The incident occurred on the two-lane Highway 26 in George County, Trooper Cal Robertson of the Mississippi Highway Patrol told CNN on Tuesday. The washout was likely related to rain from Hurricane Ida, he said.
Seven vehicles went into the hole created by the washout, according to Robertson. It’s about 50 feet in length and 20 feet deep, he said.
“I’ve never seen anything in my 23 years in law enforcement like this,” he said.
Three of those injured are in critical condition, he added.
Highway 26 is a main artery between Mississippi and Louisiana, the George County Sheriff’s Office told CNN.
Mississippi has been battered by torrential rain from Ida, which made landfall in Louisiana as a Category 4 storm on Sunday. As of 5 a.m. Tuesday, the system was about 145 miles north-northeast of Jackson, Mississippi, as a tropical depression and heading toward Tennessee, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Nearly 60,000 customers in Mississippi remain without power due to the storm, according to PowerOutage.US.