There's still no prediction when the Port of Baltimore might reopen to cargo ships.

I'm David Brancaccio in New York.

The Port of Baltimore remains cut off today from the major shipping channel following this week's collapse of the key bridge.

Supply chains are shifting, with economists predicting limited effect on the economy

nationally, but for workers at the port and the economic ecosystem in the region, the effects of the disaster could be long term.

Marketplace's Henry Epp reports.

A lot of work needs to be done in the immediate aftermath of the ship crash and bridge collapse says Darius

Irani chief economist at Towson University's Regional Economic Studies Institute

recovery efforts investigations clean up of the bridge debris.

Those are all going to determine how long the port will be closed and then will determine

sort of ultimately will this be sort of a transitional blip or will this be a major economic impact.

Right now there's no good estimate of how long the shutdown might last, but for the moment

there's still some work at the port, freight for dock workers to unload and for truckers to pick up says Lewis

Campion president of the Maryland Motor Truck Association.

But that will only be for probably the next week

before that freight is gone.

At which point work could dry up or shift away from Baltimore for the tens of thousands of people whose jobs are tied to the port.

Truckers, for example, could have to travel farther to pick up from other parts of the eastern seaboard, Campion says.

That's going to be a very difficult challenge for some of our companies to figure out how to manage the freight that is available but no longer

available in Baltimore. Economic losses in the region could total 10 to 15 million dollars a day

says Darius Irani at Towson and that'll take a hit on state and

local governments to up to 1.5 million dollars a day in lost tax revenue. I'm

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