Sending thoughts to all in the storm's path, especially @cassie225. I'll be in NOLA in less than two weeks for a few nights after taking the Crescent, continuing on the CONO. I hope things will be okay. If I am able to go down, I hope to try to find some cause to help in while I'm there. Any suggestions welcome.
Hurricane Ida - 08/2021
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That got a real good laugh out of me. Thank you
https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-ida-live-updates-c0f5c66f768a1b1c53aa0cac28c24150
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says a nuclear power plant 25 miles west of New Orleans has declared an “unusual event″ — its lowest level of emergency — after the facility lost offsite electrical power.
The Waterford nuclear plant in Killona, La., had shut down protectively on Saturday in anticipation of Hurricane Ida. The plant has maintained safe shutdown conditions with power from emergency diesel generators, the nuclear agency said.
https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-ida-louisiana-new-orleans-c43c2c68946ceb6100c2239534c6c290
More than 1 million customers in Louisiana and Mississippi — including all of New Orleans — were left without power as Ida, one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. mainland, pushed through on Sunday and early Monday before weakening into a tropical storm.
Officials warned it could be weeks before the power grid is repaired.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says a nuclear power plant 25 miles west of New Orleans has declared an “unusual event″ — its lowest level of emergency — after the facility lost offsite electrical power.
The Waterford nuclear plant in Killona, La., had shut down protectively on Saturday in anticipation of Hurricane Ida. The plant has maintained safe shutdown conditions with power from emergency diesel generators, the nuclear agency said.
https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-ida-louisiana-new-orleans-c43c2c68946ceb6100c2239534c6c290
More than 1 million customers in Louisiana and Mississippi — including all of New Orleans — were left without power as Ida, one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. mainland, pushed through on Sunday and early Monday before weakening into a tropical storm.
Officials warned it could be weeks before the power grid is repaired.
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True. Everyone's personal needs cannot always be satisfied.Sorry, as an FSU grad living in Houston who would love to be able to take the train back to campus for games/etc, I'm still a wee bit bitter...
Those poor folks, hoping for the Best for all Louisianians! ( lots of folks are moving to Texas just like after Katrina!)I have a nice in Morgan City. Trying now to contact her.
I can see the SSL not running for some time. The brunt of Ida damaged several cities just west of New Orleans along the US90 corridor. LaPlace, Morgan City, Houma to name a few, are flooded. I have no idea what the track conditions are. I'm sure BNSF is eager to get things back into service though. Luckily, the levy system for Orleans Parish have held up, so now its a matter of getting power restored.
Per Amtrak.com right now, the Sunset is set to truncate in SAS for all LA departures through 9/3. The 9/5 departure is slated to go through to NOL as of this moment, with the consist returning, departing NOL 9/8. This can, of course, change. Yesterday the 9/3 LA departure and 9/6 NOL departure were still on, but they are now cancelled. With the electrical service situation in New Orleans, I wouldn't be optimistic about any service in the next two or three weeks, but Amtrak has not wholesale cancelled trains yet.
Well, that is at least a bit more optimistic than the report I saw on CNN a couple hours ago.
They had minimal damage themselves, but pretty rough damage around them.
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You know somewhere in Amtrak's DC HQ this discussion is being made. For years there rumors of Amtrak wanting to have the Crescent end at Atlanta and not NOL. Or reroute to end at FTW in Texas.
As regards the SL, what can be done to lower the costs of this route other than going Daily? One of the many ideas over the years is reroute from ELP-SAT to ELP-FTW.
As Rahm Emmanuel stated, you never let a serious disaster go to waste...............................Sadly.
But for Katrina the Sunset was the only route along that line and didn’t it have some severe problems? With this Theres still three trains that go to NOL. I don’t see it happening, but of course who knows what Amtrak is going to do
I had tickets for the Crescent on Friday, along with a couple other friends, to head to New Orleans. We had reserved three roomettes using the "Buy One Get One" special a few months ago. We wisely decided to cancel this trip earlier this week.
One friend decided to use his BOGO ticket at a later date, rescheduling for October. However, instead of going all the way to NO, he's getting off at ATL. The sleeper charge to ATL was much higher than the NO fare.
We two others canceled out tickets yesterday, getting the full refund instead of the voucher minus 25%.
One friend decided to use his BOGO ticket at a later date, rescheduling for October. However, instead of going all the way to NO, he's getting off at ATL. The sleeper charge to ATL was much higher than the NO fare.
We two others canceled out tickets yesterday, getting the full refund instead of the voucher minus 25%.
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Best of luck to the folks stuck trudging through the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. I'll never forget what a cluster it was when Texas was snowed in and unable to get power and potable water running for a week or more. Hopefully you'll be in better shape soon.
Ida is up my way now, but not nearly as bad, of course. We are under a tornado watch the rest of the day/evening and will be getting flooding rains.
After helping my daughter this morning with the baby, I cleared her backyard of potential flying stuff. I'm now home in my partially underground apartment - no rivers or creeks nearby to worry about.
Took a nap and woke up just before a tornado warning was issued. It's up till 5:45, so about 25 more minutes. Hmm, maybe I'll go back to my nap.
After helping my daughter this morning with the baby, I cleared her backyard of potential flying stuff. I'm now home in my partially underground apartment - no rivers or creeks nearby to worry about.
Took a nap and woke up just before a tornado warning was issued. It's up till 5:45, so about 25 more minutes. Hmm, maybe I'll go back to my nap.
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west point
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Until New Orleans can get sufficient power Amtrak probably will not resume service. Capacity will increase in slow increments with the Mississippi river 400 foot +tower crossing being the last, ( 1 - 3 months ? ). Essential services will be the first however how quickly power lines to just those will be questionable.
I suspect that all the power crews that will descend on NOL will help. Hopefully enough high voltage qualified crews at will be able to restore service from the city's 200 Mw power plant to the needed essential services locations. Plant is operable but has no connections to any load.
How quickly substations can be restored is also a question. Last I heard large substation transformers have an 18 month order backlog. How any of the equipment is damaged as each piece will have to be inspected ! May depend if damaged with power still on or not. the the lattice work will have to be reconstructed. Another item will be how much spare equipment other utilities can spare. Hopefully other utilities keep more than a very small part in reserve ?
Ida's damage in the NE may preclude any equipment and manpower being sent for a couple weeks.
I suspect that all the power crews that will descend on NOL will help. Hopefully enough high voltage qualified crews at will be able to restore service from the city's 200 Mw power plant to the needed essential services locations. Plant is operable but has no connections to any load.
How quickly substations can be restored is also a question. Last I heard large substation transformers have an 18 month order backlog. How any of the equipment is damaged as each piece will have to be inspected ! May depend if damaged with power still on or not. the the lattice work will have to be reconstructed. Another item will be how much spare equipment other utilities can spare. Hopefully other utilities keep more than a very small part in reserve ?
Ida's damage in the NE may preclude any equipment and manpower being sent for a couple weeks.
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NE weather holding #90 in PHL.
And
Cardinal Train 50 that departed Chicago (CHI) on 8/31 continues to hold in Trenton (TRE) due to severe weather conditions in the region.
https://weather.com/news/news/2021-09-01-flooding-tornadoes-northwest-mid-atlantic-ida
And
Cardinal Train 50 that departed Chicago (CHI) on 8/31 continues to hold in Trenton (TRE) due to severe weather conditions in the region.
https://weather.com/news/news/2021-09-01-flooding-tornadoes-northwest-mid-atlantic-ida
If the only thing that might delay Amtrak service resumption is electricity, they’ve already shown how they can overcome that.
https://www.greatamericanstations.com/stations/new-orleans-la-nol/
https://www.greatamericanstations.com/stations/new-orleans-la-nol/
Electricity for New Orleans station is one thing, electricity for all the railroad signals in the storm-affected zone is another.
NS (Crescent) and UP (Sunset) are reporting their lines are open or about to be open. UP mentions using generators where needed (don't know if those are for signals/switches). I believe CN has the CONO line but I can't find any info from them. I don't know who controls the lines into the station.
Yes, I'm aware that just because the freight operations are open doesn't mean Amtrak can run on the lines.
http://www.nscorp.com/content/nscorp/en/service-alerts/hurricane-ida.html
https://www.up.com/customers/announcements/customernews/generalannouncements/CN2021-56.html
