With New Orleans under mandatory evacuation order and sustained winds of 175mph as the storm prepares to come ashore I am wondering about how the railroads are faring in that general area. Any reports?
LC
Amtrak New Orleans trains are stopping at Orlando, Atlanta, Memphis and San Antonio.
Haven’t checked any frieght carriers.
If this storm goes in, with winds this strong, I believe that the only Hurricane in recent history that went ashore in the same general area that would compare with this one, was Camille in 1969 with winds estimated at 200 mph at landfall…this is one storm not to be taken lightly…Watch any NASCAR race when they show cars running past from a tracklevel perspective in a blur doing at least 160…now picture winds blowing at that rate of speed…Dave Williams @ nsaltoonajohnstown@yahoogroups.com
This will be a humdinger. Gonna jack up gas too with all the loss of rigs, oil imports, and a few refinery closings.
Adrianspeeder
I will effect all the class 1s for sure. I don’t know if CP runs stuff down there but certain the rest do. I don’t know how high the rails are above sea level or if they are protected by the leves too (below sea level), so the amount of flooding could be a major financial and traffic pain
…Heard this morning if it continues and does come ashore at New Orleans, the sea could rise 25-30’ and if so with the extreme wind…will be a disaster…for almost anything in it’s path. New Orleans is already what…6 to 10 ft. below sea level in some places…This will be a distructive one to say the least. Sure hope people take heed as being advised…To leave…Now…!
Well, we will just have to see what will happend to poor old New Orleans in the up comming days. I can imagine they are going to get hit pretty darn hard, I hope every one down there is prepaired for the worst.
Now I just wonder is Katrina going to be making her way over to the great state of the US the Northeast and if so is the storm going to still be strong or is it just going to be the aftermath of it’s violent rain and winds??
…History tells us as it travels across land it will diminish in strength but probably will carry massive rain with it…and we’re expecting some of that rain out here in Indiana Tuesday night and Wednesday…
I would think that the railroads would want to get every piece of equipment possible out of the path of a hurricane, and tie down what they can’t move. This one sounds especially bad. Of course a hurricane poses two distinct threats, wind and flooding.
I can’t speak for New Orleans, but when it comes to flooding up here along the Mississippi, the railroads do empty their low lying yards if spring flooding is expected.
This is slightly off topic, but the photo below is CP’s Pig’s Eye yard. Last time the Mississippi flooded this was empty, and there was a small amount of standing water in the yard. Another problem was that the mains in this area were closed, so any cars left behind would have been trapped.
The city of New Orleans is protected from the Mississippi by huge levees. Part of the city is below river level (below sea level), and relies on a pump system to keep from flooding. If this storm hits full force, those pumps will be pushed to their limits. This is why the people are being told to get out. If the river exceedes the levee height, it’s over. There’s no place to pump the water.
Again slightly off topic, railroads sometimes need to cross levees. When this happens, they can’t just raise their grade. This photo shows the UP’s track passing through the Army Corps’ St Paul flood control wall. When the water gets too high, the wall section can be inserted into the channels in the posts, adding another 3 feet of flood protection to the land behind. This is one of many removable flood gates, and a very small one at that. Some in other locations are over 10’ tall.
Keep in mind, if that little gate ever has to be closed, the bridge over the river is already under water.
A hurricane will dump water everywhere, b
I read somewhere that railroads take off crossing gates to keep them from being projectiles [:0]
Well today we will learn what it takes to defend the city against super typhoons. I only hope everyone who is able to, got out.
This will be the day of days for this great city.
In this storm wind and crossing arms may become a moot point. Once under water, they pose little threat.[:0][:(][;)]
Don’t plan on doing much railfanning in southern Louisianna or Mississippi for the next week. The railroads will be diverting/rerouting/parking traffic around those entire areas for the next week or so.
Dave H.
I am watching CNN right now on the approaching category 5 hurricane. It is traffic chaos.
Bush says he is marshalling federal resources to the area when need well;
It is chaos right now; send some extra long Amtrak trains to get folk out. Round up as much coach cars or those ex CNW bi-level commuter cars from Chicago and send them down to evacuate the folk to near by states?
In my opinion, evacuation of large cities is done most efficiently by railroad or by ships. The federal government or the state-governments in the south and south-east should buy bilevel passenger-cars + engines and hire them out to mass-transportation-agencies. Of course, only under the condition the passenger-cars and engines can be called for evacuation-service on short notice.
The railroads serving the potential disaster-zone should be legally obliged to free engineers to run evacuation-trains, even if freight is delayed.
They must do this quickly if they are going to do it. They must send at least 3 trains of 50 coachs from anywhere that can get car either commuter cars or even private railcars, museum stuff, what ever that can fit folk on.
Load them on to the trains via buses that go and pick up folk from where ever.
The army and national guard must help out too. The trains could fit almost 5000 folk per train.
This is the real deal folks. There is talk that the surges will me 28 feet high with “catastophic loss of life and property damage” so the railroads should also get cracking and move all their equipment out of Louisiana. Not since Hurricane Betsy in 1965 has it been this bad and I don’t even think it was as bad as this. This hurricane will be as strong as a 300 mile wide F3 tornado.
Please everybody, pray for them all.
they are opening up the superdome for an evacuation shelter.if there is a large storm surge new orleans would be under water.I hope people are still able to get out now.
stay safe
Joe
Norfolk Southern Service Alert
Hurricane Katrina
August 28, 2005
In preparation for Hurricane Katrina, Norfolk Southern has pulled
rolling equipment on its lines near coastal areas and low lying areas
in southern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama inland to higher
ground. Operations south of Meridian, Miss., to New Orleans, La., and
South of Selma, Ala., to Mobile, Ala., were discontinued early Sunday
afternoon. Operations south of Birmingham have been curtailed and will
be discontinued later today. Traffic normally moving though these areas
for interchange is generally being rerouted in cooperation with other
carriers.
Norfolk Southern embargoed all shipments to New Orleans and Mobile.
This action was taken to avoid further complication of operations due
to congestion in the area expected to be impacted by the Category 5
storm.
Customers with traffic to, from, or normally moving through the areas
impacted by Hurricane Katrina should anticipate delays.
For questions on specific shipments, please contact our Customer
Service Operations Center at (800) 635-5768.
For questions regarding potential impact on local service in this area,
please contact our Central Yard Operations Center at (800) 898-4296.
Norfolk Southern Corporation
www.nscorp.com
Service Bulletin - Hurricane Katrina, Aug. 28
Released: Aug 28, 2005
Hurricane Katrina is now a Category 5 storm, and it continues to move WNW in the Gulf of Mexico. Predications are that the storm will make landfall near New Orleans, La., mid-day Monday, Aug. 29. Flood gates in New Orleans were closed at 6 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 28, and rail traffic in the area is suspended.
CSXT is monitoring the path of Hurricane Katrina and has activated its hurricane preparedness plan for the Gulf Coast. Some traffic scheduled for interchange with other railroads at New Orleans is being rerouted through different gateways. Weather conditions permitting, rail traffic will continue to run as usual today from Mobile east through the Florida Panhandle.
As a result of the initial impact of Katrina in south Florida on Friday, freight and passenger service on CSXT’s network is being restored incrementally as subdivisions are inspected and deemed safe for operations. Tri-Rail service is scheduled to resume Monday, Aug. 29.
All precautions are being taken to ensure the safety of our employees, customers, and the public with minimum delay to shipments as we continue to monitor the progress of the storm.
For more information, customers can call their local CSX representatives or the CSX Customer Service Center at 1-877-SHIP CSX (1-877-744-7279).
Any word on KCS,CN,UP and BNSF yet? What about any shortlines in the area; what are they going to do?