'No one is coming to save us': residents of towns near toxic train derailment feel forgotten [View all]
[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/05/forgotten-towns-ohio-toxic-train-derailment]
People living near the chemical disaster are wary of contamination, and even across the state line Pennsylvanians are worried
Nina Lakhani in Darlington, Pennsylvania, and Steubenville, Ohio
Sun 5 Mar 2023 08.09 EST
As a dense cloud of toxic smoke descended across Darlington in western Pennsylvania, Patrick Dittman knew that the catastrophic train derailment across the state line in East Palestine could also pose a danger to his family.
The 30-year-old bartender lives and works just a few miles from East Palestine, Ohio, where the Norfolk Southern’s 1.7-mile-long freight train carrying a hotchpotch of dangerous chemicals partly derailed and caught fire on 3 February.
Three days later a billowing smoke plume and the stench of burning plastic blew east into Pennsylvania after crews conducted a controlled burn of the vinyl chloride onboard the derailed train to nullify the risk of a potentially deadly explosion.
The toxic cloud engulfed Darlington Township, a small rural community with 1,800 residents, coating lawns, crops and cars in black soot.
“We wanted to get away even though we live outside the evacuation radius, but had nowhere to go. Over this way we’ve not been told anything about the implications – it’s very concerning,” said Dittman.
--snip--
This is criminal:
The 149-car train was classified as a general merchandise train, not a high-hazard flammable train, and therefore local officials did not immediately know what toxins the first responders and residents were exposed to when 50 cars derailed or caught fire.
= new reply since forum marked as read