Traffic snarls Interstate 10 as thousands flee path of Hurricane Ida
Eastbound traffic on Interstate 10, especially in Hancock County, has slowed to a crawl as thousands evacuate from Hurricane Ida’s path.
Hurricane Ida is expected to make landfall in Louisiana as a Category 4 storm on Sunday. It’s currently forecast to bring tropical storm-force wind and heavy storm surge to Mississippi’s three coastal counties, as well as rain and wind to large swaths of the Magnolia State.
Central and southeastern Louisiana are expected to be hardest-hit, and mandatory evacuation orders had been issued by five Louisiana parishes, Nola.com reported.
Hancock County also issued a mandatory evacuation order for low-lying areas. Harrison County also recommended people in low-lying areas evacuate.
Though traffic moved easily on I-10 earlier Saturday, by mid-day heavy traffic was creating slow-downs especially in Hancock County and Jackson Counties.
Interstate cameras at MDOTtraffic.com showed bumper-to-bumper traffic just west of Diamondhead. Mark Sudduth, founder of the website HurricaneTrack.com, posted a video of the traffic in I-10’s eastbound lanes at about 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
The interstate was clearer around Gulfport, but traffic was also heavy further east, around St. Martin, according to the map at MDOTtraffic.com.
Traffic was also heavy on Highway 90 in Jackson County, Pascagoula police said just before 5 p.m.
Katey Hornsby, public information officer for the Mississippi Department of Transportation, said officials had urged Louisianans to evacuate west, since Ida is expected to turn north and northeast after landfall, threatening large parts of Mississippi as well as coastal Alabama and western Florida.
By early Saturday afternoon, she had not gotten reports of an accident or a slowdown that was particularly dramatic, given the circumstances.
“It is what it is,” she said. “A lot of people are deciding today that they do want to evacuate. We just remind people to be patient. Everybody’s trying to leave with the same goal.”
Maps of traffic conditions are available at MDOTtraffic.com: mdottraffic.com/landing.aspx
You can also view hurricane evacuation routes prepared by MDOT: mdot.ms.gov/portal/hurricane_preparedness
This story was originally published August 28, 2021 at 2:12 PM.
