Live updates: Human chain, Jaws of Life used to rescue victims in MS highway collapse
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Highway 21 collapse in George County
Heavy rains from Hurricane Ida have caused the collapse late Monday night of Mississippi Highway 26 near Crossroads Road in George County, killing two people and injuring 10 others. Read more of our breaking news coverage here.
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Heavy rains from Hurricane Ida have caused the collapse late Monday night of Mississippi Highway 26 near Crossroads Road in George County, killing two people and injuring 10 others, three of them critically, the Mississippi Highway Patrol said Tuesday morning.
Seven vehicles were retrieved from the gaping hole in the collapsed road in the Benndale community, a George County official said.
Mississippi 26 is a major route that runs between George and Pearl River counties.
“It must have been a terrifying ordeal for the drivers,” Ken Flanagan, a George County spokesperson, told McClatchy News. “They were traveling on Highway 26. It was raining at the time. This is a particularly dark stretch of state highway, and they unbeknowing to them in the dark just drove right into a huge ditch.”
An estimated 75-foot span of the roadway collapsed, sending cars plunging into the hole that was 20- to 30-feet deep. Cranes, ladders and ropes were used to help rescue workers get down to the seven cars that slid in, Flanagan said.
Human chain formed to help rescue effort
Updated: 2:38 p.m.
First responders linking together to form a human chain, Jaws of Life and equipment including cranes, ladders and ropes were used to help rescue the drivers and passengers trapped in the deep hole beneath the highway.
A couple who had dropped into the hole at the beginning of the collapse called 911 for help. Dispatchers listened as car after car dropped into the washout.
George County sheriff’s deputies, a search and rescue team and other first responders used several tools to get the victims lifted out of the washout and to hospitals.
— Margaret Baker
Highway patrol assesses size of hole caused by collapse
Updated 12:33 p.m.
The gaping hole on Highway 21 engulfed seven vehicles, with members of the Benndale community being first on scene to assist victims, Mississippi Highway Patrol Trooper Calvin Robertson told the Sun Herald. MHP arrived on scene shortly after George County sheriff’s deputies.
Drone footage shows the massive wipe out, with tires, a truck door and other car remnants now at the bottom of the ravine. A portion of the eastbound lane of Mississippi 26 also washed away right before the major collapse.
How big is the hole? Robertson said the washout is approximately 20 feet deep and 50 feet wide. The Mississippi Department of Transportation is also on scene measuring the affected area, Robertson said.
— Margaret Baker
Drone footage shows slide, detour announced
Updated at 12:11 p.m.
Drone footage captured by McClatchy News shows water poured down an embankment on the highway’s south side and ran across the east-west corridor. Red earth is plowed up to solid ground on the highway’s north side near a cemetery.
“It is a slide, which means the ground under the roadway and embankment was super-saturated and we can tell right now that’s what caused the slide,” said Kelly Castleberry, district engineer for the Mississippi Department of Transportation. “The ground liquified and it spread several hundred feet to the south.”
He said groundwater running beneath the earth’s surface from all of Hurricane Ida’s rain, a water-line leak, or both, could have caused the collapse that killed two people and injured 10, three of them critically. MDOT is investigating the cause and will have an update when more information is available, Castleberry said.
The official detour route around the cave-in, he said, is Mississippi Highway 57 or 63, to Interstate 10 for southbound traffic and Mississippi Highway 98 for northbound traffic. The detour will be time consuming, he said. Highway 26 runs across South Mississippi from George to Pearl River County.
Castleberry said a survey team is still assessing damage to determine how much material will be needed to repair the road and how long it will take.
— Anita Lee
Second death identified
Updated at 11:50 a.m.
The second person who died in this morning’s highway collapse has been identified as Kent Brown, 49, of Leakesville, George County Coroner DeeAnn Murrah confirmed with Sun Herald. Brown was pronounced dead at 1:30 a.m.
Earlier in the morning, Murrah said she had planned to wait to release the identity of the second motorist to the Sun Herald after she had notified family members.
— Margaret Baker
George County sheriff’s deputies arrived shortly after and called in MHP
Updated at 11:20 a.m.
Mississippi Highway Patrol Trooper Calvin Robertson said neighbors in the Benndale community were the first on scene after the collapse.George County sheriff’s deputies arrived shortly after and called in MHP.
A search and rescue team pulled the victims from the wreckage, Robertson said.
— Margaret Baker
GCHS senior critically injured
Updated at 10:12 a.m.
George County High School senior Layla Jamison was one of those critically injured after Mississippi Highway 26 collapsed late Monday night because of Hurricane Ida’s heavy rains.
A request for prayers was posted before 9 a.m. Tuesday on the George County High Facebook page.
The post said Jamison is in critical condition at USA Medical Center in Mobile.
“Asking our GCHS family to pray for one of our seniors, Layla Jamison. She was involved in the accident last night where the road was washed away on Hwy 26,” the Facebook post said. The post had been shared 723 times and generated 339 comments.
— Anita Lee
Traffic detours
Updated 9:30 a.m.
Mississippi 26 is a major thoroughfare for residents in George County, and having to take alternate routes will add lengthy time to commutes.
The manager at Keith’s gas station No. 81 in George County uses Highway 26 to get to work. She had to take U.S. 49 and go through Wiggins to get to work, adding an hour to her commute, clerk Emily Rouse said.
Detour using Highway 57 or Highway 63.
— Margaret Baker
First death identified
Updated 8:50 a.m.
The first person who died in the multi-vehicle wreck has been identified.
Jerry Lee, 42, of Lucedale, was pronounced dead at 1:20 a.m., George County Coroner DeeAnn Murrah told the Sun Herald early Tuesday morning.
“It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen,” she told the Sun Herald. “It was absolutely pitiful. The road just collapsed from all the rain. I think it was seven cars that was retrieved from where the road collapsed.”
Murrah plans to release the identity of the second motorist to the Sun Herald after she notifies family members.
— Margaret Baker
‘Wrecks on top of wrecks’ as cars stacked up
Updated 7:51 a.m.
County spokesman Ken Flanagan: “At several spots, the cars were literally stacked on top of each other as they were driving, not realizing what was in front of them. So there were wrecks on top of wrecks.”
Flanagan said the area is not prone to flooding so it was a “very unusual spot for a washout of this size.”
Hurricane Ida brought very heavy rains to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. A rain gauge from a nearby community measured more than 11 inches of rain.
“At sunset yesterday it felt as though Hurricane Ida’s effects were over,” he said. “But there has just been so much rain and water that we are really seeing her true devastation here after the fact.”
The highway remains closed to thru-traffic, detour using Highway 57 or Highway 63.
“While we are still in the early stages of this investigation, motorists can expect Highway 26 to be closed at this location until further notice,” a post from MHP Troop K says. “The Mississippi Department of Transportation will assess the damages and make a determination as to when the roadway will reopen for travel.”
- Simone Jasper
This story was originally published August 31, 2021 at 7:51 AM.
