Crash Victim Recalls Terror After Mississippi Road Collapse

A section of Mississippi Highway 26 is damaged, Two people were killed and at least 10 others were injured when seven vehicles plunged into the deep hole on the dark rural two-lane highway, which collapsed after Hurricane Ida blew through Mississippi, in the Crossroads community, Miss., on Aug. 31, 2021. AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

LUCEDALE, Miss.—A teenager said she could hear the terrifying sounds of other vehicles crashing around—and on top of—the pickup truck where she and her mother were trapped after the truck plunged into a dark, muddy pit when a Mississippi highway collapsed during torrential rain brought by Hurricane Ida.

“I saw a black hole, then I blacked out and I woke up and my mom was leaned over toward me. She was choking on her blood and she couldn’t breathe or anything,” 16-year-old Emily Williams of Wiggins, Mississippi, told WLOX-TV in a video call from her hospital room.