(The Associated Press circulated the following on September 16.)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Rail operator Kansas City Southern said its service in the Texas Gulf region is still being hurt by the flooding caused by Hurricane Ike.
The company said on Tuesday that it experienced significant track flooding near Lake Charles, La., and Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas, as well as other Texas locations near the Gulf of Mexico. However, it said damage to its tracks and rail facilities appears to be minimal, and it expects service to be restored soon after the flooding subsides.
It also said chemical refineries and other customers remain closed.
The company said its service into Mexico, which operates on Union Pacific tracks, has been interrupted since late last week. Kansas City Southern expects the service to reopen in the middle of this week.
The company expects to regain most of the rail revenue lost during the service outage in the fourth quarter. It cautioned that it is not yet possible to know how much the flooding will hurt its third-quarter results.
“The good news is that there is no major damage to our infrastructure and the business will come back,” said KCS President and Chief Operating Officer David Starling in a prepared statement. “We will have to wait and see how quickly our customers are able to get back to normal business operations, but our primary lines are capable of handling normal business levels.”
Kansas City Southern shares declined 40 cents to $45.99 in morning trading.