Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.) Inc.

New Orleans - Amtrak poorly utilized for Hurricane Katrina

posted Saturday 15 October 2005

On Saturday 27 August 2005, US weather forecasters warned hurricane Katrina could overwhelm New Orleans' levees. That day, the national passenger train operator, Amtrak, was notified that the city's flood gates would close on Sunday morning, preventing train movements in and out of the city.

The last regularly-scheduled departure was on Saturday afternoon and was heavily patronized. At 8.30 Saturday evening, a special Amtrak train departed for high ground in McComb, MS, with everything that could move (seven locomotives and 20 cars), including rollingstock that had arrived earlier that day from Chicago. Although Amtrak notified the mayor's emergency preparedness chief that the train could carry evacuees, the only passengers were about 350 Amtrak employees.

The hurricane struck the coast east of New Orleans at 6.10 am on Monday 29 August. Amtrak then worked all week on the logistic and bureaucratic hurdles of running evacuation trains.

After the barge-damaged BNSF Bayou Boeuf drawbridge was reopened on 1 September, Amtrak was able to run shuttles the 145 miles between Avondale Yard near Huey Long Bridge and Lafayette, LA.

(National Association of Railroad Passengers' "NARP News", September 2005.) http://www.narprail.org/

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