As of 6:43pm on Thursday July 5, it appears that the 50 train heading east is still not operational due to the bad storms that occured last week. Has there been any info on what damage occured to the tracks and such and how does one find out when that 50 might run again?
Cardinal shut down
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henryj
Conductor
Maybe it's a repeat of the Sunset east fiasco. The Cardinal is 'temporarily' suspended.
Then why I can book the Cardinal from CHI to CIN on Saturday? Of course, it might be canceled before then.
The (cool)
of the radar track of the derecho storm front last Friday as it went from Illinois to Ohio through WV through VA shows that the center passed over the Cardinal route through WV and VA. CSX and BBRR may still be cleaning up storm damage and don't want to deal with a passenger train.
Ryan
Court Jester
Yes it is.
Where do you live exactly, that you seem to be unaware of the massive damage this storm caused? The Cardinal seems to be your home train, and the derecho pretty much followed the route of the Card from CHI all the way here to DC.
Where do you live exactly, that you seem to be unaware of the massive damage this storm caused? The Cardinal seems to be your home train, and the derecho pretty much followed the route of the Card from CHI all the way here to DC.
Apparently doesn't watch national news either.
A major part of the issue isn't necessarily blocked track, but signal outages caused by the widespread outages of commercial power, especially in W. Va., and signal wires/poles knocked down. Battery backups in signal houses are meant for short-term power outages only. It's not uncommon for a RR to place generators at signal houses in an emergency, but it's difficult to get to all the locations, especially with a storm like this that hit with little or no warning.
amtrakwolverine
Engineer
Also with all the rain the storm brought tracks could be washed out. It takes time to inspect the tracks.
Michael061282
Lead Service Attendant
And remember the BBRR isn't in tip top shape to begin with. It could be a while
johnny.menhennet
Conductor
But the good news is that they're at least running to Cincinnati.
Linda T
Lead Service Attendant
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Well, we just got our power restored this morning, five days after the fact, and five days of "excessive heat warnings." There are still many places that don't have power, and Charleston and Lewisburg, WV were just hit by another storm today that knocked out power all over again, though not as bad as before. One poor lady just restocked her refrigerator with $500 worth of food, and now she's expecting to lose it. There are a lot of traffic lights and such that are still out and treated like four way stops. Things are bad enough here in Ohio, but far worse (apparently) in West Virginia. Both Ohio and WV have been put in a state of emergency. We were in Virginia when this storm occurred and had to drive home Saturday (we did not take the train for once). There were long lines of cars (maybe a half mile to a mile long) where gas stations were open and taking credit cards (gas stations that had power were hard enough to find, but ones that could take credit cards were even more difficult). We saw many people who were in these lines have to get out and push as they ran out of gas waiting in line.There were also lots of trees down on power lines and homes. The destruction is horrible, and our power company estimates it will be Tuesday night July 10th, before some towns get their power restored.
My feeling is that the main issue is signals. The way traffic lights are down all over the place I'm betting that's one of the biggest hold ups. And of course they're only calling for more storms this weekend. Just as long as they have the Card running in about 6 weeks. :giggle:
My feeling is that the main issue is signals. The way traffic lights are down all over the place I'm betting that's one of the biggest hold ups. And of course they're only calling for more storms this weekend. Just as long as they have the Card running in about 6 weeks. :giggle:
Ryan
Court Jester
As have been Maryland and Virginia. The local power companies around here are hoping to complete their storm restoration efforts sometime today/tonight, but I understand that the utilities out your way are predicting that they'll have to work through the weekend before the restoration is mostly complete.
tricia
Conductor
My feeling is that the main issue is priorities, at least in WV.
Large strip mining operations were up and running again quite soon after the storms--while in the valleys below them, hundreds of thousands of folks had no power, no water, no access to emergency services. In Fayette County, my understanding (from reports from folks on the ground there) is that about half the county's utility customers still have no electricity. But the PGA golf tournament and big concert at the Greenbriar resort is going on this week, as per schedule. Here's a note from a lady who lives near the Greenbriar:
"I am in Lewisburg [WV] and our power has been off since the storm last Friday. There was a sign near the Greenbrier saying ,"Jim Justice [the resort's owner] has power but not us poor bastards." We are about half a mile from the concert venue, but will undoubtedly not get power until all the events are over. It is a narrow country road, but there a several poles down and I am sure they will not have utility trucks blocking any of the event traffic. They went exactly as far with repairs as they had to in order to power the venue, then stopped. My 88 year old aunt is just miserable."
And, sent about 4:30 PM yesterday, from a woman who'd just got off the phone with folks running an emergency relief operation at the Southern Appalachian Labor School (SALS) in Oak Hill, WV:
"I just got off the phone with SALS about delivering donations tomorrow and wanted to share that the situation there is pretty desperate.
One woman came up asking for help while I was talking with SALS - put her on the phone saying it was a typical scenario. She was crying saying she normally works at the restaurant, but because the electricity was out had not been able to work in a week. She had 3 children. They weren't prepared for a major disaster and they'd had a couple of cans of soup in the house, but normally kept frozen and refrigerated food, which went bad. Most people have spent money on fuel either to get to more remote pantries and feeding centers or running generators. She had spent $600 on fuel for a generator and now had nothing left for food, and there was no food to buy anyway.
SALS told me there are kids walking down the road to them, asking for food. How do you tell kids there is no food?
The electricity had been restored temporarily to part of the area last night, more affluent, but not in the rural areas. At the 911 meeting that was held, the officials said there was no longer an emergency. They gave SALS one pallet of MREs and one pallet of water. All of the ice that had been brought in was given to nursing homes, saying they "didn't want to give it to people just to put in beer coolers." They have locked up the ice. There are two feeding stations in Glengene(?), but people can't get there.
The national guard is not helping now because the officials have told them there is no longer an emergency. The temporary electricity that was hooked up has now gone back out and no one has anything. She said the people in charge have good jobs and don't understand why people can't spend $600 on diesel fuel and have nothing left for food. She started crying at that point and said she wished she could cure the world and make them have sense, compassion, but they think if they are okay then everyone else must be.
I asked her how many people had come for help today, food and water. She said that even not being advertised, there were at least 30 who came, each representing a family of between 3-5, many single parents. People begging for crumbs and they don't have crumbs to give them, it's disheartening.
Said if she had a gas powered generator there are four floors in their community building and could house a thousand people in natural disasters like this, but as is, they can't. It will probably take in her estimation 6 months to get the power back up and running.
She said 400-500 volunteers were sent up to the PGA to clean up the golf course - PGA is most important thing in the state. Heard the governor said he was going to go to the PGA just to show the rest of the world that West Virginians are tough and could make it through anything.
Down to their last, there is no more to get - where to go from here.
Nursing home across street is 60+ seniors now out of food. Can't replace it. Fed them today, took it to them, they could not walk over to them. One MRE meal a day can survive on it if have to - 2000 calories."
tricia
Conductor
Sorry, posted that last post, about WV, by mistake before editing. Sorry it's so long.
And what I meant to add at the end was: The Cardinal will be up and running again when the powers that be decide it's a priority to allocate the resources for that. So far, the lion's share of recovery resources have gone to mining operations and the PGA event.
And what I meant to add at the end was: The Cardinal will be up and running again when the powers that be decide it's a priority to allocate the resources for that. So far, the lion's share of recovery resources have gone to mining operations and the PGA event.
A
Alex Kummant
Guest
From my own experience I recommend we suspend the train due to the storm. Next we allocate all train sets elsewhere in the system, and then wait for 2 years and have congress pay for a route study. Also, keep it on the map and continue to be a lousy railroad.
Of course Mr. Kummant wasn't President of Amtrak when the decision was made to not restore the Sunset East, David Hughes was Interim President when that decision was made, but don't let facts get in the way.
Granted Mr. Kummant didn't reverse that decision, but then I also think that the board & pressure from the White House may have had more to do with not restoring things when CSX gave the OK during David's term as President.
Granted Mr. Kummant didn't reverse that decision, but then I also think that the board & pressure from the White House may have had more to do with not restoring things when CSX gave the OK during David's term as President.
D
domefoamer
Guest
No, thank you for such a thorough and detailed report. I haven't heard any of this from other media and news. The contrast between the PGA's volunteer army and the seniors subsisting on army rations was made for a Pulitzer Prize, irony division. My heart goes out to those back in the hills and hollers. How many months until they get electricity?
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tricia
Conductor
Thanks for the thank! As of yesterday, about 40% of households in Fayette County (the focus of that long report) were still without power. As for Pulitzer: It's awfully hard to get media to cover anything that happens in central Appalachia, no matter how egregious.
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