Smoke from a marsh fire in New Orleans East led to another deadly multiple vehicle wreck Tuesday morning on Interstate 10 near the Michoud exit. Christopher Bannan, a meteorologist with National Weather Service says the smoke was mixed with fog which made for very low visibility.
“It basically went from visibility from almost unlimited to less than a few feet according to some of the pictures and video we’ve seen,” said Bannan.
An adult male was pronounced dead in the wreck and at least eight people were injured. Officials say there were four separate crashes involving 13 vehicles.
Bannan says we could see identical conditions tonight and probably again tomorrow night.
“We are anticipating impacts again along I-10, possibly even getting more into I-12 in St. Tammany Parish.” said Bannan.
New Orleans Police officials say the marsh fire that’s creating the smoky conditions is on remote private property that’s difficult to access. There’s no fire hydrant service and the property is bounded by pipelines. Bannan says it’s been burning for weeks.
“These marsh fires are really not unusally, it happens in the past, it takes a while to put out, to have the drought we are having right now the lack of water is not really helping things,” said Bannan.
Seven motorists were killed on I-55 in St. John the Baptist Parish on October 23rd in a similar super fog event
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