I left my house around 11am and noticed that the Big Papio creek was levee full just to the east of my home. While driving south to Oreapolis a quick look over to the east at La Platte revieled that the Papio was almost to the top of the levee.
Oreapolis is basically lost. The road into the area is closed and underwater. The BNSF main track 1 had just the rail head above the water. Track two has been elevated but is still barely above the water. On the Omaha Sub was a loaded ballast train that was cut off due to the track 1 issues and the east leg of the wye also being under water. The area surrounding the diamond crossing is becoming a lake and the only available access point being from the west.
In Bellevue, NE the BNSF Omaha Sub north of the levee that was built across the track at Hwy 370 is underwater. The main and siding have been covered and are for a significant distance to the north. The BNSF will have lots of rebuilding in this area once the flood waters receed.
On the Iowa side 192nd St from Hwy 370 to Council Bluffs will soon be impassible. I encountered a couple of sections of the road where is was water covered and the level was rising. This is the gravel road that is used by BNSF and UP crew vans to get access to the small yard at the Bunge Soybean plant.
On the northside of Council Bluffs the Beano crossing (Musical Hills Lane) for the UP has been raised but the CN crossing is an island and flood waters have now reached the land in between the CN and UP (see above picture). The UP should be save as the row was raised a foot two weeks ago.
Omaha is having issues today. The BNSF dragged all of the units they had in their S. Omaha Gibson yard and the two shoving platforms out and had them parked and shut down at the Amtrak station. This got my curiosity up and I headed down to Gibson yard. Soon after crossing over the tracks on Missouri Ave the hell mary move became apparent.
It appears that the storm water has collected in the "bowl" that is the Gibson yard area and has flooded a large section of the area. Omaha city crews where setting up pumps and trying to pump the water out but the damage had already been done. The Hills Bros box plant has been flood out and probably sustained some significant damage.
The BNSF owned line that is used by the UP for N. Omaha access was also observed as being under water just north of the I-80 Missouri River bridge. This eccentially cuts off the UP 844 and 26 passenger cars at the TD Ameritrade stadium and would prevent them from being removed if there was a levee break in the N. Omaha area.
