The damage caused was a light oily sheen, sprained ankle and sink cargo when about 75 cargo containers fell from a stationed ship in the Long Beach port.
The U.S. Coast Guard led the investigation into the incident with the National Transportation Safety Commission and provided updates Wednesday afternoon with Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson and other officials, but did not provide a clear explanation for the unusual accident.
According to U.S. Coast Guard Captain Stacey Crecy, the containers carry a universal cargo such as clothing, furniture, shoes and electronics that mysteriously dropped on the ship, while the ship was around 9 a.m. at the dock around 9 a.m.
The container crashed into the water, hitting and damaging a smaller clean air barge connected to a large Mississippi ship.
On Tuesday morning, containers were seen floating in the port. Long Beach police and fire department members use boats to help surround the huge transport crates.
“No one was seriously hurt, especially those when the container landed above it, which is a miracle,” Crecy said.
Long Beach Fire Chief Dennis Buchanan said the fire brigade responded at 9:06 a.m. and found several containers also leaning against the gantry crane.
Buchanan said firefighters immediately established an isolated perimeter.
Although Tuesday’s initial report said no injuries, Richardson confirmed that a worker on the barge sprained ankle that fled from the drop container.
Buchanan said the worker was evaluated and treated on site and did not need to be hospitalized immediately.
“We are lucky,” Richardson said. “It could be worse.”
Crecy also noted that the damaged barge is Cleaning technology company Stax Engineeringis the source of “very light” oily gloss. She said the ship is loaded with about 2,000 gallons of renewable diesel.
It is not clear how much or where it leaked from the ship.
“We think it could come from a generator or tank on a barge,” Crecy said.
She noted that the oil spill response team is working to control the spread of the gloss.
Crecy said the owners of the cargo ship and barge ship will share some cleaning responsibilities and plan to restore containers.
The Coast Guard secured a 500-yard security zone near Mississippi, which carries a total of 2,412 containers, and the Coast Guard alerts potential safety hazards on nearby ships every hour.
The Coast Guard said it is working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to create a list of affected cargo and containers.
Mario Cordero, CEO of the Port of Long Beach, said that although the cargo containers still need to be fished out of the water, “the port of Long Beach is fully operational.”
Port officials described the incident as an accident, and although Crecy said the investigation was early, “there are still many unknown situations.”
When asked whether human or mechanical errors work, Crecy said it will look at many factors, including drug and alcohol testing.
Gary Herrera, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Alliance Local 13, pushed back and said “it’s not a human error” involving any union workers.
An online website Mississippi flies under the Portuguese flag had last docked in China two weeks ago, dedicated to tracking the ships.
The incident happened less than a week after the port was named Best West Coast Harbours in North America Trade publication Asia Goods News for the seventh consecutive year.
The port handles over 9 million 20-foot containers from 2,000 ships a year, Move a quarter of all containers On the West Coast.
