UPDATED 8 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26: Amtrak train stranded in Oregon after hitting tree being towed to Eugene

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Nearly 200 people have been stranded on an Amtrak train in the Eugene area for 24 hours due to downed trees and heavy snow and may not be rescued until Tuesday morning, officials say.

The Amtrak Coast Starlight train left Seattle around 9:45 a.m. Sunday with a planned final destination of Los Angeles, but hit a tree in Oakridge a little before 6:20 p.m. and has remained there since then, according to Olivia Irvin, an Amtrak spokeswoman. She said 183 passengers are on board.

Crews with Union Pacific, which owns the rail lines, have been helping clear a path to the stranded train, said Tim McMahan, a Union Pacific spokesman. They are expected to reach the train by 6 a.m. Tuesday. Passengers would then be transported back to Eugene and then Portland, he said.

Oakridge is about 45 miles southeast of Eugene. The area received 10 to 14 inches of snow by Monday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. Power outages have also been widespread in the area.

Pacific Power reported Monday evening that 42,000 customers were without power from Corvallis to Roseburg, which saw more than 31,000 customers without electricity.

McMahan, the Union Pacific spokesman, said Amtrak made the decision to keep passengers on board because of the local power outages. The train has power.

“Also, with only two small hotels in town they don’t want to separate the passengers prior to having them rebound for departure,” he said.

Passenger Rebekah Dodson said the train hit low-hanging branches, and the damage ultimately disabled the locomotive. Crews tried to make repairs until 1 a.m. Monday to no avail, she said.

Passengers were told at 7 a.m. that another train would tow them to Eugene and told at 1 p.m. that the train was still coming, said Dodson, of Klamath Falls. She said they hadn’t heard any official word from Amtrak on when they would be rescued since then.

The last announcement from an Amtrak worker came around 6:30 p.m., announcing someone would be playing the ukulele for children on board.

“It’s been difficult to keep people’s panic down and morale up because we have no idea when we’re getting off,” said Dodson, an author and professor at Klamath Community College. Her trip from Albany to Klamath Falls was supposed to last four hours.

“It’s just a mess and there’s nowhere we can go.”

Dodson said passengers were served breakfast and lunch, but mostly have to rely on eating whatever they brought with them or share with each other. She said they’ve run out of drinking water and some parents have had to tie washcloths together with safety pins to act as diapers for young children.

She estimated several feet of snow on the ground outside and said they appear to be in a wooded area. The owners of two dogs are periodically allowed to go outside with their pets but everyone else has to remain inside and keep the windows closed. Many people don’t have cell reception.

She said the train is apparently running on auxiliary power and still has heat and has at least six working bathrooms.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere and the nearest roads in the area are closed,” Dodson said. “We would love to be able to get back to Eugene at this point, but then what do we do when we get there?”

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 |@EvertonBailey

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