'Miracle': All rescued from capsized New Orleans riverboat in tanker collision
Over 30 people were injured after a tanker collided with a docked riverboat on the Mississippi River near the Port of New Orleans, officials said Friday.
Nearly 200 people were on board the cruise ship, American Heritage, when the Atlantic Asphalt tanker collided with it, according New Orleans officials. All have been accounted for, according to New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno, calling it a "miracle on the Mississippi."
Thirty passengers from the cruise ship and two officers who ended up the water are hospitalized with non-critical injuries, according to officials. No children were involved, authorities said.
The emergency response began midday Friday, when the tanker "lost control and collided into the cruise ship," Moreno said.
"The passengers began disembarking from the ship after that collision. But while that was happening, the cruise ship began to sink, and then eventually, the cruise ship toppled over and flipped," she said at a news conference Friday afternoon. "Now, when that occurred, we started to have people in the water."
Police began helping evacuate passengers, though not everyone was able to get off before the ship began to capsize, authorities said. The remaining passengers were taken onto various boats to get them to safety, and the search and rescue effort is now over, authorities said.
Moreno praised the rescue effort involving first responders and volunteers.
"At this moment, the information that we have, we have zero people unaccounted for, which truly is a miracle on the Mississippi, and that is a credit to all of the first responders, local, state, federal, who literally jumped right in to help," she said.
The collision occurred at approximately 12:30 p.m. local time Friday, according to the Port of New Orleans. The tanker struck the riverboat broadside and hard, sources said.
The tanker appears to have had "some type of a loss of steering," Burnham said during Friday's news conference.
"The exact reason why, we don't know that," she said.
The cruise ship is "significantly damaged," with a small portion remaining above the water line, according to U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Melanie Burnham.
The incident remains under investigation, Burnham said. The National Transportation Safety Board also said it is launching a team to investigate and should arrive by Saturday morning.
"We are going to get down to the bottom of exactly what happened here, and make sure that we make any adjustments necessary so that the people that travel on the waterways here can can know that they can do so in safety," Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said at the news conference.
The riverboat had docked approximately two hours earlier to begin passenger disembarkation, according to the Port of New Orleans.
An American Heritage crew member told ABC News that he felt the boat shake, and initially thought the captain was moving the boat.
"There was a hole with the hull of the other boat in the dining room," said Zayvion, a restaurant manager who did want his last name published. "It was a little chaotic, but our team knew what we were doing."
Zayvion said the crew trains weekly for such a scenario and the team "just stayed calm" and helped guide shaken-up guests to safety.
"A lot of people were just scared, like what's gonna happen, especially as the boat tipped over," he said. "It was scary for a lot of people. Even me, like, when it was tipping, I was like, it was getting real."
American Cruise Lines, the riverboat's operator, said in a statement following the operation that it is "grateful to the U.S. Coast Guard, our crew, and the local first responders on the ground in New Orleans for their tremendous rescue efforts."
"We are getting everyone who was aboard the ship settled into hotels and making sure they have everything they need," the statement continued. "We are also in close contact with the U.S. Coast Guard, New Orleans Police, and other agencies, and will continue to coordinate with them."
Multiple agencies, including the New Orleans Fire Department, the New Orleans Police Department and the U.S. Coast Guard, responded to the scene, officials said.
"The river is closed to all vessel traffic between mile markers 93 and 96 while responders assess the situation and conduct response operations," the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Burnham said the Coast Guard will be evaluating how to reopen the waterway.
