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JASPER COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - Dozens of passengers were stuck on an Amtrak train for over 15 hours in Jasper County as Helene’s winds brought trees down, blocking the train tracks.

Amtrak train #98 was stuck in Ridgeland, S.C. on the tracks near West Frontage Road and Taylor Mill Road.

The train’s route begins in Miami, FL and ends in New York, NY with many stops along the way. One passenger, Brandi Phillips, got on the train at a Savannah, GA station around 10 p.m. Thursday.

Around an hour later, the train suddenly stopped.

“We were told we had to stop because there was a tree that was in the train tracks and we couldn’t move. They (Amtrak) had sent us a mass text saying that crew members would be here in 60 minutes to get everything cleared away, and we would be back and rolling,” Phillips said. “60 minutes turned into 15 hours.”

When trying to get answers, passengers said communication was limited from crew on the train and when they tried to get a hold of customer service…

“We have been getting rude remarks from their customer service agents telling us it’s our fault, that we shouldn’t have been traveling during a storm, that we knew about the storm and that basically we should have had alternate routes to take,” Phillips said.

Over the next 15 hours, Phillips said passengers were only offered a complimentary beef stew and a bottle of water. If they wanted anything else, more snacks and beverages were available for purchase.

“There’s elderly people on here; there’s children, and this train is like 50 degrees. It is freezing cold,” she added.

The only way passengers were allowed off was if they had a ride coming to pick them up.

“Of course, a lot of people don’t have rides, because we wouldn’t be on the train if we did,” Phillips said. “It’s just been a very frustrating experience for a lot of us.”

Around 2:30 p.m., the passengers were finally allowed off the train as buses were organized to take the riders to their designated locations. This was around 15 hours after they were stopped in one spot.

“We’ve been trying to keep our composure. I can tell you that a lot of us have done a very good job, but again, this was just unnecessary,” Phillips said. “I feel like there have been other steps that they should have taken in order to get us and accommodate us a little bit better.”

Amtrak was contacted for a statement or details on the situation, but has yet to respond.

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Ridgeland residents discussed having to endure flooding during Tropical Storm Debby and what effects it had on them

Bluffton Today

Bery Barrera thought she was ready for Tropical Storm Debby, however she was not prepared for what she saw creeping up her front steps once the storm arrived.

The storm moved through the area Aug. 6, dropping 13.78 inches of rain in Beaufort, 12.45 inches in Hardeeville and 6.59 in Ridgeland, causing massive flooding.

Barrera has lived in the Carters Mill Mobile Home Park in Ridgeland for the past two years and as a resident of Jasper County has witnessed several major storms pummel her part of the South Carolina Lowcountry.

"I had been through Hurricane Matthew, but we had not seen the flooding that we saw from Tropical Storm Debby," she said a day after the storm had arrived. "We had prepared with candles, canned foods, and water."

She had planned to be without power, what she had not planned for was the sheer amount of water the storm unleashed.

"The driving rain got into my house, and we had to place towels around the windows and doors to keep the water out," she said.

Throughout the storm, the rain came, it came until it had nowhere to go and started collecting in the low areas around her and her neighbors' homes.

A single mother of four children who relies on her vehicle to travel to Savannah to work at Memorial Health University Medical Center, when Barrera saw how bad it was getting she told her daughter to take the family car to higher ground at a friend's house.

"I didn't want the car to get damaged because that's my only way to get to work," she said. "Since the storm all of my kids are staying at their friend's homes. It was good that we got out."

Barrera said she felt like she was one of the luckier ones in her neighborhood. In some areas nearby the water got up to her knees.

Wednesday afternoon, she and others living in the park were still waiting for the water to recede.

Barrera said she was able to get to work since she moved her car before the flooding, but others in the park were not so lucky.

"I saw some of my neighbors out walking in the water after the storm," she said. "The water came up to my first step of my home. Most people kept their cars there and you couldn't drive out, you were stuck. I saw one of the cars get stuck in the water."

Tania Guevara, who has resided in Carter's Mill for more than 10 years, said some of the residents in the park had elevated their air conditioning units ahead of the storm.

"Some did prepare and moved things up higher so there would not be any damage," Guevara said. "We prepared and moved our cars more towards the front of the park to avoid the flooding as much as possible."

She said some others with cars in the park did not fare as well as some were flooded from the torrential rain.

Guevara said the water reached the second step of her home and was to her knees when she had to walk in it to get around.

"I did not like walking in the water because you are not sure what was in it," she said. "My husband said while he was out he spotted two snakes swimming around in the floodwaters. I only had regular boots not ones for the water so I was worried about what might be in the water."

During the storm, Guevara said the wind was not as bad as it had been in Hurricane Matthew in 2017. She rode out Tropical Storm Debby in her home along with her husband, her three-year-old child, and a roommate.

Guevara is employed as a housekeeper in Sun City, a gated retirement community in Jasper County. She said she had not been able to work since Aug. 6 when the storm hit the area. She returned to work Aug. 8.

"It is frustrating not to be able to work and I let my customers know why I could not be there," she said.

Guevara said she has learned that it is always important to prepare for any storm.

"We did evacuate during Matthew but didn't this time because it was a tropical storm," she said. "This might have just been a tropical storm, but we had a lot of flooding from it. Imagine what it would have been if it had been another hurricane."