High winds blow train off bridge in New Orleans

[Johnny_L.A]

Video

Hi winds blew a train off of the Huey P. Long Bridge in New Orleans. The cars were empty and did not contain hazardous waste. There were no injuries.

The reporter who captured it on video tells his tale:

“The clouds were black and green, like nighttime,” he said. “I said, ‘OK, I probably have come too far.’ So I drove back across, and that’s when the wind started picking up intensively. I needed to find shelter. There was no telling. It looked pretty bad.”

Thomas, age 26, pulled into the parking lot of the Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers restaurant at 919 S. Clearview Pkwy.

“The reason why the vehicle was parked that way was I couldn’t walk across the parking lot,” Thomas said. “The wind was too much. The rain actually hurt when it hit you. So I parked as close to the door as I could and pointed (the camera) toward the railroad tracks.”

And then he exited the vehicle to get to safety inside.

“There was a loud boom and a flash and the lights went out, and that’s when we all rushed to the bathroom in the back,” Thomas said. “The sound of it was unbelievable.”

[Johnny_L.A]

‘Hi’ winds?

I don’t know how that happened. Mod, please change to ‘high’.

[Colibri]

@Johnny_L.A

‘Hi’ winds?

I don’t know how that happened. Mod, please change to ‘high’.

Fixed.

[Kzbre5m]

Yeah, and can the mods change the error (I hope it’s an error) in the video link…

JEFFERSON PARISH, La. – You can’t stop saying “wow” when you watch this video.

The camera was rolling as CNN affiliate WGNO caught this happen during severe storms Monday morning. Strong winds forced some train cars off the elevated tracks in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, near the Huey P Long Bride.

Amazingly, no injuries were reported.

The New Orleans Public Belt tells WGNO that the railcars were empty and did not contain any hazardous materials.

Unless the train fell next to Rose McConnell Long?

But, more seriously, was the Raising Cane’s place okay? Now I want some.

[iiandyiiii]

Wow. Growing up in the area we drove past those elevated tracks almost daily. Glad that no one was hurt!

[Hypno-Toad]

I hope no one had their car parked under there. I’m guessing that that rolling stock is a total write-off. There’s no way to get it back on the tracks so they’re probably going to have to cut it all up to cart away. Maybe they can salvage the bogeys, air brakes and other gear, but not the main body. Was the locomotive overturned as well?

[Isilder]

@Hypno-Toad

There’s no way to get it back on the tracks so they’re probably going to have to cut it all up to cart away. Maybe they can salvage the bogeys, air brakes and other gear, but not the main body. Was the locomotive overturned as well?

You could easily crane an empty wagon up to there, but no why bother,
you can tow a single wagon on a truck… But no they won’t since that would be unstable and could cause damage… so becomes expensive to in terms of equipment costs, labour costs, and insurance.
So if the frame is a tangled mess, its going to be cut up into more managable bits to fit on standard recovery vehicles, like tow trucks, scrap metal trucks…

[Kzbre5m]

A little on-line map research shows a freight track below, serving several industrial buildings. The cars landed on a grass strip next to that track. If they can salvage them, just pull them back on these tracks. There’s a power line going under the trestle to the building next to Raising Cane’s, which is probably why the power blinked off in the video.

If the train dived off ten minutes sooner it would have plopped right down in the middle of a highway interchange. Before that, it would have been in the Mississippi.

There’s like 5 or 6 fast food places along there – must be the place for food.