The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 4

toqtiA Monday. March 19. 2001 The Des Moines Register DM Late-night disaster jars, terrifies sleeping riders in southwest Iowa erailment leaves one dead, scores hurt 1 A' i a. ihiiii'ni iiMiiiimiiiiiiiiiTiiniliiiiiiiiniiiiMiiMiiiiiiiMiiM rmiil TRAIN, from Page 1A happened." Romstad said he identified his mother's body Sunday. Her brother's ashes were recovered.

Law enforcement officials had not confirmed the victim's identity late Sunday. Irene Thies, 77, of Boone was hospitalized in fair condition at Iowa Methodist in Des Moines with chest injuries and a fractured ankle. At St. Joseph Hospital in Omaha, Antonia Hernandez, 54, of Chicago was reported in fair con-ditioa Diahe Henderson, 50, of Des Moines was in serious but stable conditioa Her daughter, Beth Henderson, 13, was treated and released. Shaheda Ula, 47, of Laramie, was being treated for a broken hip at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

The derailment occurred in Adams County, about 70 miles southwest of Des Moines, in a timbered area near the East Nodaway River between Brooks and Nodaway. The train had left Chicago Saturday afternoon and was headed across southern Iowa en route to Emeryville, in the San Francisco area. The train had two locomotives and 15 cars, 11 of which derailed. National Transportation Safety Board officials refused late Sunday to speculate on the cause of the derailment. They said a rail was broken but added that rails can break during an accident.

A TINA YEETHE REGISTEH Shaken: Patricia Caponi, a former Des Moines teacher who now lives in Wisconsin, describes the derailment as she's treated for a fractured arm Sunday in Des Moines. TINA YEETHE REGISTER Seeking clues: Workers inspect the tracks and one car from Amtrak's California Zephyr on Sunday. r-N tvl SK tii "It is very hard to determine whether that happened underneath the derailment or prior to or exactly when that happened," said Ted Turpin, the investigator in charge. Officials did not disclose the name of the engineer, nor did they provide a passenger list. The engineer told officials that the train's whistle malfunctioned, which forced him to slow down at a crossing.

The train was again accelerating and had reached 52 miles per hour when it derailed. "He felt the train tugging, and then he applied the breaks with an emergency application and brought the train to a stop," Turpin said. "However, at the same time, the train was derailing behind him." wit DAVE WEAVERASSOCIATED PRESS Safe and snoozing: Uninjured Amtrak passengers Aaron Ackerson, left, and Ben Carpenter, both juniors at West Des Moines Dowling High School, get some sleep in an Omaha hotel lobby after the accident. STEVE POPEASSOCIATED PRESS Heaps Of metal: Two cars were across the track, an overturned car was parallel to it and other cars teetered along the rails. "I think everybody was amazed that there weren't more fatalities and injuries," said Nodaway Fire Chief Larry Pond.

Out of the dark, townsfolk help that small could help," said Bard Stadsvold of Rochester, Minn. You couldn't have asked for nicer people." There was no shortage of those nice folks. "It was wall-to-wall people in here," Bob Pafford said. They even filled up the truck bays in the combination community center and city firehouse. The 195 passengers were headed for Colorado ski slopes, the homes of faraway relatives or West Coast destinations.

Many had slipped off their shoes and were dozing in coach seats. While most passengers slept, more than a dozen teen-agers headed to the train's lounge car. They included nine juniors from West Des Moines Bowling High School and students from West Des Moines Valley and Des Moines Hoover high schools. The students had just begun watching a movie and were getting ready to play cards. "We felt like the brakes hit, but it was like a bump, like it skipped the tracks," said Nick Blyth, 16, of Clive, who is a student at Dowling.

He was on his way to Winter Park, to ski with friends. "Then we started sliding down the hill at a 45-degree angle. I grabbed the table, and other people were pressed up agaiast the wall on top of each other. Then we stopped sliding, and our car was still." Elsewhere on the train, passengers clutched their babies and prayed they would survive. In one car, Jash May of Boston feared he would be crushed or decapitated.

In another car, Bard Stadsvold, 39, of Rochester, instinctively stretched out his ai ms to hold his 11-year-old daughter and his wife in their seats. In a sleeping car with his family, Austin Paule, a West Des Moines boy wearing his pajamas, was jolted from the start of a dream. Many remained motionless after the train stopped, fearful that backpacks. Their shoes had been tossed far from their seats. Some passengers found emergency glow sticks to illuminate their cars.

May helped pull out two women who had been thrown into the luggage racks, then walked the length of his car, navigating in the dark over luggage piles to check on several injured passengers. One was unconscious, and another was semiconscious. May suffered a broken collarbone. Some passengers stayed in their damaged cars until emergency workers were able to help them out. Others decided to leave their toppled cars and had to walk on the walls instead of the floors.

They escaped through emergency exits. Passengers reported an unusual calm throughout the train, even though some people stood outside in the cold for about 2K2 hours with no shoes. Very few people seemed panicked, although many reported being disoriented as they tried to walk through the tipped cars. Aaron Ackerson, 17, of Clive said the students in the lounge car were especially fortunate because the coach car where they had been sitting earlier had jackknifed badly in the derailment. "There were a bunch of people hurt in that one," Ackerson said.

Jim Anderson, who lives off a winding gravel road less than a mile from the crash site, said he was in bed when the derailment startled him and his dog. "I thought my furnace blowed up. I heard a bunch of grinding, and then boom," he told The Associated Press. "That dog of mine jumped out of bed and started growling at the window." Law enforcement, fire departments and ambulances responded from Corning and Nodaway, and from Unioa Taylor, Page, Fremont and Montgomery counties. Most of the injured were treated at local hospitals and released.

The most seriously hurt passengers were taken to hospitals in Des Moines and Omaha. The uninjured were driven to the Nodaway Community Building, where they were given food, coffee and a bit of space to rest. From the community center, passengers were taken to Omaha hotels, where they waited for information on their luggage and rearranged travel plans. Amtrak officials said they were helping passengers find available flights and rental cars. Some opted to take an Amtrak train expected to come through Omaha later Sunday.

The scene in the accident's aftermath Sunday afternoon was a maze of twisted rails, shredded ties and damaged silver rail cars resting along muddy embankments. The train operated on main-line tracks owned by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway that are usually iaspected weekly, said Steve Forsberg, a railroad spokesman. He said information about the track's condition and maintenance records were being gathered for federal investigators. Register staff writers Emily Graham and Kate Kompas contributed to this article. NODAWAY, from Page 1A emergency medical workers from Nodaway, Corning and surrounding towns headed for the isolated site of the train wreck.

The mayor's wife, Karen Paf ford, who is a nurse and emergency medical technician, was among the first on the scene. "I was suspecting a lot of panicked people, but it wasn't that way at all," Karen Pafford said. She searched passenger cars in the darkness with her flashlight. Local farmers lined the tracks with pickup trucks, loading Amtrak passengers into the backs and hauling them to school buses waiting on a nearby road. Injured passengers were taken by ambulance.

People in four-wheel-drive vehicles searched the area in case someone had wandered away. Bryan Kannas, the Adams County emergency management coordinator and a volunteer firefighter, couldnt have been more proud. "It reminded us of 'Field of Kannas said, sitting with other volunteer firefighters Sunday. "People were just coming out of the dark to help." The school buses hauled passengers to Nodaway, where the mayor and others had set up a makeshift shelter in the community building. Passengers said they were greeted by numerous volunteers offering coffee, blankets and nil- Past accidents Mere are some notable accidents involving trains in Iowa: Aug.

29, 1877: A Rock Island Lines passenger train wreck in Des Moines kilted 20 people. March 21, 1910: Fifty-five people died when a train derailed near Green Mountain in Marshall County. Ocl. 23, 1937: A Renwick High School bus carrying 29 students and teachers collided with a Rock Island Railroad train on the outskirts of Mason City. Ten passengers on the bus died.

Sept. 28, 1944: A train wreck in Missouri Valley killed nine people. Oct. 25,1956: Eight children from the same family died when the car their mother was driving was struck by a train near Sigourney. The mother, Ruth Hammes, recovered from her severe injuries.

June 15, 1982: One person died and 27 were injured when a train plowing through floodwaters derailed in Emerson. Oct. 18, 1985: Sixty people were injured when a Burlington Northern freight car rammed the side of an Amtrak California Zephyr near Thayer. Ocl. 17, 1987: An Amtrak train struck a work train at Russell, Injuring 122 people.

A worker had set a switch incorrectly. April 23, 1990: Improperly installed rails caused an Amtrak California Zephyr train to derail near Batavla. Ninety-five people were injured. i Aug. 11, 1999: Two Dubuque railroad workers died when the Union Pacific Train they were operating hit the end of a Burlington Northern-Santa Fe train.

Nov. 18, 1999: A Union Pacific freight train pulling 126 cars slammed into a parked, empty grain train in Alton, killing the conductor and the driver of a van parked near the tracks. excessive movement would tip over cars that were teetering. The power was out, so some passengers carefully searched through the dark for flashlights in their The mayor said he didn't have to make a single call for volunteers. People just started showing up.

By 7 a.m., most of the passengers had been bused to Omaha hotels. By 9 a.m., only a few volunteers remained at the community center. The black rotary phone continued to ring with calls from reporters, people looking for luggage, and investigators. One Nodaway resident arrived to apologize for not coming earlier to help. She hadn't heard the commotion and suggested next time the town put together a calling tree.

No problem, she was told. They had plenty of help. Fire Chief Larry Pond was there, standing in his yellow fire overalls. He said his 13-member department had trained for such disasters, but nothing much exciting happens in this corner of Adams Counfy. "Nothing on this scale," he said.

"Our big excitement is a single house fire. We have never experienced anything like this In our small town." Pond also was pleased with the community's effort. He praised the Adams County dispatcher's office for coordinating the effort. "You don't want this to happen. But if it does happen, southwest Iowa is about the best place to be when it comes to pulling together when it is needed." Thit article contains information Irani Register stall writer Jennifer Dukes Lee.

Victim, 69, was devoted to family, son says By KATE KOMPAS RLGISTER SIAI WHItfcH Charlie Romstad remembered his mother Sunday evening as a woman who had struggled during her life but still "was overflowing with love" for her family. Stella Riehl, (9, was the lone victim in Saturday night's Amtrak train derailment near Nodaway. Riehl lived in Russian and German concentration camps as a Polish youth during World War II. She and her family survived and came to the United States. The family settled in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Riehl worked factory jolx and created a new life for herself, Romstad, and his sister, Christine, 48, also of Colorado Springs. Romstad relocated to Des Moines alut a year ago. Much of his family, including his mother and stepfather, Ed Riehl, lived in Colorado. Stella Riehl traveled last week to Des Moines to see her only sibling, Antoni Miszuk, 71. He died of heart proMems Thursday, several hours before Riehl arrived in Des Moines.

"She was hoping to have a chance to see him before he died," Romstad said. Riehl was taking his ashes back to Colorado when the train derailed. Stella Riehl married several times. She spoke very little English even though she had been in the United States for four decades. Her life, Romstad said, was her family.

"In her later years, she managed to live a very full life," he said "She and Ed loved the western slope of Colorado." V4 lows. Towaspeople broke out the hot dogs and brats left over from Friday night bingo. By 4:30 a.m., volunteer firefighters were making pancakes and scrambled eggs. Passengers said they were amazed by the outpouring of support and help from Nxlaway-area residents and rescue workers. "It was amazing, how a town.