| Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson called Tuesday's calamity at the Port of Long Beach "rare," while Gary Herrera, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 13, went a half step further, labeling it "super rare." |
| Noting that no one was seriously injured, U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Stacey Crecy spoke of a "miracle." Port of Long Beach Chief Executive Mario Cordero used terms such as "a blessing" and "unprecedented." |
| Those were some of the comments during a roughly 35-minute news conference Wednesday at the Port of Long Beach, where personnel from the Coast Guard, the city of Long Beach, the port and worker representatives tried to explain how 75 cargo containers dramatically slipped off a vessel docked at the port and into the nearby water or on top of an adjacent barge. |
| Still, no one could definitively put a finger on the cause of the bizarre mishap. |
| The port handles roughly 9 million 20-foot containers units with 90 million metric tons of cargo valued at $300 billion annually — almost all without similar incidents, according to their stats. |
| I had a chance to write about Tuesday's event, which caught most parties involved completely by surprise. |
What exactly happened Tuesday morning? |
| Long Beach Fire Chief Dennis Buchanan said fire units responded at 9:06 a.m. and found several containers from the vessel "Mississippi" tumbled off the ship and into the nearby waters. |
| An online site dedicated to tracking ships says Mississippi flies under a Portuguese flag and was last docked in China two weeks ago, suggesting the cargo could have come from manufacturers in China. |
| Video footage shows at least one stack of containers also crashing onto and damaging a smaller clean-air barge connected to the large ship. |
| The containers carried general cargo such as clothes, furniture, shoes and electronics, some of which washed upon the shore. The vessel was "in the process of offloading" at Pier G around 9 a.m., according to Crecy. |
| Fire personnel immediately established an isolation perimeter, Buchanan said. |
| Members of the Long Beach Police and Fire departments used boats to help corral the giant shipping crates. |
Why did the containers fall overboard? |
| Crecy said that the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board were leading the investigation into how and why the containers fell off the Mississippi. |
| "Unfortunately, we don't have the exact cause of the incident, at this time," Crecy said. |
| When asked whether human or mechanical error played a part, Crecy said many factors will be looked into, including drug and alcohol testing. |
| Herrera pushed back, saying it "was not human error" involving any union workers. |
Extent of the injuries and damages |
| Richardson confirmed no one was seriously injured. One worker aboard the barge sprained an ankle fleeing the falling containers. |
| That worker was assessed and treated at the scene and did not require immediate hospitalization. |
| "We are fortunate," Richardson said. "It could have been a whole lot worse." |
| Crecy said the barge suffered damage, but didn't explain the severity. |
| The small boat, owned by cleantech firm Stax Engineering, was the source of a "very light" oil sheen. The ship was loaded with approximately 2,000 gallons of renewable diesel, she said. |
| She noted that an oil spill response team was working to contain the sheen's spread. |
What's next? |
| The owners of the cargo and barge vessels would share some of the cleanup responsibilities and also plan container recovery, Crecy said. |
| As for the waterlogged cargo, Herrera said workers were continuing to move containers from the water onto the dock and out of the bay. |
| The Coast Guard said it was working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to create a list of affected cargo and containers. |
| We'll be following the cleanup efforts and the investigation as it progresses. |
The week's biggest stories |
 |
| (Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press) |
Charlie Kirk slaying |
| |
California policies and infrastructure |
| |
Crime, courts, investigations and policing |
| |
Animals we love and ones we don't |
| |
Entertainment news |
| |
| |
More big stories |
| |
| |
This week's must-reads |
| | | The Wende Museum debuted its Glorya Kaufman Community Center, a 7,500-square-foot space for cultural programming and wellness activities — and everything, including the food, is free. | | | |
More great reads |
| |
| Keep up with California | Your support helps us deliver the news that matters most. Subscribe to the Los Angeles Times. | | | | | |
For your weekend |
 |
| (Karlo Evaristo ) |
Going out |
| |
Staying in |
| |
| Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team |
| Jim Rainey, staff writer
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
Diamy Wang, homepage intern
Izzy Nunes, audience intern |
| How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com. |
