Riverwalk looked like a deathtrap Sunday: hotel rooms collapsed upon more hotel rooms, wrecked shops and bars, twisted metal and even crushed cars, all in a five-story heap.
And yet there was no sign of fatalities, even though the riverside development, one of the city's most popular tourist spots, was rammed by an oceangoing freighter on a Saturday afternoon at the height of the Christmas shopping season."God has spared us for Christmas," said Warren Reuther, chief executive officer of a New Orleans cruise ship business.
Mayor Marc Morial, New Orleans Port Authority Director Ron Brinson and other public officials noted that all employees of Riverwalk businesses were accounted for Sunday. All guests registered in the four stories of Riverside Hilton hotel rooms that rested atop the damaged section of mall also were accounted for.
Heat-sensing equipment and dogs were used to search as much of the wreckage as possible to make sure no one was trapped, said Fire Department Superintendent Warren McDaniels.
The Coast Guard made air and water searches throughout the night.
McDaniels acknowledged, however, that much of the wreckage remained inaccessible Sunday. The damaged portion of the building would have to be reached from the water, but divers could not be put into the river because debris continued sliding into the water Sunday.
The ship, the Liberian-registered freighter Bright Field, remained moored at the site of the collision, its bow littered with twisted metal, insulation and other debris torn loose from Riverwalk. The collision left a huge puncture in the ship's bow.
In addition to its moorings, the freight was being held in place by tugboats. Coast Guard officials said it was being kept there to block the river's current and keep it from sweeping away wreckage.