Shiner
SHINER — Workers on Saturday continued to clear debris and derailed train cars, some of which toppled over and dumped coal along a large portion of tracks bisecting this community of 2,000 about 50 miles north of Victoria.
The massive derailment of 17 cars on a Union Pacific Railroad train shut down all rail crossings within Shiner city limits on Friday night, authorities said. Coal spilled from rail cars, but no chemicals were released into the air. No one was injured.
"It's a mess," Lavaca County Sheriff Micah Harmon said Friday night.
Harmon said he was notified of the derailment sometime after 6:30 p.m.
In a prepared statement, Union Pacific spokeswoman Sheri Uno said the derailment was about 6:40 p.m. "Approximately 17 cars on a Union Pacific train derailed in the area of N Avenue E and E 6th Street in Shiner," she said in an email. "No one was hurt. Union Pacific has cleared the coal cars and is working to reopen the line. The cause of the derailment is under investigation."
The derailed cars could be seen on Saturday twisted and warped like aluminum cans that had been torn in half. Mounds of coal littered the ground as if it were back at the mine.
Start of weekend
As residents of Shiner enjoyed the start of their Friday evening and welcomed the weekend, those in the "cleanest little town in Texas" were stunned when the train derailed.
Residents told the Victoria Advocate it sounded like a bomb went off. They said they felt the earth shake.
About 9:15 p.m. Friday, the sheriff estimated it would take about 15 hours to clear the wreckage.
When the train derailed, Egon Barthels, Lavaca County emergency management coordinator, had just returned from the Texas Emergency Management conference in San Antonio and planned to rest. It wasn't to happen.
"Thank God nobody got hurt," Barthels said. "It's an inconvenience, but inconvenience beats fatalities."
Barthels said he didn't expect to have to use some of what he learned at the weeklong conference so quickly.
Observers could see numerous rail cars derailed and damaged along the north-south rail line that runs through the city, Harmon said.
The rail line cuts across Avenue E, one of the city's main thoroughfares. It travels parallel to Fifth Street, which connects to SH 95.
Uno, the Union Pacific spokeswoman, said the cause remains under investigation.
Contractor crews working for Union Pacific mobilized from Corpus Christi late Friday evening and early Saturday morning and spent all day Saturday clearing the tracks, from the dead of night to the hot summer afternoon and into the evening.
Trucks hauled heavy equipment from bulldozers, and street sweepers and excavators were staged in the small Texas town, awaiting use.
As of Saturday evening, Avenue E has reopened partially and Union Pacific crews were working to clear the rail line. By 10:30 a.m. Saturday, the railway crossings at Avenue C and Avenue G were open and many Shiner residents were able to carry on with their day nearly normal.
Cars still lined up for the Saturday rush at Shiner Barbeque, less than a block from the where crews were working.
People stopped to gawk and take photos of the accident, and neighbors joked with each other about the big news in town.
A map of where the train derailed Friday evening.
Normal foot traffic in the area wasn't affected on Saturday, but it certainly changed the landscape of the area for a bit, Barthels said.
Barthels thanked the partnerships that helped with traffic and getting the roads clear, including help from nearby Gonzales County.
Kyle Cotton was born and raised in San Antonio and graduated from San Antonio College and the University of Texas at Arlington. Cotton has covered economic development, health care, finance, government, technology, oil and gas and higher education.
Source: https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/premium/shiner-derailment-workers-reopen-some-roads-clear-debris-overturned-train-cars/article_d41b1ce2-e452-11ec-a2b4-afb262aa2f94.html
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