- Officials in Louisiana said 22 barges broke loose on the Mississippi River on Sunday afternoon.
- One video shared on Facebook showed a loose barge crashing into another boat.
- Hurricane Ida battered the state with 140 mph winds when it made landfall Sunday.
Twenty-two barges broke loose on the Mississippi River on Sunday as Hurricane Ida tore through Louisiana, officials said.
The barges are now drifting along the river as conditions are too bad to try and secure them.
Officials from the St. Bernard Parish, which is southeast of New Orleans, confirmed to local outlet WWL that the barges had broken loose as the category 4 storm hit the state with 140-mph winds.
One official told CBS News on Sunday night that the barges broke loose at mile marker 87 and are currently still in the river.
“They cannot go out to try and secure them with this weather. Don’t know what’s in them or where they came from,” he said. “The major concern is really hitting a levee somewhere.”
A video shared on Facebook showed a loose barge crashing into a boat during the storm. Taken by a person on the boat, it shows the barge sideways in the waterway moving quickly towards the boat before hitting it and continuing down the waterway.
A person in the video can be heard saying they hope the barge didn’t put a hole in the boat.
The person who took the video shared it on Facebook, writing “we just got smoked by a barge.”
It’s unclear where exactly the video was taken. Insider reached out to the person who posted the video for more details.
Another loose barge struck the Kerner Swing Bridge in Lafitte, located south of New Orleans, prompting officials to advise residents not to drive over the bridge because they do not believe it is still structurally safe, WDSU reported.