By Railfan & Railroad Staff

NEW ORLEANS — Railroads in Louisiana and Texas are bracing for Hurricane Laura, which is expected to bring “catastrophic” flooding and extreme winds to the Gulf Coast when it lands late Wednesday or early Thursday. The National Weather Service is predicting the storm will make landfall as a Category 4 hurricane. 

On Wednesday, NWS offered a dire warning to the region: An “unsurvivable storm surge with large and destructive waves will cause catastrophic damage from Sea Rim State Park, Tex., to Intracoastal City, La. This surge could penetrate up to 30 miles inland from the immediate coastline. Only a few hours remain to protect life and property and all actions should be rushed to completion.”

Nearly all of the Class I railroads that serve the region were warning customers to expect delays in the coming days and that some facilities in Louisiana and Texas are closing. Union Pacific was curtailing some operations and detouring some trains via Memphis because interchange with eastern carriers at New Orleans would be prevented due to closed flood gates. Kansas City Southern was positioning equipment and employees to be able to restore service as soon as the storm passed.

“It is anticipated that service will be impacted for approximately 36 hours,” the railroad advised customers. “KCS will have crews ready and available to begin assessing the tracks Thursday morning to identify areas needing attention before service can safely resume.”

BNSF Railway, CSX and Norfolk Southern were also detouring trains and telling customers to be ready for delays. 

Amtrak was suspending service to New Orleans, Houston and Little Rock, Ark. and was keeping trains like the Sunset Limited, Crescent, Texas Eagle and City of New Orleans out of impacted areas. 

Museums were also bracing for the storm. On Tuesday, BNSF helped the Galveston Railroad Museum move some of its equipment to higher ground away from potential flooding.