Listening to XM Radio 247, the emergency channel, and they stated 800 busses and "trains" were evacuating people from New Orleans starting 8am local time Saturday? Did they use the equipment of all the annulled trains announced this week?
They are using the train terminal as a staging point, where people must sign in and then will be placed on busses or trains.
My train videos - http://www.youtube.com/user/karldotcom
Here is what I found on the Amtrak site. It does not provide many details, but yes it appears they are using the equipment from anulled trains.
Service Alert: Hurricane Gustav: City of New Orleans, Crescent, Sunset Limited Service Affected
August 29, 20087:00 pm CDT
The approach of severe weather and a declaration of an emergency have prompted Amtrak to temporarily suspend service to and from New Orleans for the safety of passengers, employees and equipment.
Amtrak train equipment currently in New Orleans will be made available to federal and state authorities to assist in the evacuation of the city and to help maximize capacity for the evacuation. Amtrak is taking this action as a national transportation asset in accordance with its contract with the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), which is preparing for the evacuation of New Orleans.
Patrick Boylan
Free yacht rides, 27' sailboat, zip code 19114 Delaware River, get great Delair bridge photos from the river. Send me a private message
They ran trains from New Orleans to Memphis. I tjhink evacucees were bused from there.
George
FEMA 1 & FEMA 2 used 2 trainsets. FEMA 1 was mostly a CONO Superliner with some ConnDOT cars. FEMA2 was mostly an Amfleet set with more ConnDOT cars. 4P42's with 2 units on each end. You could search places like Railroad Images for pix.
The approx 2000 passengers in 4 runs were put on Memphis transit buses to be taken to different shelters. Some may have been taken over to Jackson TN. A lot of rooms in Memphis-Jackson-Nashville etc were also booked solid.
The trains made their return trip with a detour over to Crescent/NS rails since the CN/IC rails were damaged. I hope the folks fron LA enjoyed their stay in TN.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.