Hurricane/Tropical/Subtropical storm Nicole and Amtrak

Autotrain 53 out of Lorton for 11/9 has been canceled, I was notified by phone.
Autotrain 54 out of Lorton for 11/10 is also canceled according to "train status" on Amtrak site.
If any of you are stilll traveling in Nicole's path, stay safe!
I appreciate all the kind and thoughtful responses!

Hans627 said:

Just got word that train #92, the Silver Star, has been cancelled for Thursday.

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We were leaving from DLD so other plans need to be made. So, unfortunately, we have to resorted to flying as we need to be back in BAL before Monday.

BTW, Deland to Okeechobee including Orlando, Winter Park, Kissimmee, Winter Haven, Sebring and Lakeland are in an area that has a 20-30% chance of getting Hurricane force winds (1 min average of >+ 74mph) as of current forecast (11/8/22:14:10), between 7pm Wednesday the 9th and 7am Friday the 11th.

I am on 98 right now (in DLD) running just a little late. It has pretty much been raining the entire time from Orlando. I am scheduled to return to Florida on 11/11.

A friend, who received "inside information" informed me that 97 will be running from NYP to Florida on 11/11. An SCA informed me that he heard that 91 and 97 will be a combined supertrain on Friday and then he heard it would not be such. He does not know what will happen but knows he does not want to get stuck in NYC.

Nicole's not even here yet, and I already have an inch of rain in my backyard rain gauge, and still rising. A narrow outer rain band has been "training" from Daytona to Orlando all afternoon & evening. If you go 20 mi. NW or SE, there's been zero rain.

I've never had water come higher than my back patio, so I'm not worried about flooding.

This is what the track as of this morning looks like.
TS Nicole Track
It looks as though it is tracking a little further inland than the predictions yesterday. Of course this can all change.

I am on 98(8) now heading to NYP. The crew has been told that they will leave on 97 tomorrow (as scheduled) and travel as far as JAX, then will be bussed to Miami. They are confused since Amtrak has canceled 97(10). The crew was also informed that 6 crews (3 for 98 and 3 for 92) will be bussed to JAX and then will travel by train to NYP. They are not sure if that is accurate either. I overhead one crew member stating she does not want to ride a bus from JAX to MIA.

I am scheduled to travel on 97(11), which, so far, has not been canceled.

Edit to add that the crew on 97 now, will return south on 91 tomorrow (10) on a combined 91/97 supertrain. 91 will terminate in JAX and the crew will be bussed to MIA.

It failed to reach Hurricane strength as expected by 7am Advisory today. Apparently more dry air ingestion than was expected. Still expected to get there by 1pm.

Meanwhile the cone has shifted south by quite a bit. Two days back we were the center of the cone in Melbourne. Now we are nowhere near the cone. But of course the tropical storm effects of the storm will be felt far and wide. It has a huge wind field stretching 400 miles away from its center.

NHC has Hurricane Warnings up, no way they don't call it a Hurricane whether it is or isn't. They want people off the beaches.

That being said... this is no Ian. Unless you're drunk and wading into the surf to challenge Poseidon over dominion of the seas, you should be fine.

JoeBas said:

NHC has Hurricane Warnings up, no way they don't call it a Hurricane whether it is or isn't. They want people off the beaches.

That being said... this is no Ian. Unless you're drunk and wading into the surf to challenge Poseidon over dominion of the seas, you should be fine.

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Indeed. As long as all evacuation recommendations are followed there should be no problem. Beach erosion has already shut down a state route as part of it fell into the sea in Flagler County. So while this is no Ian, it isn't one without very significant impacts either. Flagler is far removed from the eye of the storm or the storm itself. The greater damage will be from water - coastal erosion, storm surge and fresh water flooding inland.

Amtrak service adjustments:

https://www.amtrak.com/alert/temporarily-adjusts-service-in-advance-of-tropical-storm-nicole.html

What about flood water in Saint Johns river basin ? Know it is a slow moving river . Has all the high water from IAN gone down.?

According to news sources, Nicole is now a tropical storm but is still affecting the State of Florida.
According to the Orlando Sentinel online version:

The National Weather Service in Melbourne recorded wind gusts over 73 mph at Playalinda Beach and 71 mph at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station after 3 a.m. with 70 mph winds farther south in Indialantic and Patrick Space Force Base in Brevard County. New Smyrna Beach saw a gust of 67 mph, the NWS said.

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I hope our friend @jis and everyone else in the path of the storm are OK. (although I live in Orlando, I am currently visiting NYC and am hopeful that train 97 will be running on 11/11).

As of now, Amtrak has not canceled 97 for 11/11.

Edit to add: as of 8am, Amtrak has not canceled 97 for 11/11.

Yeah. No problem here. It came ashore at Vero Beach with a large eye close to 50 miles in diameter. The Northern eye wall passed over us earlier today before it had been downgraded. Wind speeds maxed out at around 70mph here. We are all shuttered up so felt nothing inside. I just went outside briefly a few moments back. No major tree limbs down. Just a scattering of a few clumps of leafs here and there.

In Volusia County (between Orlando/Sanford and Daytona) no damage in my neighborhood other than yard cleanup. My rain gauge reaches its 5” max and appears to be overflowing. Local TV says max wind at Daytona airport was 70mph. I do wonder about the St.John’s river and those two CSX/Amtrak bridges that are not very far above water level.

My dog is not happy about missing her morning walk!

8 mi. west of Orlando, I'm surprised at how little tree debris is in my front yard from the 3 oak trees out there, compared to Ian. I suppose Ian trimmed off all the weak branches for me.

My rain gauge shows 6.75" since the first outer bands on Tuesday. Right now we're in a dry slot, but it looks like more light to moderate rain is heading in on the radar. Still, that's about half of what we got from Ian.

Winds are still gusting pretty good. No power out. During Ian, my power went out just for a few hours, but I lost it after the main part of the storm had passed, so still not out of the woods there.

Near Gainesville here - we are getting steady rain but, so far, no damaging winds. Of course, we still have the rest of the day to see what happens as Nicole heads up the state towards our area.

The onshore wave action has undermined The Pirates Cove Condos in Daytona to the point that part of it has collapsed.

I took down the shutters on the South and West side and then it started pouring rain, so I went back inside. The rest will have to wait until after the rain lets up.

There are about two dozen small clumps of Oak leafs strewn across my yard. That is about all that needs to be cleaned up in addition to righting a few toppled flower pots. All that can wait until the trailing outer bands are out of the way by sometime later this afternoon.

I guess the biggest concern about restoration of Amtrak and SunRail would be Sanford where Lake Monroe has overflowed flooding many streets. I don;t think the railroad which runs on a higher embankment is affected.

There are eleven buildings in Daytona Beach Shores that are in danger of getting structural damage from wave action undermining their foundations. They were all evacuated yesterday. So far none of them have fallen down, though one has lost its rear deck and parking lot so far. There are other buildings elsewhere in Volusia County that have fallen into the ocean.

BTW, we had lost our Hurricane Warning and had it replaced by Tropical Storm Morning early this morning.

Just now, as of 10am Indian River County adjacent to us to the south has dropped all Warnings except for Coastal Flood Warning, which will remin for a while yet all along the Atlantic Coast of Central Florida I suppose.. I guess in the near future Brevard Main South and Brevard Inland South will lose the Tropical Storm Warning too.

FYI, given current information and barring unforeseen circumstances, tomorrow’s 52 & 53 will operate.
Tomorrow’s 91 & 97 will resume full service, as will Saturday’s 92 & 98.

Lights have flickered a few times. Holding my breath; that's what happened before the Ian power outage. The freezer compartment of my fridge is chock full; probably a couple hundred dollars worth of food in there.

joelkfla said:

Lights have flickered a few times. Holding my breath; that's what happened before the Ian power outage. The freezer compartment of my fridge is chock full; probably a couple hundred dollars worth of food in there.

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Lights have flickered occasionally here, but I have never lost power through multiple storms. And of course now I have battery backup that will last 12 hours, so now minor power outages are more or less invisible anyway. even major ones can be mitigated by conserving use of backup power to help the Sun come up and recharge things again.

91(9) & 91(10) Silver Stars have 5 coaches & 4 sleepers (2 VLI’s & 2 VLII’s) presumably to accommodate some 97 passengers

Today’s 91 departed NYP about 3 hours late. I don’t know if was Nicole related. I’m hoping to board 97 soon.

pennyk said:

Today’s 91 departed NYP about 3 hours late. I don’t know if was Nicole related. I’m hoping to board 97 soon.

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Interesting that Amtrak Alerts says due to late arriving equipment, but 92 arrived early the night before. Maybe an engine availability issue??