Here we go again. Rita has now reached Category 5. Mandatory evacuations along the Texas and Louisiana coast. Predictions of $5/gal gasoline if major refineries are knocked out. What railroad impacts are being felt?
LC
NS Service Alert
New Orleans and Hurricane Rita
September 21, 2005
Floodgates at New Orleans are being closed as a precautionary measure with the advance of Hurricane Rita. As a result, Norfolk Southern has made arrangements in coordination with connection carriers to reroute shipments via alternate gateways. Customers tracking such shipments will note movement via alternate routes and shipments which may encounter longer than normal transit times as a result of the reroutes.
For information on specific shipments, customers are encouraged to contact the Customer Service Operations Center at (800) 635-5768.
An embargo of shipments from or to stations in the immediate New Orleans area remains in effect.
CSX Service Alert
Service Bulletin - Hurricane Rita #1
Released: Sep 21, 2005
CSXT’s western U.S. rail partners, the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroads, are issuing embargoes and/or service restrictions in areas projected to be in the path of Hurricane Rita. The storm is expected to begin affecting the Gulf Coast of Texas and possibly Louisiana as early as Thursday, Sept. 22.
CSXT is working closely with UP and BNSF as they implement traffic diversions and other measures to support customers in the projected storm path, including those whose shipments are interchanged with CSXT.
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 in coordination with our western rail partners.
For more information, customers can call the CSX Customer Service Center at 1-877-ShipCSX (1-877-744-7279).
KCS Prepares for Hurricane Rita, Embargoes Some Stations
In anticipation of Hurricane Rita, KCS is repositioning power and equipment away from several points in Texas including Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Port Arthur and indirectly, Houston. Embargoes are now in effect for traffic to and interchanging at Beaumont, Port Arthur, Port Neches and Chaison, TX. If heavy rains move inland, service may be disrupted to the intermodal facility in Laredo. KCS is watching these areas closely and will advise customers as new information becomes available.
To: BNSF Carload Customers
09/21/2005
Weather: Hurricane Rita - Carload
With the impending hurricane in the Gulf expected to make landfall near the Houston and Galveston areas later this week, BNSF is taking appropriate actions to remove equipment from the path of the storm prior to landfall.
Traffic destined to the Galveston and Houston areas will be staged on-line as the week progresses.
Effective September 20, 2005, BNSF placed an embargo on all traffic originating from or destined to the following stations in Texas:
· Bay City
· Beaumont
· Brownsville
· Corpus Christi
· Galveston
· Laredo
· Seadrift
· Texas City
We will continue to update you as conditions change.
If you have questions regarding this information, please contact BNSF Customer Support at 1-888-428-2673, option 2, or send an email to customerinterface@bnsf.com.
If you have any questions, please contact BNSF Customer Support at
1-888-428-2673, option 2, or send an email to customerinterface @bnsf.com
UP Hurricane Rita
NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT – 2005-010
Hurricane Rita - UP Embargoes Stations in Gulf Coast Area
Posted Date: September 21, 2005
The Union Pacific link to the list of embargoed stations is now correct.
In anticipation of Hurricane Rita’s landfall along the Texas Gulf Coast, Union Pacific is implementing its Hurricane Preparedness Plan.
Effective immediately, all traffic destined inbound to UP stations from Houston, TX south to Brownsville, TX along the Gulf Coast is embargoed. This includes Dayton, Strang, Angleton, Bloomington and the Galveston area. Also, all intermodal traffic destined to Houston and Englewood is embargoed. For a detailed list of embargoed stations, please see (http://www.uprr.com/customers/embargo/list.shtml or http://embargo.railinc.com). Traffic from those locations will continue to be pulled from industry until approximately noon on Thursday, September 22, at which time all rail operations in the affected area will cease. This embargo notice will be amended tomorrow to cover traffic from the affected area.
Union Pacific is pre-positioning ballast, cribbing ties, generators and other repair materials near the area. Signal masts and road crossing gates are being removed in anticipation of the high winds. Equipment is being moved out of the area to higher ground.
Our employee assistance teams are preparing to assist UP employees impacted by the storm.
Customers are encouraged to secure all rail equipment within their facilities in the impacted area. Handbrakes should be set, hatch covers and outlet gates closed and all loading/unloading hoses disconnected.
We will continue to provide updates as more information is available.
Rita now a category 5 Hurricane with 175 mph sustained winds. Has begun turning towards land according to the Weather Channel…
LC
Here comes more reroute traffic through St. Louis!!! I have no doubt in my mind that I will begin to see more reroute traffic on CSX line from St. Louis to Indy in the coming days due to the effects of Rita.
Does Mother Nature have something against the folks on the Gulf Coast?? Two of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded moving along nearly the same paths within weeks of each other; that’s something you don’t see every day. Let’s cross our fingers and hope a super cold front knocks the wind, no pun intended, out of this nasty storm.
At least people are listening to the evacuation warnings this time. The lessons from Katrina are being learned, I saw that manditory evacuation of all the coast, with fleets of busses is already being started.
Unfortunatly just like Katrina some are staying behind to ride it out.
I’ve been watching the timelapse sattelite images on the news, and I may be wrong, but it looks like this thing is turning north more than originally forcast. Better safe than sorry, but places as far south as Corpus Christi look like they are going to get off easy. Call me crazy, but I think Louisiana is going to get whacked again.
BB -
You are correct. Rita is turning earlier and harder than predicted. Projections now have the eye east of Galveston with the path possibly as far east as the Louisisana border. Given the large size of the strom I think both states will feel significant effects. At least it has dropped down to a Cat 4 storm…
LC
As a note of interest…
Due to the number of cars that have run out of gas…the city of Houston and Harris county have dispatched gasoline tank truck to patrol IH10, IH45 and state highway 290…they are filling up cars, free of charge…
IH10 from State Highway 6 to Seguine is west bound both sides…no inbound traffic allowed, same with IH45, from State Highway 249 to Buffalo Tx…290 is not closed inbound, the same for highway 59…to speed up post hurrican help accessing the city from the Austin and hill country area.
Ed
All I can say is all those down there will be in my thoughts.
god dont want the ma de gra going on again!!!
.S. Department of Transportation Preparing for Hurricane Rita with
Equipment, Personnel and Vehicles to Aid in Evacuation, Relief and
Repair
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ – Mobile air traffic control
equipment,
technical personnel, trucks, buses, airplanes and ocean-going vessels
are now
in place to support the massive federal, state and local effort to
prepare for
Hurricane Rita, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta
announced
today.
“We are working hand in hand with federal, state and local
officials to
make sure they have every available transportation asset in place to
get
people out, supplies in and key facilities back up and running in
areas where
Hurricane Rita is expected to make landfall,” Secretary Mineta said.
Secretary Mineta noted that the U.S. Department of Transportation
is
taking the following steps to support Federal Emergency Management
Agency and
the states of Texas and Louisiana as they prepare for Hurricane Rita.
The
Secretary noted that additional resources will be provided as
requested by the
states:
Aircraft and Air Traffic Control
- Securing aircraft to evacuate Texas residents, as well as
Hurricane
Katrina evacuees, by air from Houston to Ft. Smith and from
Corpus
Christi and Beaumont to Smyrna, Tennessee. - Putting six MD-80 aircraft on standby in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana to
support another airlift out of Louisiana if needed. - Pre-positioning mobile communications and navigational
equipment along
with technical personnel in Austin, Texas and Baton Rouge to
deploy
after the storm passes to restore basic air traffic control
services. - Maintaining a small staff at Houston aviation facilities to
reactivate
key e
Well, at least there’s relevant info being provided regarding railroads. Interesting.
BK
Oh Poopsicles! Here we go again folks!
News reports that water is again flowing over one of the repaired levees in NO and the 9th ward is flooding again!
Those long, cold and snowy midwest winter aren’t looking so bad now are they.
Note to evacuee’s – Wilma is watching
CC
Chris, I’m not looking forward to my heating bill this winter, but it may not be so bad due to global warming causing a milder winter. The expense of evacuation in the face of a hurricane makes the increased heating costs look small.
It sounds like Rita is weakening, as the eyewall collapses over cooler water. Winds have dropped to around 120 MPH, down from the max of over 170. That’s Cat 3. It sounds like Houston and Galveston are still going to get some strong wind and heavy rain, but nothing close to a direct hit. Being on the west side of the storm is going to make a big difference for them.
So much for pumping out New Orleans. Water is spilling back into previously flooded areas of the city, coming through gaps at the tops of the levees. The real question is will they be able to stop the flow before the water level equalizes? Is it even worth trying, since everything in the effected area is already destroyed from Katrina?
Nor am I. My heating oil company just bumped up my budget payment - from $118 a month to $298…