A barge smashed into the Pelican Island Bridge in Texas on Wednesday, cutting off access to the island and resulting in an oil spill.
Drivers were unable to cross the bridge for several hours after the incident, but one lane on the bridge connecting it to Galveston was reopened to allow people to leave, Fox 26 reported.
As of Thursday morning, the island was still unreachable. However, “The Pelican Island Causeway bridge has reopened at times to let some cars exit the island and head to Galveston, though no one was allowed to enter. Officials say it’s unlikely they’ll be able to get back on the island anytime soon,” ABC 13 reported.
Aerial video footage shows the crash site and the oil spill snaking its way through the water:
On Wednesday evening, officials allowed island community members to cross the bridge on foot, per the Fox article. The outlet said there were no reports of anyone being hurt, and two crew members who went overboard were rescued.
According to Galveston County Judge Mark Henry, vacuum gas oil spilled when the crash happened. “The barge reportedly has a 30,000-gallon capacity, but the county judge says it’s not known at this time how much oil was on board,” the Fox article said, adding the U.S. Coast Guard is investigating the spill as the cleanup process begins.
Henry told KHOU the barge broke away from a tugboat before it hit the bridge:
Per the ABC 13 report, Henry said officials have been wanting to replace the bridge for the past decade.
“My concern is that they are going to deem the bridge unusable, which would not be a surprise. It was in bad shape before this accident, and that’s going to cause some significant disruptions to Pelican Island,” he explained.
“People are going to have no real way to get there and back, and with Texas A&M Galveston being there, that’s going to dramatically impact A&M Galveston’s ability to deliver education,” Henry added.
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