(The following article by Stacie Hamel was posted on the Omaha World-Herald website on June 2.)
OMAHA, Neb. — It will be at least another week before 42 railcars blown over May 22 by high winds can be lifted back onto railroad track that runs alongside Interstate 29 in southwest Iowa.
Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway is diverting trains onto the line next to where the derailed cars still lie because of maintenance work on the route between Lincoln and Kansas City, Mo., said spokesman Steve Forsberg.
“The route that runs along I-29 is being used more heavily,” he said.
The line must be shut down while the cars are lifted back onto the rails, so that process must wait until trains can return to the Lincoln-Kansas City route, he said.
Cars from two trains 15 miles apart blew over during severe weather, which also produced tornadoes in southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa.
A train near Pacific Junction had 27 cars derailed, and 15 cars on a train near McPaul derailed. The trains were stopped at the time because of the severe weather, and the locomotives did not derail.