Monitoring Hurricane Francine

Announcement Number: CN2024-26
Categories: General Announcements
Posted Date: September 11, 2024

To Our Customers,

We continue to monitor Hurricane Francine as it approaches the Gulf Coast. The hurricane is expected to make landfall tonight, impacting the south coast of Texas and Louisiana.

Last night, the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad (NOPB) closed its bridge and will not operate until after storm damage assessments are completed. The city of New Orleans began the installation of flood gates to mitigate potential flooding.

We continue preparations along our network to respond quickly to potential outages. In addition to the preparation measures we communicated in yesterday’s update, the following preparations are also being made:

  • Locomotives have been staged incrementally in anticipation of surge requirements.
  • Engineering teams are in position and ready to respond once it is safe to begin track and bridge inspections.
  • Due to New Orleans flood gate closures, some short-term scheduling adjustments over Memphis have been coordinated with our eastern interchange partners.

To ensure you are properly prepared, please visit our Hurricane Planning and Recovery Page, which outlines best practices to follow during the hurricane season.

As conditions develop, we will continue to provide updates on this weather system and the status of our network. If you have any questions, please contact Customer Care & Support at 800-272-8777 or your Union Pacific representative.