Authorities on Wednesday identified a woman who died Monday after driving past barricades on a flood-damaged highway in Bayfield County and plunging about 50 feet into a washout.
The Bayfield County Sheriff's Office reported that Kathryn Anderson, 74, of the town of Namekagon near Cable, died in the crash that happened at about 9:30 a.m. Monday on U.S. Highway 63 just north of Grand View.
A state transportation official assessing damage at a washout on the highway called 911 to report a car had been driven around the road-closed barricade at Raymond Avenue in Grand View, and then another set of barricades about a half-mile closer to the washout.
The vehicle continued north and drove over the edge of the washout, coming to rest on the bottom next to a culvert, about 50 feet down. The road had washed out amid heavy rain a week ago.
Anderson was extricated from her vehicle and brought to the surface with ropes and then taken by helicopter to St. Luke's hospital in Duluth, where she died from her injuries, according to the sheriff 's office.
