(The Associated Press circulated the following story by Maria Sudekum Fisher on June 17.)
FORT MADISON, Iowa — Flooding in Missouri and Iowa has caused major delays for the BNSF Railway Co., which won’t resume normal traffic until after several rivers have crested, a company spokesman said Monday.
“We’ve got three important routes that are out of service, and the traffic that normally uses those can’t. That’s a substantial impact in our view,” said Steve Forsberg, a BNSF spokesman.
Forsberg said the routes disrupted by flooding are east-west through Ottumwa, Iowa, along the Des Moines River, north-south from St. Louis to Burlington, Iowa, and north-south from St. Louis and Memphis, Tenn., along the Mississippi River.
Rail flooding has been reported across eastern Iowa, including major railroad bridges that have been swept away by waters in Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Dunlap, Liscomb, and Marshalltown, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation. Many smaller bridges are also destroyed or damaged.
BNSF was dealing with the flooded tracks by rerouting as many trains as possible, Forsberg said.
“But all traffic that would normally be using those routes are facing major delays,” Forsberg said. “I don’t know if I could quantify it at this point, but we’re trying to get shipments through on longer routes.”
There is also flooding along tracks affecting a secondary route in Des Moines, but Forsberg said that route has few trains and is not a through-route.
The trains, which are carrying coal, cars and other goods, would continue to be rerouted over the next two to four days. The Mississippi was expected to crest Wednesday at Burlington and Keokuk, then Saturday downstream in St. Louis.
Forsberg said the current flooding has been difficult, but the 1993 flood was worse for BNSF because it affected more areas, including the Missouri River in Kansas City, Mo.
“But the track that’s under water, we don’t know what kind of damage it’s suffered,” he said.
He said the several bridges that span the Mississippi have not been an issue.
BNSF has had to raise track in the Fort Madison area to keep it open for service, including both approaches to the bridge over the Mississippi.