FLASH FLOOD WARNING LOS ANGELES/OXNARD CA

I haven't heard a thing at all about the Reagan Library. I think no news is good news, as far as that goes. Regarding the Devil's Gate flooding... it's actually designed to do that, believe it or not. The water is tumbling harmlessly into the arroyo and being carried away! It's like, a once-in-a-hundred-years event, and you've now seen it!

:)

GREAT news (no news!) on the Library. Boy, that's pretty country up there. Real pretty. I can see how President Reagan would pick that as his Library and final resting place.

And thanks on the info on the arroyo! That's something else, ALL that water....just washing out to sea as it was meant to. Especially since that was built so long ago!!!

Thanks kiddo!!!

INTERMODAL BULLETIN -- 2005-001
Title: Bulletin 2005-001 ... Service Interruption
Posted Date: January 11, 2005

Service Interruption
Bulletin 2005 - 001
January 11, 2005

Dear Intermodal Customer:

As a result of high water, washouts and mud/rock slides in Southern California and Southern Nevada, the AAR will issue today our embargo request for all intermodal traffic moving between the Midwest and the Los Angeles Basin.

The embargo is effective today at noon Pacific time, Tuesday, January 11, 2005, at which time we will no longer accept impacted traffic at our intermodal terminals or on-dock facilities. This impacts all traffic moving between the following Los Angeles area ramps: ICTF, City of Industry, East Los Angeles and all on-dock locations and Midwest ramps in Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, Council Bluffs, Salt Lake City and Denver. For more information on our embargo, please visit our web site at www.uprr.com/customers/embargo/index.shtml

We will continue to provide updates on the status of our operations on our web site at www.uprr.com/customers.

Thank you for your cooperation as we work to restore fluid operations in the area.

Sincerely,

Intermodal Business Team
Union Pacific Railroad

Wow, nothing's running, is it.

http://www.uprr.com/customers/embargo/index.shtml

There are some great pics in the PDF at:

http://www.uprr.com/customers/attachments/embargo.pdf

Reports coming in... (this man's) family found dead (that's hard to write). The mother was 36 and the three children 11,6 and 2.

Have a friend a Ventura County Medical Center he told me there are 20 La Conchita victims spread throughout 3 hospitals. VCMC is a public hospital and they have been swamped with injuries, many arriving by helicopter.

This is horrible. The man left the house to buy ice cream and as he was returning saw the mudslide come over his house. He tried to get in to rescue his family, but was unable to.

He actually got handcuffed yesterday because he was still trying to get in - it's heartbreaking.

Saw the video of him several times yesterday. His anguish is heartbreaking to see. Just can't wrap my mind around the loss he must feel (my 6 and 11 y/o are eating breakfast right now).

Up to twenty still missing in the rubble and expect we will hear of additional casualties in area hospitals.

Prayers up.

I'm headed to Birmingham, AL on Sunday to repair/upgrade the hardware/software on my 5 coal cars. Fortunately, they won't have to deal with the intermodal embargo. I suspect it will have a severe impact on UP rail activity going through Pocatello. That is the majority of traffic passing through town.

Highway 18 to Lucerne Washed Out

Mudslide Damages Moonridge Homes (1/11/05 3pm) According to the Big Bear Lake Fire Department, two two-story single family dwellings in Moonridge have suffered damage from mudslides. One house was removed from the foundation; the other has extensive damage to its first floor. Both houses are located on Sunset near Ravine and have been condemned by Building and Safety officials, who are in the process of notifying the second-homeowners.

Black Ice and Flooding Make Driving Treacherous (1/11/05 12:30pm)

Several roads are flooded within the Big Bear Valley, and a couple of particular trouble spots on Big Bear Blvd. are from Pine Knot to Eureka, where both eastbound lanes are flooded, and at Pine View, just west of Dead Man's Curve. Residents and visitors of Big Bear Valley are encouraged to stay off the roads if possible. If you must drive, drive slowly through any water and avoid deep water altogether, since there may be debris you cannot see. On parts of the roadway where the water is shallower, black ice is a concern. The bright side of this, of course is that the lake is up six feet since last Tuesday, according to the measurements taken by the Municipal Water District. Three feet of that gain is from the last 24 hours alone, putting the lake level at 62 feet, 10 inches – or 9-and-a-half feet below full.

Those pics of 18 are incredible.

A mudslide between Menlo Drive and Sunset Road in Moonridge damaged these two houses. Both houses have been declared unsafe for occupancy. On Jan. 11, a weakened hillside in Moonridge sent towers of mud sliding into two homes, leaving them knee-high in mud. No one was injured in the slide, but the houses were destroyed.

Also, found this: Hundreds stranded on Arctic Circle as winter storm rolls in

"Rumors were that most of the vehicles were without chains, but Morley said as the cars were towed out it was found most had chains on. Chain control signs were up, but there was no enforcement because of the time of night, [asst chief for BBLFD] Morley said."

It's going to be awhile before that is reopened.

Highway 18 and 330 will be open to escorted travel for residents from 5 to 7 this evening and tomorrow morning. My daughter is stuck up there (she was planning on coming home this morning originally) and is going to give it one more day to give Caltrans more time to clear the roads.

38 to Big Bear is also open to residents only. I also head The Narrows portion of 18 could be closed for months as part of the road is "missing".

I hope I can get up there this weekend. I sink hole has opened on the area below my house and has undermined a portion of a cement slab adjacent to my house. The fire department declared my house structurally sound, but I need to get this taken care of before the next rains. A cement culvert next to my property is also undermined and the water flowing below it that is what caused the sink hole. I need to get the county to fix there right of way so this doesn't happen again.

As for the Lake Arrowhead water level, it is about 5 feet below the spillway, about an 8 foot gain from last week.

Landslide Under Tracks Halts Amtrak Service
Service Closed From San Diego To San Luis Obispo

LOS ANGELES -- Due to weather-related disruptions, there was no Pacific Surfliner service Wednesday along the entire route from San Diego to San Luis Obispo, according to Amtrak.

Amtrak announced on Sunday that, due to a Union Pacific track closure near Gaviota, all Pacific Surfliner service north of Los Angeles was canceled until further notice.

Also, until further notice, the Coast Starlight -- trains 11 and 14 -- are originating and terminating in San Luis Obispo instead of Los Angeles, with alternate transportation provided between Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo with the exception of Simi Valley.

For more information, passengers may call (800) USA-RAIL for updates.

So between AMTRAK and Union Pacific, what are the train cancellations going to mean for supplies, if anything?

All the fuel pipelines are closed between LA and Las Vegas, and Phoenix

http://www.uprr.com/customers/attachments/embargo.pdf

Incident: 1631  Type: Traffic Hazard  Location: WEIMAR CROSS RD AT EB I80  Info as of: 1/12/2005 8:41:43 PM

ADDITIONAL DETAILS
8:31PM	-	PER S2,,THIS TRAIN IS BREAKING NO STATE LAW,, THIS IS AN ER W/ THE TRAIN
8:30PM	-	NO ETA AT ALL AT THIS TIME
8:27PM	-	PER LYNETTE, NO POWER AT ALL TO TRAIN, CAN NOT BREAK THE TRAIN AT ALL, AGAINST FEDERAL REGULATIONS
8:27PM	-	IS IT JUST THE ONE RR XING THAT S BLOCKED E WEIMAR AT PONDEROSA
8:15PM	-	ALL VEHS TURNED AROUND
7:56PM	-	1039 PCSO OF CORRECT 1020, ALSO 1039 TO CDF AS WELL, IN CASE FIRE NEEDS TO GO THRU
7:55PM	-	PER 283,, TRAIN IN THE MIDDLE OF RDWY,, BRAKE LOCK, UNABLE TO MOVE
7:50PM	-	PER PLAC SO //THIS WAS THE CLOSEST 1020
7:50PM	-	PER RP ORIGINAL 1020 **EAST WEIMAR AT 80** CAD DID NOT TAKE 1020
7:49PM	-	1039 CO RDS W/BARRICADES AND CLOSURES AT WEIMAR CROSS AT 80
7:46PM	-	PER S2,, ROLL CO RDS FOR BARRICADES AND ROADS CLOSED FOR NOW, CHP CAN REMOVE THE SIGNS LATER IF NEEDED
7:45PM	-	LYNETTE - UP//THIS IS A MECHANICAL ERROR - NEG 1141 NEEDED, NO ETA TO BE FIXED
7:43PM	-	NEG 1141 NEEDED //ALL MECH PROBLEMS NO ETA YET
7:37PM	-	NO ETA FOR MOVING
7:37PM	-	1039 UNION PACIFIC //PER UNION PACIFIC TRAIN IS DEALING WITH AN EMG ON BOARD

Map of Weimer & Railway, I-80, north of Auburn, CA

jeez....is the engines dont run, how are they going to move it out of the way?

From the Los Angeles Service Unit comes this update Tuesday:

The Caliente Sub (LA-Salt Lake City route) will not reopen for two weeks due to washouts. This includes areas between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City, too.

The Coast Line will be out of service for 30 days. Traffic will be rerouted via Roseville, and an additional FIVE DAYS transit time is anticipated.

My understanding is that the Sunset Route is now open at least as far west as Colton. Not sure of the status of the Saugus line from downtown LA north toward Mojave, but I think it is open. On the Mojave Sub out of Colton and up Cajon, there were 23 mudslides between Silverwood (Summit) and Canyon, but they didn't block the line. However, at Lytle Creek (MP 487.08) a 1330-foot bridge was undermined and as of early Tuesday the projected time to fix was Thursday evening. There was also a washout near MP 482, a new one, that UP expected to repair by Wednesday afternoon.

Railroads have a long, proud history of repairing ruptures faster than even their own engineering people imagined. I would not be surprised to see the Caliente Sub and Coast Line reopen sooner than the above projections. In the meantime, this puts a severe strain on the two open (or soon to open) ways to LA, via El Paso and Roseville-Bakersfield.

Far more than just that. This from a Tuesday morning fill-in from the LA Service Unit -

· Helicopter inspection lined up Tuesday morning to inspect subdivision between Oxnard and Concepcion – Javier Sanchez, MTM, Pete Rodriquez, bridge inspector, Steve McMullen, geotechnical consultant.
· MP 328.2 Gaviota – Main track out of service. Embankment failure caused by wave action and saturated subgrade. Sink is 30 feet long, 15 feet down, 1 foot from ties. Signal also washed down and was recovered. Notifications made for permits. Shannon and Wilson, geotechnical, Steve McMullen consultant will be on site Monday. High rail excavator, backhoe on site. Rip rap and base material being trucked to Surf. One air dump on hand. 12 air dumps by Roseville 8:24 p.m. Jimco contracting on site. Will shuttle rip rap from Surf to worksite. Loader at Surf and track hoe and dozer at site.
· MP 332.2 – Gaviota - Embankment failure caused by wave action – 8 feet from ties, 75 feet long, 35 feet down. Starting to some alignment in this area.
· MP 380.0 – Carpenteria – Mudslide, 30 feet by 4 feet on top of track.
· MP 382 to MP 382.5 between Seacliff and Carpenteria - slides reported 2 ft deep across mainline and Highway 101. This area is at La Conchita and is the slide shown on CNN. May have lost some of the mainline in this area will be able to verify Tuesday morning. Currently not allowed into the site. Hirail excavator working location.
· MP 384 to MP 384.5 Seacliff – landslide on top of rail
· MP 384.7 – Seacliff – Mudslide on top of track – 20 feet by 4 feet. Corrected Sunday.
· MP 387.7 to MP 388 Seacliff, Track out of line and washed out in 5-degree curve.
· MP 392.6 Ventura - Embankment failure caused by wave action – 5 feet from ties, 3 locations from 25 and 50 feet in length. Moved boulders with track hoe from beach back up to slide. Shannon and Wilson to propose permanent repair.
· MP 392.6 – Scouring behind north abutment at Ventura River bridge
· MP 410.5 – water over track, 40 feet of side wash – repair Monday
· MP 418.7 to MP 419.0 – many mudslides on top of track – about 100 cubic yards. Demo with two backhoes to clean out Monday. More mud has come down during the day. We have stopped work during the night and will resume tomorrow during daylight hours.
· MP393.6 Ventura River Bridge has scouring around North abutment and water running through ballast north of the bridge.

Now the entry is completely gone from the incident site. Why do they do that? It can't possibly be over.

Because some moron was saying that was a federal law violation.....and it wasnt...and you dont want that on the CAD....at least that the public can see.

Just heard Mr. KABC say that it will cost $50 million just to shore up the hill above La Conchita.

John and Ken today said the residents blamed the 95 slide on an Avacado farm on top of the hill, but there are geological reports dating back to 1870 saying that the area is unsafe.