Just thought I would post this in case anyone here is involved in any transactions with Intermountain Railway. According to a post they made yesterday 9/12 on Facebook, they were ordered to evacuate their building due to flooding. An update late last night stated that they will NOT be allowed back today,9/13. So, if you’re trying to contact them about anything, be patient. There’s no one there to take your calls or e-mails right now. They have stated they will post updates on their Facebook page as to when they will be allowed back in to their building.
All those in danger in Colorado are in my thoughts.[st][li][:(] There’s only one way for water to go and that’s downhill – and there’s a lot of that in Colorado.[B)]
Well every part of the country has their set of potential “natural disasters”. Some get earthquakes, some have volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, or annual heavy snow, and we get drought and floods.
I think this is my 4th big one. I actually went into my office in Boulder today. Water was only across Erie Parkway near 287. I had gotten onto 287 by using Arapahoe behind Layfette so I missed it. Took 287 to Lookout and drove straight in. They let our office out at noon.
I think Intermountain might be in serious trouble because they are so close to the river. Not to mention that I heard somewhere that the water also came down the railroad tracks. Also right next to Intermountain.
I’ve had a chance to experience hurricanes in SC, earthquakes in San Fran, floods in SC & Tenn, Tornadoes in Colo and Tenn, and blizzards and disastrous hail in Colo.
Of all the states we’ve lived in, Colorado always stood out as requiring a little bit more from it’s people. Too many folks moved in who didn’t understand how close we lived to the edge in that environment. The thing about Colorado is how quickly it can change from beautiful skies to life changing, and sadly life ending, weather in a moment.
It sure is a mess out here. I have picked up bits and pieces from Railroad Radio Net and from what I heard the Moffat Sub is out of service beyond Tunnel 2. Also the Greeley sub has some issues but don’t have a clear idea of what is happening there. It traverses some of the worst flooding in Weld County. I have no idea the status of the Cal Zephyr. The Amtrak site says “service disruptions” but gives no details.
Anyone have any additional info about the rail situation please post it here.
To the thousands of folks affected, our thoughts and prayers go out to them.
The Greeley Freight Station Museum was open today, but I was unable to get there since US-85 was closed from Fort Lupton all the way to Greeley. I could have gone east and doubled back, but heard on the news they were evacuating Orchard. Orchard is just a bit west of the double back point so it would have probably been flooded by the time I got there. People from the museum went to the south of town and saw the Union Pacific working on the tracks around La Salle.
I was hoping to talk to a couple other volunteers who work at Inter-mountain and ask what their official story was.
I-25 is now re-opened and people say water level is dropping in Longmont as the water works its way down to the east.
The Chinook Helicopters (I assume the Colorado Guard) have been busy today. Back and forth. Probably lifting supplies in and people out of the isolated mountain towns.
My daughter lives in Greeley not minutes away from the GFSM (it’s a small town). She’s safe where she lives for now, but the GSFM is near the Poudre River, so who knows how they’ll be in a couple of days. They’re saying the river will be at least 12 feet over it’s banks by itself…and the Platt river is not so far away. Will probably get a lot worse in the next 48 hrs.
I was doing a google search this morning in an attempt to find out any new info on the situation at Intermountain & came up with this posting that was on the Trainorders forum, from someone in the area:
"This was posted by Mike (owner of Fifer Hobbies) on a couple other forums:
"I just got a call from Bill at Intermountain and he has stated that they were evacuated from their building due to the flooding in Colorado.
When he left the building they had about a foot of water in the lower section and they have had 18 more inches since then.
They moved everything possible to the upper floors and think the water may be contained to the lower offices and machine shop area.
They will likely be able to assess the damage as soon as the police let them go back in.
As soon as they can the office will re-open if they have electric and phone lines.
They have no means of contact until further notice so please be patient. "
Does not sound too good when you consider that they’re still getting hammered with rain. There have been no further situation updates on Intermountain’s Facebook page.
Intermountain just posted an update on their FB page and here it is;
"
Just a quick update on our status. We have received some flooding in our downstairs office area, but our warehouse, we believe, has not been affected. Our facility is still in the mandatory evacuation area and we have not been allowed full access at this time. Hopefully, we may be able to get in there this afternoon, though it has begun raining again. The City of Longmont crews have worked thr…ough the night and the latest news reports is that they moved the flow of the St. Vrain river back into its banks. The river had diverted itself and was flowing about a block or so north of our facility instead of its normal 2 blocks south of us. This should allow for the flood waters to quickly recede in our area and get us back into the office. Once there, we can asses the situation better. Thank you all for your support, thoughts, and prayers.
I have an aerial video that shows our facility and the surrounding area on Friday. At exactly 2:59 in the video, the building in the center is our facility (it is the backwards L-Shape, two story portion on the back). At exactly 3:15, you can see a red truck sitting next to a pole, that would be Bill’s truck. Bill is fine and has great story about getting a Jet Ski ride!"
If you go to their FB page, they have put in links to the video he mentions above that includes footage of their building, part of which is two story.