Hurricane Ida Impacting Operations

Announcement Number: CN2021-54
Categories: General Announcements
Posted Date: August 30, 2021

To Our Customers,

Hurricane Ida made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane along the Louisiana border yesterday afternoon.

As we continue assessing the impact to our network, the following is a summary of the current conditions:

  • We’ve established Command Centers to coordinate resource needs.
  • This morning our engineering crews began track inspections to assess storm damage. We have already staged ballast trains to assist with potential washouts.
  • Fallen trees, downed power lines and other storm damage have led to numerous road closures limiting travel to affected areas. Additional contract drivers are available to supplement transportation needs.
  • Multiple locations are currently experiencing power outages due to a loss of commercial power. We are working closely with local power companies and contractors in the impacted areas to restore service.
  • The New Orleans floodgates remain closed with no interchange to the eastern carriers; we continue to review reroute options.

Customers in the affected area with facilities or tracks out of service should open a case in Case Management. Please refer to the detailed instructions on our Hurricane Planning and Recovery page so we are aware of these outages.

We will continue to provide updates as more information is made available regarding network status and the New Orleans interchange. If you have any questions, please contact Customer Care & Support at 800-272-8777 or your Union Pacific representative.