SILVANA, Wash — An Amtrak Cascades train struck a downed tree during Tuesday's windstorm, causing significant damage to the cab car. Train 519 was on its way from Vancouver, B.C. to Seattle when it struck a tree that had fallen onto the tracks near Silvana, Wash., at around 7:50 p.m., according to a statement from Amtrak.
Photos from Amtrak shared by the Washington State Department of Transportation showed significant damage to the front of the engine, with pieces of tree embedded in the metal, and other photos show that a large piece of trunk or branch was driven through the center of the front windshield, into the space between the two operator seats inside the cab.
An engineer was taken to a hospital for evaluation and was treated and released. There were no other reported injuries, according to Amtrak. The train was carrying 48 passengers, who were given alternate transportation to get to their destinations.
The damaged engine is owned by the Oregon Department of Transportation, according to Amtrak. The Cascades line is operated by Amtrak but jointly owned by Oregon and Washington. The line runs from Vancouver, B.C. to Eugene, although none of the trains on the daily schedule run the entire route — Train 519, for example, terminates in Seattle.
The Tuesday night windstorm was caused by a bomb cyclone that formed over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the Pacific Northwest, with the outer edge clipping the western halves of Washington and Oregon. Washington generally saw higher windspeeds and more extensive damage from the storm.
A separate winter storm is impacting Amtrak operations in southern Oregon; severe winter weather closed a large section of Interstate 5 at the Oregon-California border on Wednesday, and Amtrak's Coast Starlight service through the region was also canceled for the day.
