Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had been preparing to rise early for a flight to out west, where he would conduct a weeklong swing with local officials and the highway administrator in Wyoming and Montana.
But when the Dali container ship sailing through the Patapsco River made a “mayday” call just before 1:30 a.m. ET, overnight staffers in the White House Situation Room began frantically reaching out to senior officials to notify them of the collision – and collapse – of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.
The US Coast Guard, which has a robust presence along the eastern seaboard, was onsite within minutes. And then Buttigieg started working the phones himself.
“By the time I got a hold of the (Maryland) governor, he was wide awake and hard to work and clearly had been for some time,” Buttigieg told CNN. A DOT call log shows the two spoke at 4:34 a.m ET.
By 5 a.m. ET, Buttigieg had already spoken with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and White House chief of staff Jeff Zients – all trying to figure out how to marshal federal resources to begin, first, a search and rescue operation and, eventually, a massive economic rebuild.
Jen Daksal, the deputy homeland security adviser, began preparing a briefing for President Joe Biden. Two Oval Office meetings were convened as staff at various levels began trickling into the White House.
“He wanted to know basic facts about what happened,” said a senior administration official familiar with the discussions. “What we knew about the cause, how many people were unaccounted for, and to ensure that all the federal resources were being brought to bear.”
Once the President had a firm grasp on the situation, he began reaching out to state and local leaders directly….
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