Oroville Dam Evacuation Impacting Operations

Announcement Number: CN2017-13
Categories: General Announcements
Posted Date: February 13, 2017

To Our Customers,

The Oroville California Dam, the tallest dam in the United States, has experienced a hole in the spillway, which could lead to dangerous flooding. As a precaution nearly 200,000 people were evacuated Sunday. We are currently unable to run trains and provide local service between Roseville, Chico and Oroville, California. We are watching the situation closely to determine if trains will need to be rerouted around the closures. Traffic moving between Oregon, Washington and Southern California will experience delays due to the threat of the Oroville Dam situation. Customers can expect delays of 48 hours or more on shipments in the affected area. 

Other Delays in the Western Region
We continue to see flooding conditions in Northern and Central California, Northern Nevada and Northwest Utah. Union Pacific tracks are out of service between Oroville, California to Winnemucca, Nevada and from Elko, Nevada to Ogden, Utah due to sections of tracks that have been washed out. Trains approaching the flood-impacted areas are being rerouted between Roseville, California and Salt Lake City, Utah to minimize delays. Water has started to recede and our crews and contractors are working safely and diligently to restore the outages back to service. At this time, customer shipments may experience delays between 48-72 hours.

At Union Pacific, safety is our top priority. While we will always do everything we can to recover operations, the safety of our employees and the communities we serve will always be our primary concern.

Thank you for your business. Please contact the National Customer Service Center or your Union Pacific representative with any questions.

Original | Weather Map_2-13-17