East Palestine, Ohio – Norfolk Southern spoke to East Palestine residents Thursday night for the first time since the February 3 train derailment. 2nd Town Hall Meeting
“We’re sorry; we’re very sorry. We feel terrible about it,” he told the crowd, who responded with chatter.
It’s been almost a month since the lives of the residents of East Palestine and the surrounding communities have changed. While Wilson was in front of the group during a town hall, next door, at a resource fair, company representatives were available to answer questions for a one-on-one with residents.
Scott Beresford, a resident who lives near the derailment site, said: ‘It’s been hell.’ I don’t know if we’ll be sick three years from now [or] five years from now. If I stay here, is it doing the right thing?”
He and others came to get answers to their questions and to hear from the railroad company, which had previously got kicked out of one of the first town hall meetings On the safety concerns of your employees.
“I definitely feel like they should have been here last time,” said East Palestine resident Christina Sisiloff. “He didn’t mention that he was scared last time.”
On Thursday, the rail company shared its plan to remove the tracks at the site of the derailment and clean up the mess left behind. This involves the removal and rebuilding of all material on the track bed.
“We couldn’t even improve on the north side [of the derailment] until we [Norfolk Southern] can get those cares out there,” Wilson said. “We don’t know when it’s going to happen, so we’re going to start south, and then sometime on March 28 or 29, for good Knock on wood, we’ll start the answer track.”
derail
Dozens of cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed in a horrific accident in East Palestine on 3 February. Vinyl chloride from five of the cars was released into the air, creating a thick plume of smoke, before crews ignited them to eliminate the toxic chemicals, highly flammable in a controlled environment.
Residents of nearby areas in Ohio and Pennsylvania were evacuated due to health risks from the smoke, but were told on February 8 that it was safe to return home.
The National Transportation Safety Board has since released its preliminary report on the derailment, which states that the train crew tried to stop the train in East Palestine when they heard about one of the car’s wheel bearings. Got the warning, which was heating up to a critical temperature of over 250 degrees. ambient temperature.
This article was written by Scripps News Cleveland
