What in the world was this truck doing on this bridge?????

[RedEarth]

A view of the Interstate 10 bridges leading into Pensacola, Florida, after being broken to pieces by Hurricane Ivan.(AFP

[hlthe2b]

1. Time mag reported the driver was found drowned in the cab....

Really bizarre....

[MercutioATC]

2. Practicing motocross jumps?

Seriously, the bridge broke up AFTER the truck got to where it is, not before.

[izzie]

3. I saw that on TV and wondered what happened to the driver, also.

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[Ripley]

4. He drowned in the cab which broke off.

Why he was driving during a hurricane I don't know, but he clearly could not see the road had collapsed ahead of him. It was dark and raining hard and the bridge is flat.

[Heddi]

5. From the local news here in Yakima, WA

the driver was from nearby Wapato. He was a hispanic truck driver (the news kept harping on that point) doing a long haul from Texas to somewhere.

They were interviewing his family members last night and one said "He was going the extra mile to get the job done" and mentioned that he knew there was a hurricane in the area but that didn't deter him from doing his job.

I would guess that probably he, like many people who've never lived through or experienced a hurricane, had no idea the sheer wrath that a hurricane can cause.

I grew up in Charleston, SC, and experienced Hugo first hand, and many other tropical storms, minor hurricanes, etc, throughout my life. Those are one thing that I will not fuck with under any circumstances.

But alot of people out here in WA don't have any idea what a hurricane is or what it's like. When Charlie was heading for Florida a few weeks ago, I heard many people out here comment "What's the big deal? It's just alot of rain and some wind" and I immediately had to correct them and inform them that it's alot more than alot of rain and some wind. We're talking flooding, destruction of roads and bridges and trees and houses, downed power lines, and the inability to get out if you're stuck in a low-lying area or flood prone area. Couple that with a storm-surge and you've got a lot of mess on your hands.

Sadly, this man did not make it. They recovered his body from the cab of the truck under water.

I hope that people who aren't from hurricane prone areas learn to appreciate the sheer force and unrelenting power that hurricanes have, and to not underestimate them or think they all can be "ridden out". Some can, most can't.

[Ripley]

I don't understand that kind of thinking...

What's the big deal? It's just alot of rain and some wind.

Okay, I've never experienced a large earthquake but I have enough common sense to not say: "What's the big deal? It's just a lot of shaking and vibrations."

[Heddi]

7. I can't explain it

but then again, I grew up around hurricanes and high-tides and tropical storms and all that jazz growing up on the coast of South Carolina. I have an indepth appreciation for all things Mother-Nature-Related. I can't understand the complacent attitude that some people have either. I mean, when Charlie was going through and they were showing on TV the people stranded on the interstate trying to get out of FLorida, I had a friend say "Well, why don't they take other roads? Surely there can't be ONLY one highway out of Florida" and "Sheesh! Just put out some sandbags and get some bottled water--what's all the fuss?" I tore out the book I have outlining hurricane hugo, which wasn't nearly as strong as Charlie, and showed her the destruction that was caused MILES inland. Hell---where my house was was about 20+ miles from the nearest shore and we were DAMN lucky that our house wasn't like 90% of the others in the n'hood that lost roofs, had downed trees, lost entire parts of their houses.

She was amazed and said "oh. I didn't know it was that bad". Yeah. It's that bad. It's even worse to live through it. I don't need still pictures of boats that blew through the air like a toy car and landed on houses. I don't need pictures of hundreds-of-years-old oak trees that were snapped in half like twigs. I lived through that, and nothing---NOTHING--can convey the absolute terror that goes through your soul as you sit in a house that is shaking and blowing around you----and mind you, we lived in a STURDY BRICK HOUSE---20 miles inland.

I still cry for the poverty-striken folks who lived in clapboard shacks that had EVERYTHING of theirs blown away by the winds or swept away by the flooding that followed. You can NOT be complacent with Mother Nature because she will FUCK YOU UP the minute you are.

[cmf]

6. What I want to know is

why wasn't that bridge/stretch of interstate closed? I guess I'll answer my own question and presume that even if they put up barricades, they'd blow away. It's just strange. They should put up some permanent gates or something that the state patrol could put out in the event of a closure.

[TX-RAT]

8. Thats incredible

I've crossed that bridge many times on the way to Destin.
What a tragedy.