Travis Fedschun
Fox NewsMon, 24 Sep 2018 15:15 UTC
© Fox News
Authorities in Iowa are working to clear a massive train derailment that sent cars tumbling into a river on Sunday.
The Sioux County Sheriff's Office
posted dramatic video taken by a drone that shows the wreckage near Alton, located about 40 miles northeast of Sioux City.
"There are no reported injuries," the sheriff's office said. "No known hazardous materials have been leaked into the river or air."
A spokesperson from Union Pacific
told KETV the 95-car train was traveling from Mankato, Minn. to North Platte, Neb. when 38 cars derailed.
The train was hauling industrial sand and soybean oil, according to the railroad. One or more cars may be releasing industrial sand into the Floyd River, according to KETV.
"There are no reported injuries, no known hazardous materials are leaking or in the air,"
city officials said on Facebook. "Railroad and local Emergency Management officials are on scene accessing the situation at this time."
Travis Fedschun is a reporter for FoxNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @travfed
Comment: The
Des Moine Register reports:
The massive crash followed days of heavy rain in the area, which had elevated the river below the railroad bridge to a record high earlier in the week. As of early Sunday afternoon, the Floyd River was still barely above flood stage at 13 feet, meteorologist Kyle Weisser with the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, told the Register.
Espinoza said an estimated 37 of the train's 95 cars derailed. The train, on its way to North Platte, Nebraska, from Mankato, Minnesota, was carrying industrial sand and soybean oil. Some of the sand spilled into the river.
Twenty of the derailed cars fell into the river, according to Union Pacific. The bridge beneath the train was destroyed.
Oltmans said the bridge over the river is "gone ... laying in pieces underneath the train." Several local fire departments, county officials and Union Pacific personnel responded to the early morning crash.
Oltmans said people living three or four blocks away from the bridge heard the loud crash, the second train derailment of the year in northwest Iowa.
Weisser said that the area of the state around Alton received 4-8 inches of rain earlier in the week. According to weather service measurements, Alton received 4.58 inches of rain between Tuesday and Friday.
The heavy rains forced the city to close a section of Third Avenue that goes above the river, Oltmans said. It was still closed as of Sunday afternoon.
The Floyd River, Weisser said, peaked on Thursday afternoon at 21.96 feet - about 12 feet above flood stage. When the train derailed, the weather service's measurements showed the fallen cars acting as a temporary dam for the river.
Comment: The Des Moine Register reports: