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CSX adds freight route to transport cargo to New York with Port of Baltimore closed
BALTIMORE – CSX added a new freight route to transport cargo to New York while limited activity continues at the Port of Baltimore.
This will help get more shipments moving while maritime traffic is impacted by the Key Bridge collapse.
“CSX is taking proactive steps to help mitigate freight shipment disruptions in the transportation industry by launching a dedicated service solution between Baltimore and New York, in response to the devastating March 26 incident in which a cargo ship collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge leading to its collapse,” the train company said.
The routes will be implemented next week to help with managing the traffic flow that would typically transit through the Port of Baltimore and transport freight between New York and Baltimore.
“While the timeline for resuming freight operations at the Port of Baltimore remains uncertain, we are in constant communication with our customers, providing timely updates on the status of their shipments,” CSX said. “CSX is fully dedicated to meeting our customers’ transportation needs during this challenging period.”
The Key Bridge was struck by a cargo ship on March 26 and collapsed, sending eight construction workers into the Patapsco River.
Two of them survived, two others were recovered in a submerged truck and four others are still missing and presumed to be dead.
A second temporary passage was cleared Tuesday for commercial and essential ships in the Patapsco River following the collapse of the Key Bridge.
The 14-foot channel along the south of the disaster site will allow marine vessels access to the Port of Baltimore. An 11-foot channel, 264-feet wide, opened on Monday on the northeast side.
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FEMA administrator: “I don’t know that anybody could be fully prepared for the amount of flooding” from Helene in North Carolina
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said on Sunday that the “historic flooding” in North Carolina from the remnants of Hurricane Helene has gone beyond what anyone could have planned for in the area.
“I don’t know that anybody could be fully prepared for the amount of flooding and landslides that they are experiencing right now,” Criswell said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Helene made landfall in Florida as a powerful Category 4 storm late Thursday, before sweeping through states in the southeast. Criswell called the storm “a true multi-state event,” adding that her team on the ground has seen “significant impacts in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee.”
Asheville, North Carolina, was particularly hard hit as rising floodwaters damaged roads, led to power outages and cut off cellphone service.
For North Carolina in particular, Criswell said the agency has had teams in the area for several days and is sending more search and rescue teams. She said water remains a “big concern,” and the Army Corps of Engineers is working to see what can be done to get water systems back online. And she noted that the agency is also working to bring in satellite communications.
“We’re hearing significant infrastructure damage to water systems, communication, roads, critical transportation routes, as well as several homes that have been just destroyed by this,” Criswell said. “So this is going to be a really complicated recovery in each of these five states that have had these impacts.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has received reports of multiple fatalities across five states, Criswell said. She encouraged people in the affected areas who are looking for someone to call 211 and register the information.
Criswell said in Florida, there was up to 15 feet of storm surge in Taylor County, where she traveled to at the direction of President Biden, adding that there are record storm surges across the Big Bend area. She said in North Carolina, “we’re still in active search and rescue mode,” with ongoing flooding issues and landslides. The administrator will travel to Georgia and North Carolina to assess the impact of the hurricane in the coming days.
In terms of resources for the affected states, Criswell said “we absolutely have enough resources from across the federal family” and can draw from other federal agencies to support the response and recovery.
“We will continue to bring those resources in to help them,” Criswell said. “We want to work with them to rebuild in a way that’s going to help make them more resilient and reduce the impacts from the increased number of storms that they’re experiencing.”
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Nature: Sunflowers in South Dakota
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