Bridge, Phillips, Elam Drainage District News From the desk of Milton Sandy Jr
December 11, 2011
Vol 2011-14
This newsletter is directed to friends and supporters of our efforts to get something done about the repetitive flooding in Corinth and Alcorn County which on May 2, 2010, caused loss of life, public and private property and threatened public health and safety by the massive release of raw sewage into flood waters. If you have news, questions or comments, please fire away.
CLOSE CALL As mentioned in our July newsletter v2011-8, the connection with railroads, safety, and drainage was dramatically Flood Threat for December illustrated on Wednesday night, November 16, 2011, when 4 cars on the KCSRR derailed and rolled into Town Creek just north of its junction with Elam Creek behind the old Walmart shopping center. Fortunately the tanker which ended upside down directly in the creek apparently contained corn syrup and was considered non-toxic. Also, fortunately the weather was clear and sunny with no rain or water which could have greatly complicated the situation. With Town Creek almost totally blocked, a minor rainfall event could have easily flooded the old Walmart shopping center.
11/17/2011 12:23 pm Overturned rail car and bundles of OSB in Town Creek I watched the recovery efforts during the day and was very impressed with the professional and
Contact: Milton Sandy Jr 662-286-6087 - Fax 287-4187 - E-mail mlsandy@tsixroads.com
very efficient emergency response. What I observed was not only the KCS RR workers but also an outside services contractor, Hulcher Services, which had a full compliment of specialized equipment on hand to work on up righting the cars and removing the Oriented Strand Board (OSB) which fell into the Creek. On their website, Hulcher Services states that their goal is to be the premier “total services� provider for railroad, general industry and government, doing so in a safe, innovative, reliable and cost-effective manner. Their nearest service center is Memphis, TN. A call to their service center initiates the proper mobilization of division personnel and equipment, and their stated commitment is to be en route within one (1) hour from the initial call.
11/17/2011 USES pump truck
11/17/2011 22 wheeled equipment lowboy trailers
The wheels were removed from the overturned tank car and then the contents, which I was told was corn syrup, was pumped out by another outside contractor- United States Environmental Services (USES) which is a professional, full-service environmental contracting firm specializing in environmental emergency response also with a base in Memphis, TN. An estimated 18 to 20 men were working pretty much non-stop throughout the day to repair the damage to the tracks and prepare to upright the tanker overturned in the creek. The derailment people seemed very experienced and precise in their efforts. The single most specialized piece of equipment which I observed being used were two Cat 572 side booms. I had to go on their website to identify what these odd looking machines were called. They look like specialized bulldozers with rubber tired tracks to move over railroad tracks without damaging them and equipped with a side mounted boom as well as an extremely heavy winch with monster steel cables. While I was 11/17/2011 KCS RR crew truck expecting them to lift the car upright, they instead rolled the empty car back onto the tracks where they then lifted one end at a time to roll the wheels Page 2/9
back under the car. It reminded me of tools and techniques evolved from movers and riggers from the times of the pharaohs in Egypt who used levers and winches to build the pyramids. Shortly after dark, the overturned tanker was finally upright around 5:45 pm. Most of the equipment was equipped with lights to continue working after dark and I noticed laser pointers being used to direct the equipment operators, something the pharaohs probably would have found helpful. As I said, it was an impressive, smooth and professional sight to observe. I imagine it was also very, very expensive for the KCSRR.
Merry Christmas!
11/17/2011 Cat 572 side boom
This year seems to have gone by with a blast. I want to thank everyone who supported and gave me a vote of confidence in my election attempt. It was an opportunity for me to try something I'm obviously not cut out for. The many kind words and number of voters who did support me were quite a blessing in any case. I wish the best of luck to Mr. Larry Ross as our new tax collector and I have assured him that I will be available to help him in any way that I can. As I see progress in cleaning out the ditches in Corinth, I'm very grateful that we can sleep a little better thanks to the leadership and commitment of our mayor, Tommy Irwin. The mulching and clearing under his direction is going forward while we await our friends at the Tombigbee River Valley Water Management District. My thanks to my fellow commissioners John Warren Henson and Hull Davis, our attorney Chad Borden and our engineer, Bobby Scott. With their support I hope we can continue to make progress on finding a lasting solution to flooding in the coming years. I'm also reminded that we are following in the footsteps of another Corinthian we lost this past year who was responsible for the last time these ditches were substantially cleaned out. I would like to take a moment to remember him as this year draws to a close with this short tribute with biographical information compiled by Stephanie Sandy.
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Sulley Detroy Ayers (1920-2011) After the flood of May 2, 2010, city officials had been denying that Corinth had a flooding problem for so long, we had very little in the way of a plan as to where to start efforts to do something about flooding. What most people agreed and remembered about the last significant effort at cleaning the drainage canal creeks in Corinth dated back to the November 1972 flood when Sulley Ayers was the Corinth Street Commissioner. At that time, the Corps of Engineers had just finished a rather extensive flood insurance study identifying that there was a flooding problem in Corinth. The Soil & Water Conservation Service was working on a master Tuscumbia Watershed plan that was supposed to include Corinth, but as it turns out, did not. City officials at that time were also dragging their feet about the city doing anything about flooding. At that time, Sulley Ayers pretty much took matters into his own hands. As related by his son Buddy, Sulley Ayers found the city owned an old abandoned truck mounted Bantam drag line. The engine was locked up and considered useless. With the assistance of Mr. P.O.Turner, Sulley Ayers rebuilt the engine and got the truck and drag line working. The crane had about a 40 foot beam and a 3/8 yard drag bucket. Being rubber tired, the truck had to be moved, pulled and repositioned with bracing outriggers as it slowly cleared one spot of the creek at a time. Turns out this drag line has an interesting history. During WWII, truck mounted cranes and drag lines were used by Patton's armies during the Allies march across Europe. It is very likely that Sulley had seen them in operation many times during his military
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career. The Bantam drag line was first built by two brothers, Vern and Wilbur Schield in Waverly, Iowa, around 1940. Drag lines had been invented around 1900 but had only been produced as much larger and heavier pieces of equipment used in large scale mining. Vern and Wilbur were farmers who ran a limestone quarry as a side business. For their own use, they built a small scale version of the drag line out of spare parts and mounted it on an old truck chassis. The machine was small and tough and named after the Bantam rooster which became their logo. It was so economical and popular, they soon founded a business building the machines for other small scale miners and construction contractors. The machine was mounted until around 1954 on readily available surplus WWII truck bodies. It was also mounted on a variety of other platforms including crawlers and railroad bodies. The company was sold in 1963 and is today a part of Terex Crane Company. In the 1950's, Bantam Schield claimed to be the largest producer of truck mounted cranes in the world. A video of a Bantam truck mounted drag line still operating can be found on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhFNpduWFns if you would like to see how it was done. With this formerly junked piece of equipment, Sulley Ayers started cleaning out Bridge, Phillips and Elam Creeks. His work after the 1972 floods largely mitigated flooding damage in Corinth until the turn-of-the-century. After that time, the city of Corinth did double damage by ignoring the condition of the drainage canal creeks and by allowing development contrary to flood plain regulations. Sulley's 1972/73 clean-up initiatives protected lives and personal property until the 2001 floods, almost 30-years. Most of the immediate efforts that we have targeted today are following in his footsteps.
Bantam Drag line
Sulley Detroy Ayers was born on June 11, 1920 in Tippah County where his grandfather farmed. Sulley's grandfather was Fred Ayers (ca. 1873 to 1971). After Sulley's birth the family moved to the Hatchie Hills area of Alcorn County where he was raised. Sulley Ayers married Miss Lila Fern Rencher (1926-2003) a daughter of Tishie M. (Mattox) and Robert C. Rencher of Alcorn County. They had two children, a daughter, the late Nina Benjamin, and “Buddy� Troy J. Ayers. World War II enlistment papers give his enlistment date as August 19, 1942 at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, and show that he was 71-inches tall, weighed 150 pounds, and was married. After basic training he was assigned to the 104th Infantry Division and sent to the African Theatre and later served in the Middle East theatre and the European theatre which included the Normandy Invasion, the Ardennes, Rhineland, central Europe, and the Battle of the Bulge. His awards include the African Theatre medal, the Mediterranean Operations medal, the European Occupation medal, Good Conduct medal, Bronze Star medal, WWII Victory medal, and the Purple Heart for injuries received in combat. (Military information from http://www.angelfire.com/va3/vom/july2003.html).
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After over two years of combat duty he was discharged as a private first class and returned home to Alcorn County, Mississippi, where he went into the logging business. Later he was elected supervisor for his district where he served 12 years and also was president of the board for 4 years. One interesting note is that Sulley Ayers returned from Europe aboard the British luxury liner which had been converted into a troopship and ferried Allied soldiers during the war. RMS Queen Mary landed in New York harbor on Nov. 27, 1945. Although it was a crowded ship (she could hold up to 10,000 troops) Sulley may have discovered that Sgt. Nolan C. Sumner of Corinth and William E. Caviness of Ripley were aboard too. Back in 1972, I'm sure there were a lot of townsmen who appreciated Sulley's independent initiatives cleaning up the creeks. He was a hero in many ways during his lifetime. Many didn't have time or make the opportunity to tell him at that time how much of a local hero he was. Time has a tendency to hide some things and to make some things clearer. His efforts were remembered after the incredible flood of 2010 and have been an inspiration as we work for the future. During this past year on January 21, 2011, Sulley Ayers passed away at the age of 90years.
AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION I'm reminded of a famous quotation of Ben Franklin's: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” While I'm sure the KCS RR will investigate the reason for this accident, I would offer these observations and speculations having been an observer beside this particular spot and tracks for the last 41 years. The railroad uses the multiple tracks in this area to sort railroad cars by a process commonly referred to as “humping”. Just like the postal service has to sort mail for delivery, the railroad has to sort cars for delivery to their ultimate destination. As the engine pushes the cars northward toward the junction of multiple tracks just past the bridge over Elam Creek, the engine brakes are applied, cars are detached, and momentum carries the detached cars forward and they are diverted onto one of the multiple tracks. A switch man has to manually control the switches that determine which track the car will roll onto. The “humping” comes when the free rolling car(s) hits the stationary cars ahead in line already sorted onto the track. Usually this is accompanied by ground shaking and noise Manual Railroad Track Switch which closely resembles thunder during a violent rainstorm. Over the years, I have had many visitors in my office who
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stop and look outside astounded on a clear and sunny day because they were sure they just heard thunder. Everyone who worked in our offices became accustomed to the sound and only noticed particularly violent impacts which would shake the entire building. I have often assured visitors that it was perfectly normal and was not thunder. The results of humping inside a car can be damage to the contents as the violent impact shifts the contents which in rail cars are usually very heavy to start with. You will sometimes see rail cars with placards attached saying “DO NOT HUMP”. In our experience, that never seemed to make any difference at all leading us to speculate whether such placards were just plain ignored or whether it was treated like a school prank attaching a sign saying “KICK ME” on somebody's back. We received railroad cars of lumber which were often shifted so badly that the contents looked like a giant game of pickup sticks requiring much additional time and expense and manual labor to unload. Over the years for this very reason, rail shipments of lumber largely shifted to trucks and to open railroad flatcars which had fixed center partitions to which the contents could be so solidly loaded and firmly attached so that shifting was almost impossible. In the case of the car of oriented strand board (OSB) that was damaged in this accident, the only board which appeared damaged was sitting parallel to the length of the car in the doorway and fell out into the creek. When the car tilted these bundles were pushed sideways against the door and the weight apparently pushed and broke the door open and off. Giant inflatable pillows had been inserted inside the car to take up any vacant space and keep the contents from shifting forward or backward but when the car rolled sideways, the door was the weak link. The board remaining in the car did not appear to be damaged at OSB manufactured at Norbord, Saltillo, MS on 11/12/2011 all. A tanker filled with liquid behaves differently than a boxcar filled with solid material. Liquids have much more room to move, slosh and the weight of the contents shifts the center of gravity of the car when humped. It is pretty apparent from the photograph below of the tracks taken from behind the old Walmart shopping center that there was a great deal of slant or bank in the outermost track leaning toward Town Creek. The center tracks which are the main line of the railroad appear to be well maintained and you can see from the side only one track because they are very level. The next track you can see some of both of the rails because it has a slight amount of slant. The outside track, next to the Creek, you see all of both rails indicating to me a great deal Page 7/9
of slant towards the Creek. If the outside of NASCAR tracks were banked or slanted like this, it would really add to the excitement of car racing as the race cars left the tracks and flipped into the stands. It is easy to see how a tanker could have rolled over from this track if its contents shifted. The obvious thing to ponder about this incident is how lucky that this car was filled with corn syrup and not something more dangerous. Have you ever wondered what those four digit numbers on the placards on the side of trucks and rail cars mean? Pictured below are just a few of the placards for illustration on tank cars spotted on the KCSRR siding around the same time as this accident. The USDOT requires any hazardous materials to be identified with a triangular placard identifying its contents. The color will generally identify the type of material and a 4 digit number will identify the contents. This information is to help responders in case of an emergency.
CL 2 Gas - Chlorine
11/27/11 KCSRR tracks looking West from old Walmart shopping center
CL 3 Flammable Liquid Denatured Alcohol
CL 8 – Corrosive Material Sulfuric Acid
I can assure you that if one of these were overturned and any of the contents escaped, the results could have been much more devastating. We can all take a breath and say we were lucky this time. We can also say we had been lucky that flooding had been less severe several times before May 2, 2010. Which brings me back to Ben Franklin's observation, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”
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Jimbo Mathus A couple of newsletters ago, I mentioned that Stephanie and I enjoyed a performance by Jimbo Mathus, a Corinth and Alcorn County local son in Tupelo at the Blue Canoe. The Blue Canoe is located on old Hwy 45 going into Tupelo just south of Sams Club and across the road from the Northern Highway Department Headquarters on the hill. The food was good, reasonably priced, and the building is an excellent, intimate venue for enjoying music performances. Jimbo writes most of his own music and appropriately for an Alcorn County native, has several songs related to flooding including “Cling to the Roots”, a song off his latest CD, “Confederate Buddha”. During the late 90's Jimbo enjoyed considerable national success with a group called the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Almost entirely original, his music now reflects his roots in North Mississippi and to me is a blend of blues, bluegrass, Southern Rock with a little story telling thrown in.
Jimbo Mathus
To catch him in a live performance, he will appearing again this weekend at the Blue Canoe in Tupelo on Saturday 12/17/2011 at 8:30 pm, with a $5 cover charge. I recommend you catch a rising star while you can.
FEMA replies to AG’s floodplain request In a late breaking story, it appears FEMA is now threatening the whole state of Mississippi with withdrawing flood insurance and disaster assistance because Mississippi state law Code Section 17-2-9 prohibits counties and cities from enforcing building codes, including local floodplain management ordinances, against duly qualified hunting and fishing camps. Apparently fishing camps in the Mississippi Delta at least in Bolivar county are within counties which participate in the national flood insurance program.
Bantam Truck mounted drag line – note logo on rear with roosters
Apparently FEMA has given the state legislature until the end of the 2012 session. The Kmart lawsuit is now on hold in Aberdeen federal court awaiting a ruling on whether FEMA can be sued as a party to that lawsuit. One of their defenses is that they only draw the maps, they maintain that they don't enforce the regulations. While I agree the state law is contrary to Federal Floodplain regulations and probably should be changed, it makes the FEMA defense in that case sound a little shallow. Why start enforcing regulations when they have been looking the other way for the last 40 years?
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