NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Dense smoke reminiscent of last month’s “super fog” that rolled into Louisiana has led to a deadly crash that shut down Interstate 10 in the New Orleans area early Tuesday, police said.
The thoroughfare was closed due to smoke, fog and accidents involving multiple vehicles, New Orleans police said after the accident around 4.30am.
By late afternoon, all of the interstate’s eastbound lanes were re-opened and the westbound lanes were partially opened as crews continued clearing the road, police said.
In video from motorists, cars next to them disappear in the thick smoke. Sarah Trimble said she couldn’t see the tail lights of the truck in front of her as she crossed railroad tracks on her way to work. In another video filmed by Connie Fiorella, smoke envelopes cars around her while the car just ahead of her nearly disappears from view except for the Smoke from fires near New Orleans is getting trapped under a very shallow layer of the atmosphere near the ground along Interstate 10 in eastern Orleans Parish, the National Weather Service said.
As a result, motorists could see 400 metres or less, the weather service said.
“All that smoke has got nowhere to go,” said a meteorologist at the National Weather Service near New Orleans Christopher Bannan.
