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<p>[quote user="Murphy Siding"]</p> <p> </p> <div class="quote-header"> </div> <blockquote class="quote"> <div class="quote-user">dehusman</div> <div class="quote-content"> <p> </p> <div class="quote-header"> </div> <blockquote class="quote"> <div class="quote-user">VOLKER LANDWEHR</div> <div class="quote-content">We know the Rock River gage 10 miles upriver from Doon showed a first peak above Major Flood Stage 16 hours before the accident as well as the Rock Valley gage less than 10 miles downriver showing 1.5 ft less than record level about 3.5 hours before the accident.</div> </blockquote> <div class="quote-footer"> </div> <p> </p> <p>"Major Flood Stage" really doesn't have much meaning for the railroad in the grand scheme of things because flooding is relative to the evelation of what you are worried about flooding is.</p> <p>If "Major Flood Stage" is the water at the station of 15 ft and your facilites are at 55 ft, "Major Flood Stage" isn't anything to worry about.   </p> <p>In the floods I have been involved with, what the railroad generally does is they go out to the tracks and somebody measures the water level below top of rail (actually several times).  Lets say when the flood waters are at 10 ft at the measurement station and the water at the railroad (which could be miles from the measuring station) is 14 ft below top of rail.  "Major Flood Stage" is at  20 ft and the water is forecast to crest at 22 ft.  That's a rise of 12 ft from where it is now.  Even though the water is 2 ft above "major flood stage", the railroad still is 2 ft above water.  Something to watch, not something to panic over.</p> <p>Having been one of the guys who track the flood gauges and the freeboard of the railroad, I can tell you that is how it works.  And once you get an understanding of what the water level changes at the measuring station mean at the railroad (the relationship may not be linear) its pretty reasonable as far as predicting water levels and when things will crest.</p> <p>If you've been watching this thing for the last 3 or 4 days, the water level crested below the top of rail by several feet and it is going down, are you going to go to be placing a lot of restrictions on the operation?</p> <div style="clear:both;"> </div> <p> </p> </div> </blockquote> <div class="quote-footer"> </div> <p> </p> <p>Where the derailment occurred was in a flooded corn field. It was not on a bridge or a culvert over a flooding river. If the railroad had chec the tracks earlier, which many have suggested they had, they would not have seen anything outrageous about a flooded cornfield next to the tracks. </p> <p> </p> <div style="clear:both;"> </div> <p>[/quote]</p> <p>I find it interesting that both of you pic one facette. One the Major Flood Stage, the other the water in the fields.</p> <p>I agree that even a Major Flood Stage doesn't represent a danger when the track is high enough above this level.</p> <p>On the other hand this is not an insurance that nothing can happen. It is only the obvious. Even lower water levels can weaken a dam over time of application or multiple recurrence.</p> <p>That aside there is still the bridge. The train didn't derail on the bridge but at the time of the accident it was on the bridge. The situation there, with almost record level and according fast currents, let me think that a restricted speed might have been appropriate.</p> <p>All answers we got were about the water in the fields but the Rule 6.21 mentions bridges explicitly.</p> <p>It is not one facette, it is the whole situation.<br />Regards, Volker</p>
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