Over the weekend, flooding affected hundreds of miles of BNSF Railway and Union Pacific track in Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota. Multiple BNSF subdivisions in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa were closed due to the weekend flooding, however the railroad was able to restore service on its main line across Nebraska late Monday. UP’s routes between Fremont and Grand Island, Neb., and Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Kansas City, Kan., were both closed as of Monday afternoon.
“Union Pacific employees are working around the clock to restore rail service in areas experiencing widespread flooding and track washouts,” spokesperson Raquel Espinoza tells Trains News Wire.
The flooding is the result of melting snow across the Great Plains combined with recent rainfall that is overwhelming the region’s rivers, including the mighty Mississippi. The National Weather Service has issued flood warnings across the region and Jessica Brooks, hydrologist for the National Weather Service, says flooding is likely to be a major issue for days and weeks to come, especially along the Mississippi.
“We are expecting the Mississippi River to stay high, potentially into May,” Brooks tells Trains News Wire. “We are also looking at a significant amount of snow needing to melt in the northern parts of the Mississippi River basin, which extends through Minnesota and Wisconsin, so it is likely that we’ll see (even) higher water levels into April.”
In anticipation of flooding, BNSF was already warning customers that it was likely that the Hannibal and River subdivisions, which run along the Mississippi, would be closed in the coming days.
“BNSF crews are conducting ongoing assessments and inspections regarding the condition of our main lines. Additional resources, including ballast, are being deployed to affected locations to make track repairs as quickly as possible,” the railroad wrote in a service update late Monday.
