Within 36 hours of each hour, North St. Louis was hit with two large thunderstorms that resulted in nearly all the region without power. I myself was without power (and no forums) since the 2nd storms. As of tonight, the Union Pacific Railroad was powerinf 98% of its signals and other electronic devices that relied on the powerlines with mobile generators, Lennox tower was without pwer for 18 hours, and all yard operations at Dupo, Madison, Gateway and Valley yards came to a complete standstill. St. Louis commuter rail Metrolink was in the midst of the morning rush hour when the storm hit, and the entire system was affected. Two trains were stuck in the downtown tunnels more than 1/2 a mile from the nearest platform. As of this morning, all trains on the Illinois side north of St. Louis were n full operation, except between WR tower and Lennox, were the KCS and NS signals were dark, and the crossings had no power to them what-so-ever. On the McArther Bridge, during the 2nd storm, an Empty Union Pacific Coal train derailed 32 cars on the bridge when a windguest of nearl 98 mph hit the train. Trains detoured via the Merchants Bridge, or were tied up. 13 trains were tied down in Dupo, Columbia and Fountain, IL.
Over 500,000 Ameran UE customers lost power, tonight, 360,000 are still without power
The good news, No one died in the storms that I no of, but these were the worst storms to hit North St. Louis area in over 20 years that did not have a fatality.
I’ve been through that “no power for several days” thing (and in the winter - although I’m not sure which would be worse, frozen pipes notwithstanding) and wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Fortunately it doesn’t sound like there was any secondary issue, like widespread flooding, to complicate things even more. Trees and power lines down (and some damage to structures) is quite enough.
It would seem the weather gods are not happy with us so far this year, and we haven’t even had a hurricane yet.
Sounds pretty bad, especially the Metrolink trains…that’s one thing about electric trains; if the power is gone, you’re doomed. Even without floods or deaths, this is still very incredible. The longest I’ve been without power was about 2 days. That was in the wintertime of 2005, and it was cold outside. I’m sure being stuck in St. Louis with mid-90 degree temperatures and no air conditioning was much worse.
Jim, I heard about the storms on The Weather Channel and wondered about you. Good to hear your safe. That’s amazing damage for no reports of a tornado.
This forum being the hangout of individuals who are self-reliant, I suggest everyone should have an UPS (uninterruptable power supply). In NYC, when we have power outages you can use the UPS to power LED lights, small fluorescent lights, laptop, the radio, etc. for several days. Get a spare battery and swap them every so often so you have two charged all the time. More important, NYC power has frequent surges and drops, which can ruin your PC. A surge protector can’t protect you from the drops that can corrupt data on your hard drive. The UPS takes care of that. When I moved to NYC, I learned my lesson fast. During the last power failure, a few years ago, the UPS made a huge difference to my sense of security. Another tip: cell phone relay stations will go dead after a few hours, so keep your landline phones.
Gotta love livin in the boonies where that happens all the time. Also gotta love an 8KW US Army surplus genset and transfer switch to keep the house goin.