EAST PALESTINE, Ohio − When word spread that residents affected by a massive train derailment could voice concerns and frustrations directly to transport company Norfolk Southern Wednesday evening, the village showed up by the hundreds.
East Palestine High School was more packed than one resident had ever seen. More than any significant basketball game. More than any pep rally. But immediately before the event, Mayor Trent Conaway told reporters that his residents wouldn’t get an opportunity to question the rail company involved in the Feb. 3 incident. The mayor told his residents that Norfolk Southern backed out of the open house meeting, escalating tensions in the already packed and loud school gym.
“I want answers,” Conaway said before an hours-long informational meeting originally billed as a town hall began. “Norfolk Southern didn’t show up. They didn’t feel it was safe.”
The mayor reiterated during the meeting that he invited Norfolk Southern “many times.”
“They were in all the meetings, then today I got a phone call that they didn’t feel safe,” Conaway said to a crowd of shouts and boos from local residents. “I’m just as frustrated as you are … I’m trying to get answers. I cannot force them to be here.”
Conaway hosted members of the state and federal environmental protection agencies, Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, director of the Ohio Department of Health, and U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, to try to provide some answers to residents exposed to dangerous chemicals released into the air from the derailment and through a controlled burn.
East Palestine residents report illness, dead fish
Frustrations mounted. And while attendees tried to remain patient and orderly, they made sure to press on why they’re being told everything is safe when dozens of residents are reporting illnesses and fish in their waters are dying.
“Why are people getting sick if there’s nothing in the air or water,” one woman shouted.
It was a question no one had a direct answer to.
Rep. Johnson said everyone who started to experience symptoms of any kind since Feb. 3 should contact their doctor.
“Go to your doctor,” Johnson said. “Get that medical record. Let’s let science tell us what that was.”
Officials explained that in some cases a smell may persist in the area but that may not mean the air is at dangerous levels. They also assured residents they can use their water.
‘A bomb dropped’
Before the event began, a line of hundreds of attendees waited outside. State and county police roamed the event while food, books, water and toiletries were available in the school’s lobby for residents.
One man, Rob McFadden, drove from Canton with pallets of water bottles to hand out to the attendees, noting that he couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.
“The town literally had a bomb dropped on them,” he said.
Heather Giralico was one of the people struggling to get by after the derailment and evacuation. She came to the the high school Wednesday seeking help.
Giralico and her husband live within the one-mile radius of the derailment and were forced to evacuate. They stayed in a hotel for five nights and their places of work were shut down.
Now they’re short on money and waiting to be reimbursed by the railroad for their expenses.
“We have to clean our whole house and wash all of our clothes and stuff again so we just need some supplies… We just need to get by until we get our reimbursements and get paid again,” Giralico said as she grabbed laundry detergent and cleaning supplies to take home.
Source: Brooks Sutherland and Max Filby, Cincinnati Enquirer
