High winds contributed to a collision between a fishing trawler and the SanMateo Bridge in the Bay Area of California Tuesday. West to northwest windsgusting to as high as 60 mph caused multiple vessels in the San Francisco Bayto become dislodged from their moorings.A 70-foot-long ship struck the bridge during the late afternoon hoursTuesday. The collision dislodged chunks of concrete from the bridge and severeda few light posts.
Winds had driven the ship aground earlier in the day, but then later theship became dislodged and struck the westbound lane portion of the bridge. Ashort time before the collision, an 18-wheeler was blown over on the San MateoBridge, closing an east-bound lane.
There were no injures during either incident. Westbound travel over thebridge Wednesday is limited to two lanes, until officials are able to accessdamage to the slow, westbound lane portion of the span.
The incidents resulted in commute delays of 2 and 1/2 hours. Meanwhile,high winds in the Bay Area downed numerous trees and power lines. Power was outto close to 50,000 houses for a time Tuesday. The Coast Guard was quite busyTuesday rescuing boats adrift in the bay. High winds created sand dunes on aportion of the Great Highway along the Pacific Ocean in the San Francisco area.
The blowing and drifting sand forced a closure of the roadway for a timeTuesday.
Winds today will cause minor issues for crews attempting to remove thevessel. Although not as strong as Tuesday, west winds are expected average 15to 25 mph with a few gusts to 40 mph. Winds of this strength are more typicalof the region and will cause choppy bay waters. The ship continued to bang intothe bridge Wednesday morning. Crews were working to pump the fuel out of theship's tanks as a precaution.
Story by Expert Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski
