Remember the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse?

A year ago on March 26, a massive container ship crashed into the bridge in Baltimore, killing six and wrecking the bridge. The cause? Two electrical blackouts that led to a loss of the ship’s propulsion, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.

Could that happen on the Delaware?

Yes.

Have a read of our special report: Large vessels on the Delaware River lose steering, propulsion or power monthly.

As the story recounts, large vessels have lost power, steering or propulsion at least 13 times a year from January 2013 through January 2024.

We’re really proud of this story, reported by our freelancer, Susanna Granieri. 

It took almost a year for her to dig into information held by the U.S. Coast Guard’s Sector Delaware Bay, which produced, at our request, a first-of-its-kind, custom-made database. When you read the story, you’ll see at the bottom an explanation, “How we did this story.”

And here comes the shameless plug: This is what we here at Delaware Currents do: We deeply research and report.

Yes, many outlets carried the recent findings of the N.T.S.B. “that dozens of bridges in 19 states had not been assessed for risk of collapse in recent years, even though the volume of vessel traffic passing underneath these bridges suggested a strike by a ship was a distinct possibility.“

But we conducted our own risk assessment for you.

The serious drought we experienced in the fall is not over yet for much of the watershed.

The Regulated Flow Advisory Committee of the Delaware River Basin Commission is charged with keeping an eye on the flow of the river, and though there has been no declaration of drought on the river, there is still drought in the watershed.

And as if to emphasize the point, New Jersey sounds the alarm on coming wildfire season, brought to us from Dana DiFilippo from The New Jersey Monitor.

Christine Todd Whitman had an interview with Inside Climate News by Steve Curwood and Paloma Beltran about the onslaught of news out of the Environmental Protection Agency.

“I think we’re going in totally the wrong direction,” said Whitman, a former EPA administrator and former Republican governor of New Jersey.

Lots of heavy stuff but we’re not all gloom and doom. Have a look at a story (with great photos and video) about eagles by another freelancer, Preston Ehrler.

One of the ways I’m dealing with these tumultuous times is by letting the outside world soothe my spirits. I hope you can too.

Happy almost-Spring!