The small town of East Palestine, Ohio, ended up in the headlines for weeks this February after a Norfolk Southern train hauling dangerous chemicals jumped its tracks and created an environmental nightmare for residents and clean-up crews alike. After almost a year, things are not much better in East Palestine.
Residents say they are still dealing with hazardous chemicals in their water, strange smells and health problems, after the February 3 derailment sent burning toxic vinyl chloride into the air. Now it seems federal, state and commercial interest in cleaning up the small community is waning. One woman who has been active in seeking justice for East Palestine told Fox News the community feels betrayed:
Wallace said she and her daughter went to the hospital a week after the crash with burning eyes, runny noses and severe coughs, all symptoms that lasted for months. And seven of 15 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigators fell ill in March after looking into the health impacts of the chemical exposure, CNN reported.
“Soon as I pulled in my driveway, I was overtaken by chemicals,” Wallace said of the initial days after the derailment. “I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I look over and see chemicals free flowing down my street.”
Norfolk Southern provided relocation aid for some residents, but announced Dec. 5 it would end payments for residents who haven’t returned by Feb. 9. The move frustrated Wallace, who said she’s still financially devastated from the experience. She said she’d prefer to stay elsewhere until she knows it is safe, but may need to return when the aid ends.
“They’re doing all this stuff for economic recovery. What about the residents that were financially devastated?” Wallace told Fox News. “What about human health?”
She also criticized Norfolk Southern for making the announcement just a few weeks before Christmas. She said the holiday is more stressful this year for East Palestine families dealing with financial fallout from the derailment.
“You know what we did get? All of us poor folk got Norfolk Southern teddy bears” when forced to go to organizations to get gifts we couldn’t buy ourselves, she said while suppressing soft sobs.
Norfolk, meanwhile, told Fox it spent more than $100 million making things right for the people of East Palestine — an economic investment those affected by the disaster aren’t feeling. The federal and state governments were also unbelievably slow to react, with Ohio Governor Mike DeWine not even bothering to return the president’s phone call after the disaster. Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg managed a letter of concern following the disaster, but it was too little too late.
What the Fox News report fails to mention is just how dangerous America’s rails have become in the name of profits. In the six months following East Palestine, 59 trail derailments were reported including another Norfolk Southern train this time 20 miles outside of East Palestine. A system known as Precision Scheduling is leading to more accidents as train operators make trains longer and with less staff to maximize profits. Railroad workers attempted to strike last December in order to draw action on these issues, but congress stepped in and made the strike illegal.
