Fog blankets the area

Fog, the white clouds that lately have wrapped themselves like a blanket around St. Tammany, is nothing new this time of year.

But recently, it seems, it’s been worse, blocking vision to nearly 5 feet ahead at times and causing more accidents.

And on Thursday it forced Causeway officials to close the bridge for the first time this year.

“It’s been a mild year so far, but now this is the first real bad fog we’ve seen,” said Jack Glover, a Covington resident who for the past 12 years has commuted to the Southshore via the Causeway for work.

It’s evident: Motorists throughout St. Tammany and the Greater New Orleans area are in the midst of fog season.

Typically from November through February, it’s a time when humidity reaches 100 percent and, as cool water evaporates, air particles, not big enough in size to rain, are trapped together.

The result? Particles packed so close together you can’t see through them. And with slow to virtually no winds, the fog hovers overhead, giving motorists fits.

On Thursday at least one motorist was seen rear-ending another driver on the Causeway before it was shut down. And State Police, although no statistics were available, said traffic accidents can surge four times as much during fog season.

“What it boils down to is one simple rule. You drive for the conditions you are in,” said Senior Trooper Louis Calato, State Police Troop L spokesman.

One common misconception is to turn on high beams for better visibility. Not true, Calato said.

High beams are shined upward into a higher density of clouds. Also, pay extra attention to the road, no fumbling with a CD, reading the newspaper or balancing a checkbook, he said.

“If you can’t see a half mile down the road, you shouldn’t be driving 60 mph,” he said.

Most people however, respect the fog, Calato said.

On the Twin Spans in Slidell, part of which is patrolled by State Police Troop L, wrecks seem to occur less than during sunny days.

The same is said for the Causeway, which unlike the Twin Spans, uses police to run caravans back and forth at lower rates of speed.

The practice, so routine, was never officially written and adopted until recently, when new Police Chief Nick Congemi took over the department.

The plan is fairly simple: Causeway officials, in constant monitoring of weather conditions, shut down the 24-mile bridge if visibility is less than 100 feet. When visibility is less than 500 feet, convoys start.

At that time officers in cruisers on both north and south shores line up in the left lane, stop traffic and pull out in front of every 200 cars to lead them across.

After 200 cars another cruiser, already waiting, stops traffic, pulls out and leads another 200 across, “constantly talking” and in visual contact with the last pack, Congemi said.

“To the laymen it sounds simple,” Congemi said. “But it’s very technical to effect convoys.”

Glover said the protocols are working.

Twelve years ago when he first started commuting, he’d wake up three to four hours early when fog was predicted.

At the time Causeway procedures included police shutting down the span, putting out cones to close one traffic lane and then reopening it about an hour later.

By then traffic would back up to the Louisiana Highway 22 intersection, several miles away, Glover said.

People were so late for work that by the time they reached the Causeway, they still sped, he said.

“Your eyes started to burn looking at vague pinpoints of lights in front of you, and even then you didn’t always see it,” he said. “The old way used to be a real, real problem.”

Now, it takes about an hour to cross the bridge during heavy fog, he said.

“It’s just something you get used to now,” he said. “It’s not a bad ride.”