LAST UPDATE | 31 Aug 2021
TWO PEOPLE HAVE died and at least 10 others have been injured after their vehicles plunged into a deep hole where a road collapsed as Hurricane Ida blew through Mississippi.
Torrential rain may have caused the collapse and the drivers may not have seen that the road in front of them had disappeared last night, Mississippi Highway Patrol’s Cal Robertson said.
“Some of these cars are stacked on top of each other,” he said.
Seven vehicles were involved, including a motorcycle.
A crane was brought in to lift them out of the hole.
WDSU-TV reported that state troopers, emergency workers and rescue teams responded to Highway 26 west of Lucedale, about 60 miles north-east of Biloxi, to find both the east and westbound lanes collapsed.
Robertson said the hole is around 50 to 60ft long and 20 to 30ft deep.
The identities and conditions of those involved in the accident have not yet been released.
More than eight inches of rain fell in the area during Ida, according to the National Weather Service.
Between 3,100 and 5,700 vehicles drive along the two-lane stretch on an average day, according to Mississippi Department of Transportation data.
Hurricane Ida blasted ashore on Sunday as a Category 4 storm, one of the most powerful ever to hit the US mainland.
It knocked out power to much of south-eastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi, blowing roofs off buildings and reversing the flow of the Mississippi River.
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