(The following article by Stacie Hamel was posted on the Omaha World-Herald website on September 16.)
OMAHA, Neb. — The checklist was complete Wednesday morning:
o Hundreds of tons of rock ready.
o 3,000 pounds of ice and 160 generators on hand.
o Employees moved to higher ground.
o Empty rail cars chained down.
o Trains detoured, crossing gates removed.
Union Pacific Railroad was ready for Hurricane Ivan.
The Omaha-based railroad’s network extends to New Orleans, a city below sea level that was evacuated ahead of the powerful storm expected to reach the Gulf Coast early today.
The railroad’s hurricane preparations began late last week. Even as it got ready for the approaching storm, though, Union Pacific and an eastern railroad, CSX Transportation, provided aid to Florida, where two hurricanes already had hit.
U.P. and CSX provided two relief trains to haul emergency fuel from a refinery in Houston.
The trains carried 1.1 million gallons of diesel fuel and 114,000 gallons of gasoline to ease shortages created first by Hurricane Charley and then by Hurricane Frances. The diesel was requested by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state officials for use in emergency generators in hospitals and in fire and rescue vehicles. The gasoline was needed for police cars.
“Throughout our history, Union Pacific has stepped up and assisted communities in times of need,” said Dick Davidson, U.P. chairman and chief executive. “We are pleased to be able to provide assistance to FEMA as they help so many in Florida.”
CSX also sent fuel trains after Charley hit Aug. 13.
As Hurricane Ivan began its move north, the U.P.-CSX trains took different routes, traveling on U.P.’s system to connections with CSX track.
U.P. handed off the first train – 20 tanker cars of diesel – to CSX in New Orleans at 9 a.m. Tuesday. The second train, which had 20 cars of diesel and four cars of gasoline, was detoured through Memphis because of uncertainty about whether a Mississippi River bridge still would be open. It was handed off Tuesday evening, said U.P. spokesman Mark Davis.
The hurricane relief trains made it through even as preparations for the latest storm were in motion. On Tuesday, railroads began detouring traffic from Memphis and St. Louis to keep trains out of New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities in the storm’s path.
In addition to U.P. and CSX, other railroads operating in the Gulf Coast region are the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, the Norfolk Southern, the Canadian National’s Illinois Central line and the Kansas City Southern.
CSX, CN and the Norfolk Southern have tracks to Mobile, Ala., the possible center of the hurricane’s landfall. That city also was evacuated, and railroads made similar preparations in that area.
Near New Orleans, Burlington Northern Sante Fe closed a rail yard and an intermodal facility on Tuesday, and employees left the area, said company spokesman Steve Forsberg. The yard and facility were not expected to be reopened until Friday at the earliest.
Intermodal containers were placed in a single layer, rather than stacked, so they wouldn’t be blown over, Forsberg said.
North of New Orleans, Union Pacific on Monday stationed three trains filled with small rock – called ballast – and two more with boulders. After the storm, the rocks and boulders will be used for track repairs.
“The rail line follows the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge into New Orleans, and a lot of the area is low level,” Davis said. “Flooding removes the material that holds the track in place.”
Also Monday, crews positioned refrigerated boxcars filled with ice to help provide drinking water for crews repairing tracks, and for other employees.
The railroad has 160 generators on hand to provide power after the storm for offices, computers, railroad signals and crossings.
U.P. asked its customers in the area from the gulf to the middle of Louisiana to secure rail cars at their facilities and to lock hatches on covered hopper cars.
“If it’s empty, they need to chain it to the track it is sitting on,” Davis said.
Locomotives were moved inland, away from the coast.
On Wednesday morning, signal crews began removing crossing gates. Also, U.P. employees from its Avondale office, near the coast, were moved farther inland.
The railroad also activated its around-the-clock phone line, which railroad crews will use to monitor the hurricane and to report on repairs as they restore service after the storm.
“Employees typically are inspecting the railroad as soon as it’s safe to put a high-rail vehicle on the track,” Davis said.