A Situation Room scramble, daily calls and political intrigue: Inside the White House response to the Key Bridge collapse

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.

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.