Classic Trains 9/5/17:
Harvey echoes the Great Flood of 1927The impact of flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey in southeast Texas and western Louisiana will be felt for months and years. The toll in human lives and injuries, the damage to homes and infrastructure, the threat to the environment — all seem beyond assessment. Simply put, Harvey was a devastating calamity.
Less appalling perhaps, but no less painful to its dependents, is the damage to railroading in the region. BNSF suspended all service in and out of Houston. Union Pacific closed 500 miles of main line between Brownsville, Texas, and St. Charles, La. Every regional railroad and short line felt the sting of the storm.
History tells us the railroads will recover, though. They’ve been through this before. Flooding along the Gulf Coast and across the vast watershed of the Mississippi and its tributaries is, unfortunately, a repeat offender. One need only refer back to the summer of 1993, when much of the railroad mileage of the central Midwest was under water for weeks.
Then there was the granddaddy of them all: the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.