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lousiana
'Miracle on the Mississippi': All Accounted for After Tanker Hits New Orleans Riverboat With 120+ Aboard
New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno credited first responders, who she said "literally jumped right in to help," with saving victims' lives.
Nov 13, 2026
A large asphalt tanker struck a river cruise boat in New Orleans on Friday afternoon, causing the paddleboat carrying more than 120 passengers and crew to capsize and partially submerge in the Mississippi River.
Thirty-two people were injured and taken to local hospitals after the 520-foot asphalt and bitumen tanker Atlantic Asphalt lost control and perpendicularly struck the American Heritage, a docked paddlewheel riverboat operated by American Cruise Lines, at approximately 12:30 pm local time, according to Nola.com.
The cruise vessel was in the process of disembarking passengers when it was hit. Video posted on social media showed passengers swimming away from the listing boat.
One witness, Jamie Holford, told WDSU that the American Heritage took approximately 15 minutes to overturn after the initial impact.
Holford described the scene as "surreal."
New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno, a Democrat, said the tanker had apparently lost control before striking the riverboat, sending passengers and crew members into the Mississippi River.
"At this moment, the information that we have, we have zero people unaccounted for, which truly is a miracle on the Mississippi," Moreno said at a news conference. She credited local, state, and federal emergency personnel who "literally jumped right in to help."
The injuries suffered by the 32 passengers were described by officials as noncritical. Two New Orleans Harbor Police officers were also hospitalized after helping with rescue efforts.
The US Coast Guard temporarily closed a three-mile stretch of the Mississippi River to commercial and recreational vessel traffic while emergency crews conducted rescue operations and assessed the damage.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it would dispatch an investigative team to New Orleans on Saturday to determine the circumstances surrounding the crash.
The incident raised questions about maritime safety along one of the nation's busiest commercial waterways.
Maritime law expert Martin Davies of Tulane University told WVUE that the tanker could have caused an even greater catastrophe had it struck the nearby Crescent City Connection bridge, which carries an estimated 160,000 vehicles daily.
In March 2024, the Maersk-chartered Dali, a Singapore-flagged container ship with a history of problems, lost power and steering before crashing into a support pier of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, triggering a catastrophic collapse. Six highway maintenance workers were killed and a seventh was seriously injured.
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