean, and how aboutthe job We can talk about all the
people that are employed that'll be impactedas a result of this. So it's
just the fallout continues, right,And as you mentioned, I mean,
there's six people now still unaccounted for, and they were looking for up to
(02:52):
twenty. There's still a lot ofquestions here, but we're going to continue
to feel the pains of this fora long time, all right. I
have a whole bunch of follow upsfor you when some of them are economic
and some of them are not quiteeconomic. But since you're following this and
reporting on it, has anybody ina position of authority there said anything yet
(03:13):
about a potential timeline for moving enoughof the bridge out of the way to
get the port at least somewhat operational. Again, Yeah, that's a great
question. We actually asked that fromthe Transportation Secretary from the White House Administration,
PI foota jet we said, Hey, how long do you think it's
going to take to get all ofthis rebuilt? We know that it took
(03:36):
like about five or six years toeven build that bridge. We know it
took millions of dollars. So ifyou said, it's just too soon to
estimate how long it will take toclear out the waters initially, that's the
first thing they have to do.They have to clean up pieces of the
bridge out of the water, andthat's the first step. They have to
find the money to build the bridge. The time and the timeline is indefinite.
(04:00):
And just said indefinite, So thatdoesn't sound promising. It doesn't sound
promising. This isn't really a superimportant question, but a few of my
listeners were asking this yesterday. Dowe know anything about whether the shipping company
has insurance that would pay out enoughto make a difference in the rebuild?
Hmm, all right, something seemsto have happened or else or else.
(04:23):
She just really really hated that question. Maybe I'm still here, all right,
We got her. It's super it'sactually super rainy here. The liather
is pretty bad. So if youdon't mind asking me that one more time,
I just lost you. Okay,no problem, and I was saying
it's not the most important question,but I'm wondering if you've heard anything about
the shipping company's insurance and whether there'sany money or significant money there. So
(04:50):
we have been hearing that it's amajor responsibility of the shipping companies. As
for the insurance, we're not sure. But what we did here is that
there was responsible for a pretty largeportion of this. So you know,
the extent of that, we're notpossible. We're not really sure about that,
but we do know that it's apretty big liability on their end.
Okay, So I want to comeback to something you said earlier. And
(05:13):
I was in Baltimore a few weeksago, and I drove right near there
and I saw a couple of verylarge ships that were parked there, and
I think they had just unloaded.But these were not the kinds of ships
that have the big containers that getremoved with cranes. Instead, they had
ramps, and it was clear thatsomething was just driving off the ships.
(05:33):
And I know that Baltimore is maybethe biggest on the East Coast when it
comes to unloading cars. And I'mwondering if you have any specific information about
potential impact on the vehicle the newvehicle market based on this disaster. Yeah,
that's a great question, right,I mean the cargo ships, we
(05:55):
know that it takes certain things toand fro, but we know that there's
also a lot of the main importsand exports here are automobiles, like you
mentioned, So we know at leastthere's going to be a pretty big delay,
a lot of ports, a lotof parts that are moved from the
Port of Baltimore from point A topoint B. We haven't heard specifics from
any specific companies, from car companies, from brands, but we do know
(06:19):
that it's definitely going to put ahamper in it. But just as for
vehicles too, that's another mode oftransportation obviously in the area. For the
bridges here that take some of thatequipment from point A to point B.
Again, there's like five thousand iswhat we were hearing trucks each day that
will not have to find a wayaround that collapsed bridge. So the cars,
(06:41):
the boats, everything is impacted asfar as transportation. Here are you
in Baltimore right now? I am, I am. So it's been a
lot of moving parts. We've beenon this story as soon as it happened.
I got a call about three inthe morning. You know, we
just heard this happen. You haveto be moved off of your other story
(07:02):
that you're covering. Uh. Youknow, when I first saw it,
I just didn't really know what Iwas reading, you know, as a
as a journalist yourself, I'm sureit's you know, when you get a
new story, at first, you'restill processing the fact and also thinking about
the implications of it, and itjust starts to dawn on you the more
facts that come in what happened.And then I'm sure you know you saw
(07:26):
that video and I've gone on thatbridge. I have used that bridge.
I'm from this area. I've drivenon that bridge many times. Is that
this had happened during rush hour,it would have been it's already completely devastating.
That would have been a whole otherballpark. They called this a mass
casualty level one. I don't evenwant to think about what would have happened
(07:48):
during a time cars were on theroad. That could easily have been a
thousand people dead or more. Itwould have been, Yes, it would
have been just a nightmare. We'retalking with Well, it's all right,
a nightmare. But we're talking withElena Shirazzi from News Nation. So just
one last quick thing. I justwant to follow up on this, so
(08:09):
more of a personal question. Soyou get there to Baltimore when you're called
on this story and you look outand you see where that bridge was,
and you see the boat and thepieces of the bridge sitting on the boat
and sticking out of the water.How did you feel? What went through
your brain, what went through yourgut? You know, when I first
saw it, we were set upon the entrance where you would have been
(08:30):
driving to the start of that bridge, and we saw it collapse in the
middle. You could see the shipfrom where we were standing, and it
just that chilled down my spine,my photographer's spine. I mean, we
just stood and looked at it fora very long time, and it just
makes you, obviously think about thatcould have been anyone, that could have
(08:52):
been you, That could have beensomeone you know. And these are real
people that are involved in these stories. And I think as journalists we get
sentitized, you know, to alot of these stories, kind of like
doctors who operated in a hospital room. These are real people, These are
real stories and this could have beenanyone. So to think about that makes
your heart just think. Secondly,to think about the people who had maybe
(09:15):
seconds to make it to the otherside of the bridge and just book it.
Can you imagine? No? Andactually, last thing, well I've
got you just tell us the fulleststory that you've heard about how and how
fast some people got to the endof that bridge to stop traffic just before
this thing happened. So it waswhat I heard kind of like the Titanic,
(09:41):
you know, this cargo ship theylost power, they were yelling out
may day, they saw the bridge, they knew that they were going to
hit it right like the Titanic,and I think it was the barge or
something. They knew it was inevitablethat they were going to hit it.
The question was what was going tohappen afterwards. So the people there's you
know, pilot that kind of knowthe area, and they're trying to redirect
(10:01):
and communicate as best as they canwhen they know it's an impending disaster.
And I mean, they just hadreally seconds to react. So that raised
a lot of questions for me.What happened here? Why did they lose
communication? You know, what couldhave prevented this. This doesn't happen.
This sort of thing just doesn't happen. So it was very it was strange.
(10:26):
So there's still some questions that weall want answers to for sure,
right, and it sounds like thoughafter the Mayday call, that whoever was,
you know, the the state police, maybe somebody moved really really fast
and stopped people from getting on thebridge who would otherwise be dead, which
is an incredible, incredible part ofthis story. Yes, they stopped all
(10:46):
traffic. They stopped all traffic,and it was quick. It was literally
a matter of I was hearing tenseconds all together, maybe less than that.
Wow. Elena Sharazzi is watching correspondentfor News Nation, reporting from Baltimore.
Thanks for your time, thanks forbeing here. I'm sure we'll have
you back and stay safe. Thankyou so much, thank you. It
(11:07):
was well good to be with youguys. All right. Thanks
So yesterday we saw this insane eventthat happened at the Key Bridge in Baltimore,
and I was thinking about it thismorning. The whole thing is so
surreal that it doesn't it doesn't feelreal. You watch the video of it,
it looks like it looks like aspecial effect in some kind of movie,
(00:23):
you know, a terrorist attack oran alien attack, or well,
an earthquake and the bridge falls down. But it really happened, and it's
a big deal. And of coursethe most important thing is the loss of
human life, but after that,there are a lot of other things that
are still very very important about thisstory, not least because the Port of
(00:43):
Baltimore is one of the biggest portsin the country, and for specific kinds
of cargo, it's actually the biggest, at least on the East Coast.
Joining us to talk about the economicimpact of this disaster. Alina Shirazi is
a Washington correspondent for News Nation.I get to see her smiling face from
(01:03):
time to time as I watch NewsNation, as I do very frequently.
Elena, Welcome to Kaoa. It'sgood to have you. Thank you,
and thank you for watching. Iappreciate that. Glad to It's become my
favorite. So tell us something,tell us what we need to know about
sort of big picture economic impacts ofwhat happened yesterday. Yeah, I mean
(01:26):
you said it really well, right, I mean, it's devastating for the
families and for the city of Baltimoreand the rest of the country as well.
It's going to be feeling really theripple effects of this financially, right,
I mean, so there's a lotof hurt on a lot of different
fronts. There's a few statistics andjust kind of like facts I've been going
off of today during a few ofmy reports, but it's just important to
(01:47):
note that Baltimore, where this happened, has the seventeen biggest port in the
nation overall, and I think it'sabout eight or nine for international cargo.
So, like you mentioned, alot of goods are traveling to and from
these waters here. They're known mainlyimports and exports, coal, sugar,
automobiles, course, So essentially,I mean even things that impact us like
(02:10):
Amazon deliveries, right, so maybeyou won't see same day delivery on certain
things. So this has a bitmore of a personal impact economic impact,
and a lot of us might havethought, but a lot of these goods
that are going to from that port, I'll have to take a longer route
to get from those cargo ships toyour doorsteps now, right, So even
(02:30):
restaurants will be feeling that pain withdeliveries and shipments and things like that.
So I mean, and how aboutthe job We can talk about all the
people that are employed that'll be impactedas a result of this. So it's
just the fallout continues, right,And as you mentioned, I mean,
there's six people now still unaccounted for, and they were looking for up to
(02:52):
twenty. There's still a lot ofquestions here, but we're going to continue
to feel the pains of this fora long time, all right. I
have a whole bunch of follow upsfor you when some of them are economic
and some of them are not quiteeconomic. But since you're following this and
reporting on it, has anybody ina position of authority there said anything yet
(03:13):
about a potential timeline for moving enoughof the bridge out of the way to
get the port at least somewhat operational. Again, Yeah, that's a great
question. We actually asked that fromthe Transportation Secretary from the White House Administration,
PI foota jet we said, Hey, how long do you think it's
going to take to get all ofthis rebuilt? We know that it took
(03:36):
like about five or six years toeven build that bridge. We know it
took millions of dollars. So ifyou said, it's just too soon to
estimate how long it will take toclear out the waters initially, that's the
first thing they have to do.They have to clean up pieces of the
bridge out of the water, andthat's the first step. They have to
find the money to build the bridge. The time and the timeline is indefinite.
(04:00):
And just said indefinite, So thatdoesn't sound promising. It doesn't sound
promising. This isn't really a superimportant question, but a few of my
listeners were asking this yesterday. Dowe know anything about whether the shipping company
has insurance that would pay out enoughto make a difference in the rebuild?
Hmm, all right, something seemsto have happened or else or else.
(04:23):
She just really really hated that question. Maybe I'm still here, all right,
We got her. It's super it'sactually super rainy here. The liather
is pretty bad. So if youdon't mind asking me that one more time,
I just lost you. Okay,no problem, and I was saying
it's not the most important question,but I'm wondering if you've heard anything about
the shipping company's insurance and whether there'sany money or significant money there. So
(04:50):
we have been hearing that it's amajor responsibility of the shipping companies. As
for the insurance, we're not sure. But what we did here is that
there was responsible for a pretty largeportion of this. So you know,
the extent of that, we're notpossible. We're not really sure about that,
but we do know that it's apretty big liability on their end.
Okay, So I want to comeback to something you said earlier. And
(05:13):
I was in Baltimore a few weeksago, and I drove right near there
and I saw a couple of verylarge ships that were parked there, and
I think they had just unloaded.But these were not the kinds of ships
that have the big containers that getremoved with cranes. Instead, they had
ramps, and it was clear thatsomething was just driving off the ships.
(05:33):
And I know that Baltimore is maybethe biggest on the East Coast when it
comes to unloading cars. And I'mwondering if you have any specific information about
potential impact on the vehicle the newvehicle market based on this disaster. Yeah,
that's a great question, right,I mean the cargo ships, we
(05:55):
know that it takes certain things toand fro, but we know that there's
also a lot of the main importsand exports here are automobiles, like you
mentioned, So we know at leastthere's going to be a pretty big delay,
a lot of ports, a lotof parts that are moved from the
Port of Baltimore from point A topoint B. We haven't heard specifics from
any specific companies, from car companies, from brands, but we do know
(06:19):
that it's definitely going to put ahamper in it. But just as for
vehicles too, that's another mode oftransportation obviously in the area. For the
bridges here that take some of thatequipment from point A to point B.
Again, there's like five thousand iswhat we were hearing trucks each day that
will not have to find a wayaround that collapsed bridge. So the cars,
(06:41):
the boats, everything is impacted asfar as transportation. Here are you
in Baltimore right now? I am, I am. So it's been a
lot of moving parts. We've beenon this story as soon as it happened.
I got a call about three inthe morning. You know, we
just heard this happen. You haveto be moved off of your other story
(07:02):
that you're covering. Uh. Youknow, when I first saw it,
I just didn't really know what Iwas reading, you know, as a
as a journalist yourself, I'm sureit's you know, when you get a
new story, at first, you'restill processing the fact and also thinking about
the implications of it, and itjust starts to dawn on you the more
facts that come in what happened.And then I'm sure you know you saw
(07:26):
that video and I've gone on thatbridge. I have used that bridge.
I'm from this area. I've drivenon that bridge many times. Is that
this had happened during rush hour,it would have been it's already completely devastating.
That would have been a whole otherballpark. They called this a mass
casualty level one. I don't evenwant to think about what would have happened
(07:48):
during a time cars were on theroad. That could easily have been a
thousand people dead or more. Itwould have been, Yes, it would
have been just a nightmare. We'retalking with Well, it's all right,
a nightmare. But we're talking withElena Shirazzi from News Nation. So just
one last quick thing. I justwant to follow up on this, so
(08:09):
more of a personal question. Soyou get there to Baltimore when you're called
on this story and you look outand you see where that bridge was,
and you see the boat and thepieces of the bridge sitting on the boat
and sticking out of the water.How did you feel? What went through
your brain, what went through yourgut? You know, when I first
saw it, we were set upon the entrance where you would have been
(08:30):
driving to the start of that bridge, and we saw it collapse in the
middle. You could see the shipfrom where we were standing, and it
just that chilled down my spine,my photographer's spine. I mean, we
just stood and looked at it fora very long time, and it just
makes you, obviously think about thatcould have been anyone, that could have
(08:52):
been you, That could have beensomeone you know. And these are real
people that are involved in these stories. And I think as journalists we get
sentitized, you know, to alot of these stories, kind of like
doctors who operated in a hospital room. These are real people, These are
real stories and this could have beenanyone. So to think about that makes
your heart just think. Secondly,to think about the people who had maybe
(09:15):
seconds to make it to the otherside of the bridge and just book it.
Can you imagine? No? Andactually, last thing, well I've
got you just tell us the fulleststory that you've heard about how and how
fast some people got to the endof that bridge to stop traffic just before
this thing happened. So it waswhat I heard kind of like the Titanic,
(09:41):
you know, this cargo ship theylost power, they were yelling out
may day, they saw the bridge, they knew that they were going to
hit it right like the Titanic,and I think it was the barge or
something. They knew it was inevitablethat they were going to hit it.
The question was what was going tohappen afterwards. So the people there's you
know, pilot that kind of knowthe area, and they're trying to redirect
(10:01):
and communicate as best as they canwhen they know it's an impending disaster.
And I mean, they just hadreally seconds to react. So that raised
a lot of questions for me.What happened here? Why did they lose
communication? You know, what couldhave prevented this. This doesn't happen.
This sort of thing just doesn't happen. So it was very it was strange.
(10:26):
So there's still some questions that weall want answers to for sure,
right, and it sounds like thoughafter the Mayday call, that whoever was,
you know, the the state police, maybe somebody moved really really fast
and stopped people from getting on thebridge who would otherwise be dead, which
is an incredible, incredible part ofthis story. Yes, they stopped all
(10:46):
traffic. They stopped all traffic,and it was quick. It was literally
a matter of I was hearing tenseconds all together, maybe less than that.
Wow. Elena Sharazzi is watching correspondentfor News Nation, reporting from Baltimore.
Thanks for your time, thanks forbeing here. I'm sure we'll have
you back and stay safe. Thankyou so much, thank you. It
(11:07):
was well good to be with youguys. All right. Thanks
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