River Runner Incident 17 Jan 2020

[John_Perkowski]

So the westbound Missouri River Eagle ... errrrrr, Runner has a boulder fall on top and penetrate the roof of one of its Amfleet cars tonight. OBTW, we’ve had an ice storm and freezing rain across the state today.

[STrRedWolf]

Hmmm... I was inclined to say "I can't believe this was a natural accident."

Then I turned on and rotated around the 3D view in Google Maps. Yeah, there's enough of a ledge, plus the weather over there's been a mess. (Company has a few datacenters in Kansas City)

My next thought was "Why were they returning them to their original... oh right, the weather. They probably can't even get buses there."

So my guess now is Amtrak paid a decent "donation" to the Assumption Church of Morrison to open for folks to be held until a bus or three got there, and took SR 100 to I-44 and hauled them all back to St. Louis.

[StLouSteve]

I think it was a Horizon car rather than Amfleet that got damaged near the roofline. The Cafe car is usually the only Amfleet in the Mo consists.

[electricron]

So my guess now is Amtrak paid a decent "donation" to the Assumption Church of Morrison to open for folks to be held until a bus or three got there, and took SR 100 to I-44 and hauled them all back to St. Louis.

Many smaller communities in the USA emergency services are volunteers. Almost all emergency shelters in these smaller communities are church facilities or school facilities. These facilities are opened for emergencies freely, without any expectations of money in return. Schools will probably ask for some money from the local governments to help spread out the costs of the emergency services. Of course, churches will not miss the opportunity to ask for donations for all the tasks they do. But in both cases, neither Amtrak nor its passengers will be charged with a bill.

Whatever Amtrak decides to donate to the church later is up to them. It might not even be money - it could be some free tickets. But the church provided whatever deeds they provided freely to those in need - however temporary that need may be.

[skibum77]

I know of a very similar incident that happened on the KATY trail a few years ago a few dozen miles east of this spot, near Augusta. A couple was riding the trail and stopped to take a break at a bench when a boulder fell right on the guy's head and sent him to the hospital. Amazingly, he survived, but I'm not sure his life has been the same since. In a very "It's a Small World" twist of events, some of my biking buddies were riding that day and were the some of the first people on the scene. The cliffs in that area are all limestone and for a rock, they break apart pretty easily.

[Arborwayfan]

As a former congregational president, electricron, I think your're probably right. I wouldn't have minded help with food costs and whatnot. We never actually got asked to help with anything like this, but when I had the keys I'd have opened right up.