“I thought something was exploding” - Student ducks in fear after barge hits bridge    

On Jan. 16, a barge hit the bridge connecting Pelican Island to Galveston Island, resulting in a power outage at many buildings and facilities at Texas A&M University Galveston.

Kayden Cornett, Class of 2028, a witness to the incident, described what happened. “I was walking under the bridge, enjoying the evening as one does, and I heard a loud ‘POP.’ I thought it was fireworks, but then I heard it again, louder, like thunder, and I saw a flash. Something hit the bridge, and I ducked down because I thought something was exploding.”

What Cornett and many others saw was the barge colliding with the electrical lines that provided power to the campus. The popping and thundering sounds were the wires striking the bridge supports. “I asked people what had happened. Cops had already pulled in by the time I was out from under the bridge. I was like, ‘Huh, that electrical line is missing a wire,’” Cornett said.

There were a fortunate few whose daily activities were not disrupted by the outage. The buildings unaffected on campus were Albatross, Polaris, and TAMMAH. Residents of Atlantic and Pacific halls were not so lucky, and most other buildings, such as Captains Landing and Main, were also without power.

There is little Texas A&M can do about the bridge’s apparent “magnetic” attraction to barges, and it is unclear if the university has any plans to address this issue.

This marks the second time in a year that something has collided with the bridge. In May 2024, a barge caused a complete shutdown of the bridge, along with oil spills into the water. The incident stranded residents of Pelican Island for periods of time and made statewide news. While this most recent incident was less destructive, two collisions in one year are concerning.