LUCEDALE — Two people were killed and at least 10 others were injured after a roadway collapsed in Mississippi on Monday night.
WDSU-TV reports that the Mississippi Highway Patrol, emergency personnel and rescue teams responded to Highway 26 in George County, about 60 miles northeast of Biloxi, to find both the east and westbound lanes collapsed, troopers confirmed.
Cpl. Cal Robertson with the Mississippi Highway Patrol said the collapse is around 50 to 60 feet in length and 20 to 30 feet deep.
Robertson said seven vehicles were involved in the incident and that, “some of these cars are stacked on top of each other.” Cranes will be needed to get the cars out of the hole, he said.
Robertson believes the torrential amount of rain may have caused the roadway to collapse, adding that drivers may not have seen the roadway in front of them was impassable.
Hurricane Ida, a Category 4 storm, blasted ashore Sunday as one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S., knocking out power to all of New Orleans, blowing roofs off buildings and reversing the flow of the Mississippi River as it rushed from the Louisiana coast into one of the nation’s most important industrial corridors.
Ida’s 150-mph winds tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the mainland U.S.
The identities and conditions of the of those involved in the accident have not yet been released.
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