2 dead, at least 10 hurt after Mississippi highway washed away by heavy rain
LUCEDALE, Mississippi — Two people were killed and at least 10 others were injured when their vehicles plunged into a deep hole where a highway washed away in Mississippi late Monday night near the town of Lucedale, officials said.
The collapse of both the east and westbound lanes of Highway 26 in George County was believed to have been caused by torrential rains after Hurricane Ida blew through Mississippi, Trooper Cal Robertson of the Mississippi Highway Patrol said on Tuesday morning.
About 8 inches of rain fell in the area, according to the National Weather Service, and troopers indicated that the drivers may not have seen the roadway in front of them had disappeared.
Seven vehicles, including a motorcycle, went into the hole created by the washout, according to Robertson. It’s about 50 feet in length and 20 feet deep, he said, and a crane had to be brought in to lift the vehicles out of the hole.
“I’ve never seen anything in my 23 years in law enforcement like this,” he said. “Some of these cars are stacked on top of each other.”
The identities and conditions of the of those involved in the accident have not yet been released. Three of those injured were in critical condition, Robertson said.
Highway 26 is a main artery between Mississippi and Louisiana, according to the George County Sheriff’s Office. The area where the collapse happened is about 60 miles northeast of Biloxi.
Between 3,100 and 5,700 vehicles drive along that stretch of two-lane highway on an average day, according to Mississippi Department of Transportation data.
Mississippi has been battered by torrential rain from Ida, which made landfall in Louisiana as a Category 4 storm on Sunday, one of the most powerful ever to hit the U.S. mainland. It knocked out power to much of southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi, blowing roofs off buildings and reversing the flow of the Mississippi River.
As of Tuesday morning, the system was a tropical depression over Mississippi and headed toward Tennessee, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Nearly 60,000 customers in Mississippi remained without power Tuesday morning due to the storm, according to PowerOutage.US.
