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I-10 bridge 'severely damaged'Monday
11:40 p.m.
By Ed Anderson
and Robert Travis Scott
Capital bureau
The Interstate 10 twin bridges linking St. Tammany and Orleans parishes over Lake Pontchartrain have been “severely damaged’’ in both directions, Louisiana highway officials said.
“Probably several dozen segments” of the bridges are “either missing or shoved aside,” said Mark Lambert, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation and Development.
“It is just like in Florida,’’ Transportation Secretary Johnny Bradberry said, referring to damage caused by Hurricane Ivan last year to the I-10 bridge in the Florida Panhandle.
The damage appears to be random along the bridges and affects both the eastbound and westbound sides. The span is so jagged it looks like “stairs,” Lambert said.
Agency officials will take a closer look at the bridges Tuesday.
It is impossible to estimate the cost or duration of repairs. The department will try to determine which side sustained the least damage and will probably repair
that side first, to get at least one lane going in each direction.
Lambert said the department does not know if the bridge pilings are still in place. If the pilings are still there and stable, then the repairs could be
done more quickly.
The damage was surveyed from a State Police helicopter Monday evening.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Mike Brown called Katrina one of the worst disasters he has seen, exceeded only by California wildfires.
“This is a catastrophic storm,’’ he said. “People will not get back to their homes for several weeks – if not longer.’’
Lt. Kevin Cowan, a spokesman for the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said the only confirmed deaths have been three New Orleans area nursing home residents who died while being transported or after arriving at shelters in Baton Rouge.
Cowan said communications with St, Tammany Parish has been spotty and little is known of the number of persons rescued from that area.
He said said at least 31,000 evacuees were still hunkered down in shelters in south Louisiana, and 917,000 households were without power in 23 south
Louisiana parishes.
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