Storm Damage

[AmericanSteam]

More than 40 miles of CSX’s ex-Clinchfield Railroad between Erwin, Tenn., and Spartanburg, S.C., are gone, including two bridges, and many sections along 50 miles of NS’s ex-Southern S-Line between Marshall, N.C., and Old Fort, N.C., through Asheville, N.C., are washed away.

But railroads don’t have the choice to not rebuild as they did 40 or 50 years ago. Class I railroads have rationalized their networks to the extent that there is very little redundancy, leaving few efficient alternatives in the event of a catastrophic event like Hurricane Helene.