Hurricane Helene

west point wrote: ↑Wed Oct 02, 2024 12:51 pm

Tadman wrote: ↑Wed Oct 02, 2024 9:02 am

David Benton wrote: ↑Sun Sep 29, 2024 4:27 pm Plus they are "breeding" timber trees to have smaller roots , bigger tops. Only going to get worst.

Yes, wilding pine a huge problem here.
The original pinus radiata from California,Brought over by gold miners in the 1800's, had a huge tap root. Dynamite the only way to remove one of those stumps. Over the years, they have been hybridization to produce less root, more usable timber. In cyclone Gabrielle, they fell over like matchstick, causing huge floods.
Probably the end of the railway in that region.

I don't see how this affects woods trees, residential properties, or ROW trees. This goes to tree farms.

Pine trees spread their seeds far and wide. Neighbor just had one of the (new) breed fall but did not hit anything.

yes , Wilding pines a huge problem here.
The original Pinus Radiata , brought from California by gold miners in the late 1800's , had a huge taproot , you need dynamite to remove a big stump. Over the years the have been hybrid bred to have more timber , less root. the result is a tree that falls over like a matchstick in a cyclone.
I have often wondered why the likes of the railroads transmission lines etc , haven't developed the ideal tree to plant along their r.o.w . why plant any tree you ask ? .well if you don't plant one , unless you spent a fortune on maintenance , a wild one will grow.

My local electric company seems to take the no tree approach. They hire arborists that clear cut their ROWs of anything that could eventually grow tall enough to reach their lines.

Clear cutting is an abomination.... leaving the stumps creates more problems later, so the real answer is to do a little preventative maintenance and clear things out every couple of years before they get too big to remove with the roots. Saplings can be pulled hand at 5 ft. At 8-12 ft, it's a quick tug from an ATV or truck using a tow line wrapped around the trunk. Anything larger than that's a minute or so with a chainsaw, but will leave a stump.

Last week before the storm got bad, I was able to clear a path for where we're trenching for our water and electric, measuring 550 foot in length and 8 foot wide. About 50 saplings were pulled by hand, another 20 were yanked roots and all with the ATV, and four 4" trunks were cut down/yarded up with the chainsaw... Took me about an hour, but now I have a clear path to run the trencher thru, and it'll turn out to be a nice ATV path for the kids and grandkids to use once the trenches get filled in.... With someone else running the ATV and winch as I tied off & disconnected lines, it could have been done in a fraction of the time.

A two person crew could easily get a couple miles per day done, and not leave more than a couple stumps, if any.

Planting the ideal tree sounds cool, but the wild ones are free, so............

Back to trains themselves, Amtrak has lifted the travel restrictions on each line; any slowness is due to CSX restrictions now and late equipment.

Certainly, there's a shrinking number of containers to contend with from the East Coast ports right now, which should alleviate some of the freight interference....

That might be balanced out with increased shipments from West Coast ports which anticipated the strike happening.

eolesen wrote: ↑Thu Oct 03, 2024 5:05 pm Certainly, there's a shrinking number of containers to contend with from the East Coast ports right now, which should alleviate some of the freight interference....

That might be balanced out with increased shipments from West Coast ports which anticipated the strike happening.

One and a half hours later...

The east coast port workers strike is on pause until Jan 15th. They got a 61.5% raise and language against automation. If it gets fully approved, the strike will be doneski.

(An aside here. I'm not against automation, as long as said automation is being overseen similar to that of how some subways have automation but there's still someone in the cab who can take over in case of problems. I see that with the dock workers here as well. Checks and balances.)

So that pause will be short lived as things ramp back up again.

Yep. But it won't be an instant restart.

Sent from my SM-S911U using Tapatalk

So long as we seem to be discussing Longshoremen @ $200K at this topic, The Journal reports that some hold "they're struggling"

Fair Use:

.The demand by striking U.S. dockworkers for a 77% wage increase is breathtaking in its scale even to veterans of the bare-knuckle negotiations of past port labor contracts.

Dockworkers say that behind the outsize pay demand and the ranks of high-earning union members, especially in the New York region, are thousands who earn far less loading and unloading cargo at ports in places like Virginia, Florida and Texas, where pay scales are lower and ports aren’t as busy.

I guess my reaction to this is when I read of other well paid unionized professions such aa airline pilots (I do not include rail operating employees, as their latest dispute was more about working conditions than rates of pay), stage hands (at least in NY) or musicians, where one with a major symphony orchestra, once noted to me, "I get $200K a season just to blow this horn on cue?".

STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Fri Oct 04, 2024 6:50 am The east coast port workers strike is on pause until Jan 15th. They got a 61.5% raise and language against automation.

They did not get language about automation. That’s why the strike is just “suspended” until January 15th. They now go back to the bargaining table to try to get an agreement on automation. If they fail to reach an agreement by January 15, they walk out again.

Power problems in NC go beyond just down wires and poles. Appears at least one and maybe more substations got flooded. Fortunately, the power companies have portable ( if you call 200 tons portable) transformers to bring in with somewhat limited capacity. As an aside a few days ago there was a military train headed toward Atlanta with light vehicles, 4 x 4s and 6 x 6s backhoes, front end loaders, and various other support vehicles. Was not close enough to get unit of assignment. A WAG some kind of national guard equipment.

BTW train was pulled by a CP unit leading a KCS unit.

NOAA has released maps of the damage of North Carolina. At time of writing it just looks like the Satellite images of the rivers going into and out of Asheville and some other pictures, along with damage along the coast of Florida

https://storms.ngs.noaa.gov/storms/hele ... /-82.56538

In other news, it looks like Amtrak has the jump this time on canceling service in Florida for the next hurricane with Tampa in the crosshairs https://www.amtrak.com/alert/modified-s ... 4889354424. Brightline is saying operations as normal for now.

Follow link for article: TRAINS: Norfolk Southern line into Asheville, N.C., to be closed at least three months