(The following story by John D. Boyd appeared on The Journal of Commerce website on May 4, 2010.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Norfolk Southern Railway is warning customers to expect significant flood delays for shipments that normally use a rail line running from Memphis, Tenn., on the Mississippi River to Sheffield, Ala., on the Tennessee River near Muscle Shoals.
“Customers with shipments normally moving over this route should expect delays of at least 48 hours,” NS said in an alert to shippers, after heavy storms over the weekend and into May 3 swelled all the rivers in that area.
Although many parts of the Southeast saw flooding from those storms, NS said the swamped conditions mostly had “only minimal impact on operations.”
But flooding near the Tennessee-Mississippi border was so bad NS has stopped using the line from Memphis to Sheffield. For now, “some trains are being routed around the impacted area,” it said.