IDA TO BLAME

Two Dead, 10 Injured, After Mississippi Highway Collapse Sends Multiple Vehicles Into Crater

Footage showed multiple vehicles at the bottom of a 20-foot-deep crater after the highway collapse.

Two people have been killed and 10 others hurt after part of a Mississippi highway collapsed in a disaster that officials said was most likely caused by the pummeling rains from Hurricane Ida. Trooper Cal Robertson of the Mississippi Highway Patrol told CNN that seven vehicles plunged into a crater that was 50 feet in length and 20 feet deep. “I’ve never seen anything in my 23 years in law enforcement like this,” he said. The incident happened near the town of Lucedale on Highway 26, north of Biloxi. WKRG’s Brianna Hollis posted footage from the scene showing multiple vehicles in the deep ditch, and said that cranes had arrived on the scene to pull the vehicles out. Three of the injured people are reported to be in critical condition. As of late Monday, the eye of Ida—which weakened to a tropical depression earlier in the day— was about 80 miles northeast of Jackson, Mississippi.