Tropical Storm Ida damage, floods, etc

Take a look at the video halfway down in this article:
https://www.nj.com/news/2021/09/nj-tran ... elays.html

A set of multi-levels near Bound Brook trapped in the flood. I don't know exactly where - maybe a local can peg it (maybe from the highway overpass (287?) at the end of the video).Doesn't look good at all ($$$). The water is supposed to rise a few more feet today to a crest tonight.

Bound Brook, which is next to the Raritan River, has a new very high level levee around it, with cuts in it where the NJT tracks go through, but with gates that close across the tracks to prevent flooding along the tracks from the river into town. My guess is the train was trapped outside the gates when they closed, but why they didn't back up to get the heck out of there, or coordinate with the gates closing, I don't know. There seems to be catastrophic flooding between Somerville and Bridgewater and Bound Brook, not just at Bound Brook.
JS
So much for those high ground storage tracks NJT has been building after Sandy in various places... I guess it all happened too quickly.

NJT service is suspended almost statewide and there’s no Amtrak service on the entire NEC between Washington and Boston.

Heard Manville yard got flooded but I haven’t confirmed it yet. Any news on how Conrail North Jersey fared would be appreciated.

CP Bound Brook on the Conrail Lehigh Line is completely underwater.

Major screw-up (or incredibly bad luck) in Bound Brook it seems. THis article says the train stopped in a location such
that the flood gates to prevent flooding in Bound Brook could not be closed. Oops.
https://patch.com/new-jersey/bridgewate ... ing-videos

Oh well, that levee system for Bound Brook only cost $150,000,000 and was supposed to stop everything up to a 150-year flood. Bet there are some unhappy (and mad) people in Bound Brook right now

Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 11:04 amHeard Manville yard got flooded but I haven’t confirmed it yet. Any news on how Conrail North Jersey fared would be appreciated.

They had to chopper a crew out of Manville when the water got too high.

pumpers wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 7:46 pm Major screw-up (or incredibly bad luck) in Bound Brook it seems. THis article says the train stopped in a location such
that the flood gates to prevent flooding in Bound Brook could not be closed. Oops.
https://patch.com/new-jersey/bridgewate ... ing-videos

Oh well, that levee system for Bound Brook only cost $150,000,000 and was supposed to stop everything up to a 150-year flood. Bet there are some unhappy (and mad) people in Bound Brook right now

I imagine the town, insurers, and residents are all going to be eying up some large lawsuits against NJT for negligence.

The flood might be a surprise to people not paying attention, but the flooding wasn't unexpected, at all. Bound Brook shut it's other floodgates early in the morning in preparation. There's no reason this train should have been running as late as it was with the forecast, much less stopping in the one exact spot where it would block the flood gate.

yeah unclear to me why they didn't just back up once they saw what happened. the motive power wasn't underwater and it seems like they should have just been able to shove forward toward the bridgewater station to get out and let the gates close?

do the gates close automatically if clear?

This is the most NJT ever to happen, NO SURPRISE AT ALL. Once again epic failures from the top down... I mean really service levels are nowhere near 100% they should've been operating on a modified schedule to begin with, it's not like this was some summer afternoon severe thunderstorm they had DAYS to prepare for this, DAYS. And really they should've run extremely limited service, instead you have an 100% weekday roster on the rails with all of 10 people riding the whole idea is so beyond farfetched. And yeah I know the numbers are coming back but they are NOWHERE near 100%, 50% at best and on some lines its a lot worse.


Absolutely no excuse and utter ignorance by the engineer. Just like the fact that they wouldn't let people off the train on the NEC when it was on Track 1 and no flooding in the adjoining property instead they kept people on the train for 10 hours. So much common sense went out the window yesterday, the more we rely on technology I swear the dumber society gets. Stay the hell home how hard is that?? If you have to work, GO EARLY, if your at work STAY THERE. Little Johnny can last one night of you not tucking him in, I guarantee you that 90% of the deaths were 100% preventable. NJT needs to be disbanded in the worst way!

where to even start…

- this train got stuck on Thursday afternoon, not Wednesday, so even running 50% service wouldn't have changed anything
- NEC train (one single train) had 200 people on it, so your "all of 10 people" comment is literally false
- we had a tornado touch down in south jersey and destroy a bunch of homes. i wonder if those people should have seen it coming too?
- go read the replies to this tweet, people were literally losing their minds when service was suspended at 10 pm on Wednesday. literally can't win here — you stop service and it blows over, people lose their minds, you stop service with clear devastation in place, people lose their minds, you try to strike a middle ground…people still lose their damn minds.
- as far as the NEC situation is concerned…go ahead and tell Newark FD that they have no idea how to do their jobs and that people should have just waded in 4-5 ft floodwaters…on an active mainline…??? https://www.nj.com/news/2021/09/no-ligh ... aters.html

Here is a photo that looks like the train actually blocking the floodgate from closing in Bound Brook. https://www.nj.com/news/2021/09/see-the ... in-nj.html
Scroll about one third of the way down thru the photos. First you will find a video that is similar to the one I originally posted, and a few later is the photo of the train blocking the gate. Just one car is blocking the gate. Almost was ok, but a gate left open is a gate left open, unfortunately

NJT Raritan Valley Line service out indefinitely: "Travel Alerts
NJ TRANSIT Weekend Service 9/4-9/5: All rail lines will operate on a regular weekend schedule except the Raritan Valley Line, which remains suspended due to significant storm impacts. System-wide cross honoring remains in effect for rail, NJ TRANSIT and private carrier buses, and light rail." https://www.njtransit.com/travel-alerts-to

Whenever any RR has to go thru flood gates then an alternate means of moving a train out of the way is necessary. I would suggest a track mobile as its engine appears to be located fairly high above the track. Wonder how much NJ Transit is going to have to pay for blocking the flood gate ?

NJ Transit Statement about the above incident: https://patch.com/new-jersey/bridgewate ... during-ida
It was train 5451, about 9:30 PM Wednesday they said. (Westbound, supposed to depart Bound Brook at 8:57 PM)

Paraphrasing: "no one told us about any floods...". Although there had been flash flood watches all day, and probably by then flash flood warnings too.

On the other hand, so far I have not been able to find an article about how bad the flooding in Bound Brook actually was. It could be that with the gates closed against the train as in the picture mentioned in my previous post, the amount of water that could get through (for example under the car bodies) was low enough that it could have been mostly handled by pumps in Bound Brook. I think I have read there are pumps in BB as part of the flood control system, but where they are and what the water could have flooded on its way to the pumps, if they exist, I have no idea.

Wait, so there’s no interlock between the rails and the gate and the gate can just close onto the train like that? That seems crazy. And then the train just sat there for the next 24 hours? Since the videos are from Thursday afternoon. Or is that a second train getting stuck?

Is this train stopped at the station or is it between stations? This seems a key question to ask. For if it between station s, why did it stop right at the flood gate. Is there a signal there that required the engineer to stop the train right there?