KM officials still hope to recover river victims

HICKMAN -- While the Coast Guard's rescue operation has officially been called off, Kinder Morgan representatives say they have not yet given up hopes of recovering the bodies of the two men who were lost in the river during an incident Tuesday afternoon at their dock near Hickman.

The incident victims were Juan Nieves, who had worked as a temporary contractor at Kinder Morgan through Temps Plus for around four years; and Nicolas Perez, a temporary contractor through Dawson Employment who had worked at Kinder Morgan's site for one year.

The barge that sunk Tuesday is resting right-side-up on the river bed, approximately 54 feet under the water, which is at flood stage and filled with debris. It is owned by GATX Corporation, leased by Cooper Marine and Timberlands Corporation, and operated by American Commercial Lines.

The possibility still exists that one or both of the men could be found on the barge itself when it is recovered, trapped by something that shifted or fell as it sunk. Representatives say that they have no specific reason to believe this is the case, only that it remains a possibility.

Adam Smith, Kinder Morgan vice president; Richard Wheatley, director of corporate communications and public affairs; and Scott Shirk, general manager of the Mid-River Region, sat down with the CN Friday morning to review the details of Tuesday's incident and give an update on the recovery operation.

At approximately 3:15 Tuesday afternoon, a barge which was carrying steel coils was being unloaded at one of Kinder Morgan's three operating docks, when witnesses said there was a loud noise and the barge began listing heavily. According to employee reports, the barge was completely submerged within around 30 seconds. Previous reports that a third person was on the boat and was able to jump free are false, the officials said; the only two men on the boat were the two who remain missing.

Any reasons why the barge sank so quickly have not been determined, and no information on cause will be available until the Coast Guard and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have completed their joint investigation and gathered enough evidence to determine what occurred.

According to Shirk and Smith, as soon as the "man overboard" alarm was sounded, the company's emergency response plan activated, regulatory notifications were made, and local first responders were on site within 30 minutes. Kinder Morgan boats which were already in the water began their searches for the two men immediately.

At one point, Shirk said, there were 10 search boats in the water, including Kinder Morgan's tugs, Coast Guard vessels, and boats from the Mississippi County Sheriff's Department and the Blytheville Emergency Squad.

"This is the largest search-and-rescue operation on the Mississippi in recent history," said Shirk. "The river was closed for a 10-mile stretch north- and southbound for 36 hours. That typically doesn't happen. The search went as far south as mile marker 785, just north of Memphis. A 60-mile stretch of river was searched. The Coast Guard coordinated the effort, advising us where to search. We had an incident command center set up, with maps and charts and water conditions, talking about flow and where someone could feasibly get to shore. We even pulled barge fleets apart, the search was that extensive."

Barge retrieval not easy

However, the rapidly moving flood-stage water, full of debris, has made it impossible to locate the men and is creating difficult and hazardous conditions for retrieving the barge itself. The barge was still carrying between 40-50 steel coils, which weigh between 40,000 and 70,000 pounds each, when it sunk. Those coils have to be removed from the barge before it can be lifted and inspected for evidence, which will require the work of a specialized river salvage team, traveling up from Mississippi to do the job. The barge recovery operation is expected to take around five days. If nothing is found when it is brought up and searched, Kinder Morgan will then make a decision about what to do regarding the continued search for Nieves and Perez.

"When the barge is recovered we'll make a decision about what to do," said Shirk. "It depends on what is found. The search never really stops...the coast guard has put it in their bulletin and everyone is aware that these folks have not been recovered yet."

While is isn't unheard of for barges to sink on the river, Smith said this is the first incident which can be recalled which has ever occurred involving people and fatalities.

"This is an atypical event, it just doesn't happen," said Shirk. "But when it did, we were able to follow the process and command structure we have in place and we followed the federal model from the national emergency management system. We don't know what caused this, but we can say this -- our people and processes did not deviate from normal. We do this a thousand times a year. What caused the incident to occur is still being investigated and will take time to determine. We'll be working in conjunction with the Coast Guard and OSHA to determine the cause once evidence is collected."

Support for the families

The Coast Guard has made formal notification to the families of the two men. Nieves has a wife and children who live in the area, while Perez's family all reside in Mexico.

"Kinder Morgan has taken the lead on assisting the families," said Shirk. "Caruthersville First Baptist Church established a trust fund for Juan's family, and Kinder Morgan donated $5,000 to it. Nicolas's family is not English-speaking, so we've found a Kinder Morgan human resources rep in Houston who speaks Spanish. If they were to come here, their paperwork and documentation would only be good for a certain amount of time, and we don't want to bring them up here before the appropriate time for no reason, so we're working to find the best time and place to help them. Once we've established more solid contact with them, we'll attempt to make similar accommodations."

Shirk said the company has provided grief counselors and other support for its employees and is just about back to being fully operational. Immediately after the incident, all operations were shut down and every employee was interviewed. By Wednesday morning, land-side operations had resumed, and operations at the other two docks not involved were resumed Thursday afternoon. The coil dock, where the incident occurred, will remain closed until the Coast Guard and OSHA clear it to go back into operation.

Shirk added that Kinder Morgan's safety record is better than the industry average, and at the time of the incident, the crews were on an "impressive trend" of close to 300 days injury-free.

"There's no easy way to overcome an event such as this," he said. "It really takes time and effort and coming together as a team to move past an incident like this, to remember the folks that were affected and their families, but also have our employees be able to continue with their lives and their families as well."

Smith said that Kinder Morgan appreciates the support it has received from first responders and the community.

"The local emergency responders did a great job, they really helped support us," he said, "as well as Nucor. The community has been very helpful and we appreciate the support they've shown to our employees and the families."

The barge recovery operation is expected to continue into next week or beyond, with information about the cause of the incident possibly available at its conclusion.

sharris@blythevillecourier.com