Emergency management responded to a hazmat situation on Friday morning after a waste management truck carrying ducks that had died from bird flu crashed into a ditch at the side of a highway, according to officials.

The truck rolled into a ditch along U.S. Route 33 in Churubusco in Northern Indiana just after 8 a.m., forcing the highway to close in both directions, the Whitley County Emergency Management Agency said in a news alert.

The scene was secured with a 100-foot perimeter as a precaution and there’s no known threat to public health at this time, the agency said.

“Waste management, Maple Leaf Farms, and Indiana Board of Animal Health are working together to have a specialized team to come do the cleanup,” the agency said.

HUNDREDS OF WILD BIRD DEATHS REPORTED ACROSS 7 COUNTIES, PROMPTING PARK CLOSURES

Smith Township Fire Department, Whitley Sheriff Department, Churubusco Police Department and Whitley County Emergency Management all responded to the incident.

“Avoid the area of 650 East and US 33 north of Churubusco due to an emergency scene,” the agency said Friday morning on social media.

COLORADO DECLARES DISASTER EMERGENCY AFTER PRESUMPTIVE BIRD FLU OUTBREAK HITS FACILITY WITH 1.3M CHICKENS

The dead ducks had been picked up at several Maple Leaf Farms in Northern Michigan, and they had all been diseased with bird flu.

The H5N1 Avian Flu outbreak has been ongoing in the U.S. for the last several years, and has left hundreds of millions of birds dead.

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The avian flu is highly contagious among birds and some mammals, but it doesn’t transmit easily to humans.

“People rarely get bird flu, but when they do, it is most often after close, unprotected exposure (without wearing respiratory or eye protection) to birds or other animals infected with avian influenza A viruses,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on its website.

Absentee ballots will continue to be mailed out in an Indiana Senate district where President Donald Trump has endorsed one candidate and allies have challenged the candidacy of another candidate by the same last name.

A special judge assigned to the case vacated an order by the previous judge that halted the mailing of absentee ballots in Vigo, Clay and Sullivan counties. Originally, a Clay County judge wanted these ballots halted until the court could make a decision on the underlying case, which would determine whether one of the Republican primary challengers should be on the ballot in the May election.

The state Senate GOP primary was already the subject of intrigue when Trump endorsed Brenda Wilson, a Vigo County councilor challenging incumbent Sen. Greg Goode of Terre Haute, who was a vocal opponent of redistricting. Then another Wilson, named Alexandra Wilson, joined the race.

More: Judge to pause absentee ballot mailing in Trump-endorsed state Senate race

Prominent attorney and Gov. Mike Braun ally Jim Bopp is representing a voter who challenged Alexandra Wilson’s candidacy ostensibly on technical grounds but also because they believe Wilson was recruited specifically to confuse voters and dilute votes away from the Trump-endorsed candidate by the same last name. Wilson’s attorney and the Vigo County GOP chair, where she is from, vehemently deny this.

The state election commission deadlocked 2-2, allowing Wilson to remain on the primary ballot, and Bopp took the issue to court.

• Indiana’s foreclosure filing rate was worst in the nation last month, with two of the state’s metros struggling most.
• Rising property taxes and insurance costs have inflated monthly payments.
• Gov. Mike Braun and top Republicans say reforms to property taxes and housing will help.

At a time when “affordability” is the watchword in politics nationwide, recent data shows that Hoosiers faced more risk of losing their homes last month than residents in any other state.

Indiana reported the nation’s highest foreclosure filing rate in February, according to real estate data company ATTOM. What’s more, the Indianapolis region ranked among the worst-performing major metro areas.

The findings contradict the view of Indiana and the Indianapolis region as affordable havens where residents can more easily own homes. Experts say that home prices remain low compared with other states but have risen steeply since 2020, increasing property taxes. Upticks in other expenses like homeowners’ insurance and utilities, along with stagnant wage growth, have put an increasing number of Hoosiers at risk of losing their homes.

“This is a bad look for us in general, and it does indicate that our affordability problem is kind of reaching a crisis,” said Sara Coers, associate director of the Indiana University Center for Real Estate Studies. “We have a lower natural ceiling on what we can afford because of the wages that we receive here.”

What Indiana foreclosure data shows

Last month, about one in every 1,600 housing units in Indiana had a foreclosure filing, which means lenders took legal action against a homeowner who failed to keep up with their monthly mortgage payments. That foreclosure filing rate was the worst in the nation and more than twice as high as the average U.S. rate, the data shows.

The situation is even worse in the Indianapolis metropolitan area, which landed at No. 3 among metros with over 200,000 people with the worst foreclosure filing rates.