Website says "sold out", but I think we all know what means.
TV News reports flight out of Florida are mostly filled, and Coach seats are no longer available tomorrow, Sep 7 on both 92 and 98.
palmland Member # 4344
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It appears everyone in FL is headed our way. Local news tonight talks about hotels in Columbia already filled up with FL evacuees. Ironically, many in central SC are talking about heading for the mountains. We intend to ride it out. There is no danger of flooding where we are,..wind damage is another matter.
Ocala Mike Member # 4657
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Good news: I'm well inland and 70'above sea level. Bad news: I'm in a mobile. Although built to post-Andrew standards, if the winds get too high, I'm out of here. Will go to my daughter's house, and let the horses ride it out in the pasture or barn.
We rode out a few of these back in 2004, but this one's an unpredictable monster.
PullmanCo Member # 1138
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Damn, Mike, I wish you and the livestock were either in a hardened structure or well northwest of Florida.
Godspeed. Keep us informed as you can.
yukon11 Member # 2997
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I hate to admit it, but I remember "My Friend Irma". Wasn't it also a radio drama?
Like so many of the radio productions; Lucy, Lone Ranger, Jack Benny, the "Soaps", it "graduated" to TV.
Regarding the train CX's, they aren't:
quote:..Amtrak regrets any inconvenience. This information is correct as of the above time and date. Information is subject to change as conditions warrant.
Finally to Mike, I hope your oatburners have somewhere else to go other than the pasture:
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A friend of mine works at FEMA and she says Irma has the agency very worried. The predicted storm path looks very destructive and following so closely after Harvey means FEMA will be stretched thin. Let's hope everyone stays safe.
As railfans, I know we'll be tracking the damage done to the Florida rail network and the recovery effort. I'll be interested in seeing how the FEC makes it through the storm and how Irma affects the Brightline system.
Ocala Mike Member # 4657
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Actually, horses ride out storms very well in pastures most of the time. For this one, we hardened the stalls as best we could and, as long as the barn holds up, they should be all right in their stalls.
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
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Likely not the best of times to put this thought on the table (especially here where "worst case Irma effect" will be "scattered showers" come about Wednesday), but I have to wonder, could the Florida passenger carrying roads "done more" to evacuate.
Nothing has been circulated to suggest that Amtrak did more than operate normal consists on 92(9) and 98(9) and then say "that's all folks". Tri and Sun Rails just ran normal service and both AAF and Auto Train simply secured their equipment.
You'd think that 92 and 98 could have been augmented with maybe three additional coaches by cleaning out the back shops. Auto Train passenger equipment could have been deadheaded to Miami and load up.
While likely AAF equipment would have needed help from FEC power (the SC-44 just generating HEP), it still represented seats.
Any of these thoughts would have simply been "going to war with the Army you have, and not the Army you want".
When Irma is gone, that is when the MMQB-ing will begin. Just some thoughts along those lines.
Vincent206 Member # 15447
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When millions of people need to be evacuated it seems like adding 300 seats to an existing train would be helpful but not really a solution for the problem. There will be a lot of MMQB-ing following Harvey, Irma and maybe Jose about best practices for surviving hurricanes. It's clear that Houston, in particular, and many FL cities need to look at their zoning and land use regulations and realize that hurricanes and flooding are part of the environment.
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
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Look around some of the other boards and some folks are wondering why there isn't some "reserve" fleet of say 1000 cars.
All I'm wondering is if existing assets, i.e. passenger equipment based in Florida, could have been deployed (all these military term coming to mind) to have participated to a greater extent in evacuating people.
Vincent206 Member # 15447
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I agree that it should be possible to use high capacity railcars to help in the evac, but I doubt that FEMA and the state planners have a contingency plan that includes evacuation by railcar. Between Amtrak, TriRail and maybe Brightline there is quite a bit of potentially available rolling stock, but where would all the trains go and who would crew them? Can hours of service rules get bent in a state of emergency? The evac would need to planned so that fully loaded trains don't get stranded in the potential path of disaster due to equipment or infrastructure breakdowns.
George Harris Member # 2077
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quote:Originally posted by Vincent206: t's clear that Houston, in particular, and many FL cities need to look at their zoning and land use regulations and realize that hurricanes and flooding are part of the environment.
If this is relevant to the noise in some of the press that the percentage of pavement in the Houston area was higher than it ought to be due to lack of zoning, that is nonsense. The volume and intensity of rain was so much that percentage of pavement was irrelevant. The ground was saturated so there was no reduction in runoff due to infiltration. And, oh by the way, the land slope from well north of Houston to the gulf is approximately one foot per mile, so you do not have fast runoff regardless of ground cover or lack thereof.
MargaretSPfan Member # 3632
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George Harris -- Thank you very much for the hard-headed facts. Yup -- much of what the media says or prints is just noise, and reminded of the famous part of Shakespearre's "Macbeth", where Macbeth says, "...it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing."
My heart goes out to all those affected by thes etwo hurricanes.
And it is too bad that railcars could not have been used to evacuate some people. I, too, wonder if that could even have been realistic and practical. Really good planing would have to have been done long ago for that to have been even remotely possible.
But the sad fact is that there is no way to evacuate a city. No infrastructure ever built can handle millions of people in a very short time. (For a few recent examples of this, just look at the massive and very, very long traffic jams after the recent solar eclipse.)
Ocala Mike Member # 4657
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I didn't exactly dodge a bullet here in N. Central FL, but escaped with only a minor flesh wound. People, animals, and property in my care or who I love suffered no long-lasting damage. Worst thing was being without power and internet (5 days for me; daughter still counting, thanks to Duke Energy, the world's worst). Fortunately, she has a generator. I stayed there most of the week, shuttling back and forth 10 miles to the farm to check up on the animals and the place. Two trees down extent of the damage.
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
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Mike, thanks for checking in. It appears the East Coast "got a pass", but the West, where they thought they'd slide, got clobbered.
My Atlanta friends were hardly expecting to have power outages and trees down, but they did.
disclaimer: author holds long positions DUK NEE
MargaretSPfan Member # 3632
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Ocala Mike --- Wow -- FIVE DAYS without power??? And your daughter still has no power-company power? Well, I am very glad you all are OK. I am just flabbergasted that you got your power back so soon! Given the mount of damage to a lot of the infrastructure, I was very worried that you folks in Florida would be without power and other essential services for a very long time -- like a month or more. But,then, I am a big worry-wart, and I do not have enough facts to tell what things are really like in m any places in Florida after that hurricane. (I wish they would stop giving names to those things; just number them -- "2017-1", etc.)
That had to have been a very scary time. Glad your animals are OK, too, though they must have been very scared, too.
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
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Margaret. during the '50's when the naming of hurricanes was started, they were all named for women, because in the "man's world", they were deemed unpredictable. However, during the 80's with the start of "gender neutrality" it was decided that there best be "himacanes" as well.
Interesting how this latest one, Jose, has to possibly interfere with a trip of mine to New York region (Greenwich) next weekend.
Ocala Mike Member # 4657
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Got a check from FEMA today just one week after making a "no red tape" telephone claim for damages due to Irma. Will help with paying for tree service, debris cleanup/removal, and other incidental damges.
sojourner Member # 3134
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So sorry for all your troubles but glad things are moving along
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