Key Bridge collapse minute-by-minute: Recordings, reports fill in timeline of Baltimore disaster

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1:45 a.m.: Baltimore City and County fire rescue boats and a dive team are dispatched to the scene to search for the missing men. The Coast Guard deploys four boats and a helicopter to aid in the search. Responders use sonar and underwater drones.

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1:46 a.m.: Someone asks the dispatcher for a more specific location; the dispatcher says the Coast Guard called it in and said it was off Fort Armistead Park.

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1:50 a.m.: A dispatcher says police are reporting the “middle section of the bridge has collapsed into the water” and that there are “unknown amounts of people or vehicles in the water.” Beltway traffic is jammed.

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1:51 a.m.: A boat launched from the Coast Guard’s Station Curtis Bay reaches the scene.

1:52 a.m.: Several police officers on eastbound 695 block traffic. A dispatcher says they will get as close to the bridge as possible.

“Be advised, the entire bridge, the entire Key Bridge is in the harbor,” a dispatcher says in disbelief.

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2:30 a.m.: One of two survivors arrives at Shock Trauma and is released without being admitted. A second person rescued from the bridge declines medical treatment.

4 a.m.: Divers searching the 50-foot deep waters for vehicles or missing people are hindered by cold temperatures and murky water. The National Data Buoy Center reported water temperatures in that area to be about 49 degrees at 4 a.m. — a dangerously cold temperature.

12:30 p.m.: President Joe Biden gives a White House address on the Key Bridge disaster, pledging federal money to pay for its replacement.

“This is going to take some time,” Biden said. “But the people of Baltimore can count on us, though, to stick with it every step of the way until the port is reopened and the bridge is rebuilt.”

7:30 p.m.: Search-and-rescue efforts transition to recovery efforts, authorities announce at a news conference.

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