A good take away from the severe weather thread that was posted recently is does your museum or railroad have a severe weather policy?

The line I am involved with has written polices about the train not departing when the area is under a Severe Thunderstorm or Tornado Warning, or if caught on the line to proceed to the nearest crossing that doesn't involve crossing a bridge. All of our crew radios have the local NWS weather radio frequencies so the crew can listen in.

Do you have any similar polices?

For that matter, is there a plan if -God forbid- a tornado (or other disaster or problem) dumps your train on its side or way off the track? How would you get your passengers home?
I know plenty of operations that are running on a shoestring budget and have only one locomotive, what would you do if your train suddenly got stranded on the other end of your line or in a remote portion?
I've always wondered what'd happen if that took place on a few railroads I've ridden on.

You'd be surprised how many places, rail-related and not, have NO severe weather plan. (Disclaimer: I'm thinking about getting a master's in emergency response, so it's very much on my mind.) Case in point:

Hurricane Ivan stalled over our area and dropped seven to ten inches of rain between 6 AM and 3 PM, 1200 miles from the Gulf, when the forecast had called for maybe five inches over three days. Most of that rain fell between 11 AM and 1 PM.

The local schools are in a safe place, up on a bluff where any flooding would require an ark. By contrast, the bus routes all run through low spots that were blocked by or shortly after 11 AM. The main highway was half blocked by landslides and had enormous waterfalls streaming over the southbound lanes. The kids were safe at school, water and power lines were intact and there was adequate food for at least a couple of days. That's why the school administrators called off classes at noon and sent the buses out in a Cat 2 hurricane, getting several of the buses stuck in rising water.

Mind, this wasn't an isolated, severe flooding thunderstorm where a single bus might run into a flooded creek before the word got out; it was an area-wide disaster. Some flooding had been forecast and we were in a flash flood watch even before the rain began. The warning went out just before 11 (I was on the phone with NWS Pittsburgh at the time.) There was no way the schools didn't know about the severity of the situation. Whatever your organization decides to do about severe weather, DON'T DO THAT! It was a miracle that no children were killed and only a few had to spend hours on a bus stuck in high water.

My suggestions:

--Know at least one way out of your property other than the main gate. It's more likely than you'll have to maneuver around road work or a traffic jam than a major disaster, but you're prepared either way. Think about how to get cars out of the parking lot quickly if something really weird happened (hazmat derailment, impending tornado.)
--Think about what you'd need to do if the most likely service interruptions happened. What would you do if a passenger run broke down, if a tree blocked the track, if something derailed and the engine crew couldn't handle it?
--Think about the less likely problems, including whatever severe weather you might get.
--Have a NOAA-capable weather alert radio around your cash register or other place where staff are always around to hear it.
--Have the NOAA weather app on any cell phones in official use.
--Include severe weather watches and warnings in job briefings.

Think about what would happen if staff had to stay at the facility for the night. A lot of places are used to overnighters during work week, but if you're not, you might stash extra bottled water and a few five-gallon buckets for toilet flushing somewhere safe. If there are no snack machines on the property, consider keeping some breakfast bars in the crew room and always keep some in your grip. It's also not a bad idea to carry some hand sanitizer for emergencies (water line breaks are at least as common in most areas as severe weather.)

If open and operating car service at the time of the first sound of thunder, we move the streetcars back to storage in the car house and shut down the power to the trolley wire.

Wesley

There are at least two NWS employees who regularly read this board, one of them (not me!) is one of our top-notch field scientists and a qualified engineer at a north east museum.

NWS has a program called Storm Ready:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/stormready/

Read through this material. NWS has 122 Weather Forecast Offices around the country, each responsible for their local area and each an expert in that area. Each office has a Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM).

This person can help your organization gain Storm Ready status. Walking through the process will allow you to gain from the experience of others and the WCM may be able to make recommendations for your operation once he/she is educated about your operation. They will also help you to understand the threats for your specific area, be it flooding, tornado, tropical storms, etc..

Being Storm Ready will not only improve your ability to respond in emergency, but posting that you are storm ready will give a sense of comfort to your customers.

Bob Bunge
NWS Office of Dissemination

Forgot about StormReady. Some property insurance companies give a discount for businesses that participate.

Also, Skywarn is now available to almost everyone online. The (free) class is about two hours long and covers the most frequent weather problems in your area, how to recognize and report them. Skywarn.org will get you to your area's page.

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest.
I've asked the question at a few tourist railroadsd what they'd do in the case of a derailment, or any simple incident that would prevent the train from getting back in any timely manner. All I've ever gotten in the form of an answer was a blank stare.

You have to worry about a lot more that just the train.

Do you have a "safe" area for your employees and passengers and visitors, whether they are on the train or not?

Any plan for fire, flood, or washout? Derailment or collision in remote areas? Crossing accidents? Spills?

I get a feeling FRA is going to mandate disaster response plans, employee/volunteer and first responder training, and a pile of record keeping sooner, rather than later.

Who are you asking? In many cases the person who has the information probably isn't the one you'd be talking to. Those kind of decision and planning would come from management. The train crew will be much more likely to know things like first aid, CPR and how to contact 911. They will then get in touch with management to discuss how to address the problem. The answer could change from day to day and also location by location.

There's a whole list of things to think about, but for those of you who have been through various emergencies:

What was the most helpful thing you had in your emergency kit?

What did you wish you had?

I see an awful lot of people who depend on their phones for everything, including flashlight service, only to find that using a phone as a flashlight sucks up power fast. Also, the small blue-lit screen gives a pale, diffuse light that works for finding dropped car keys in the living room at night, but doesn't do much for navigating across broken glass and other debris. Real flashights, even small ones, are invaluable. Also, staff and regulatory agency numbers that are only programmed into the big boss' cell don't help if that phone is not on the property, dead or lost. An actual, printer or written list posted beside the phone in the office/gift shop/engine shed is really handy.

And cell phones can be useless if you are in a place with no coverage.

This alone is a huge issue. ALL the employees should at least be well aware of the emergency plans, where to find them, how to use them. Your engine crew might be busy, injured, or outright incapacitated, do the car hosts know what to do? Binders and photocopies are CHEAP, the emergency plan should be duplicated in the office,engine, in the cars, shop, etc. Phone numbers for emergency services, spill response, maybe heavy equipment providers (cranes, dozers, etc), first aid procedures, etc. Where are the emergency brakes and when is the appropriate time to use them? Same with hand brakes? Are your first aid kits in date? Appropriately equipped? Can you use cell phones on the whole route? Can you use 2-way radio? On the whole route? Is the only permanent mount radio in the locomotive? When the locomotive has an electrical failure and kills the big radio, can you make do with handhelds, or do you wish you had another big radio in the caboose?

Thanks, that was exactly my point.
It's hard not to snicker when someone says, "I'll just call the person with the answers," instead of having a good idea on their own. I've been in positions several times in the military where I couldn't reach anyone else and had to figure out stuff myself. And yes, I mean inside the US at the time. Cells simply don't work everywhere and it's always baffling to me that so many people don't know that. And that's assuming the cell signal is okay to start with. What if the guy you're trying to call dropped his cell, forgot to charge it, has it on mute, or is somewhere he simply can't hear it ring?
What would you do then?

Also, cell phones depend on towers, which often take damage in severe storms.

If you can't justify the expense of a land line somewhere on the property, at least have two different cell providers available, even if one of them is a cheap plan on a different network. Our Tracfones run us not quite $7 a month. VOIP is great, but not if your cable or satellite goes out.

What number should you use if county 911 isn't working or is overwhelmed?

Does everyone on the property know which fire/EMS service should come to the property in an emergency?

This may sound really stupid, but trust me, it isn't: do all of the volunteers know your physical address and how to direct EMS there? 911's software doesn't always give great GPS directions. We heard a scary call once where 911 thought the accident was at the mine's main office, rather than the portal. Fortunately, it was quickly straightened out and the department a block from the portal took the call instead of the one seventeen miles away, but had all parties not known how to fix the problem, it could have been very bad. If a museum uses a mailing address, make sure everybody knows to tell 911 that "we're at 2100 Reading Road, just past the big sign for the industrial park, on the right, and someone will be waiting at the gate."

Our local Fire/EMS usually makes a courtesy call once a year to look around and familiarize themselves with the facility.

Wesley