Truckers Face I-10 Detour After Hurricane Damages Florida Bridge

Truck drivers are facing a 130-mile detour following the collapse of an Interstate 10 bridge and other road damage during Hurricane Ivan last week in Pensacola, Fla.

The bridge over Escambia Bay could be closed for months, and commercial trucks were being diverted to a V-shaped route going through the Alabama cities of Montgomery and Mobile, the Associated Press reported.

An estimated 22,250 vehicles cross the bridge each day -- 11% of them commercial carriers, the Miami Herald reported. The bridge opened in 1968 and received more than $3 million in structural repairs in 1997.

Florida transportation officials said other local bridges would likely be opened to at least short-haul commercial traffic, several local Florida television stations reported.

Late Friday, divers recovered the body a truck driver who was on the I-10 bridge when it broke apart, AP said.

Florida officials said they have already received bids to repair the bridge, AP said.

The Florida Emergency Operations Center said it was seeking the donation of trucks and drivers to help move donations in the state.

Although the damage was not nearly as severe as in Florida, parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio were among the states that experienced flooding over the weekend as Ivan moved north.

A total of 52 deaths in the United States were attributed to the storm and hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses remained without electricity on Sunday night, AP said.

Tropical Storm Jeanne, which killed at least 90 people this weekend in Haiti, was now expected to turn south over the next two days and head back out into the Atlantic, away from Florida and other states still recovering from earlier storms, Reuters reported.

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