East Palestine residents face long journey
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio – Sweating and agitated, Mayor Trent Conaway walked to the back of his village’s high school gymnasium last Wednesday night to inform the media he was ready to begin.
He was calm, but his words betrayed his frustration. His people were scared and angry about the train derailment that more than a week earlier spewed thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals in the middle of their town.
They wanted to know if their water was safe to drink, their soil was safe to farm and if their kids could play outside without getting sick.
This meeting was supposed to provide some answers.
Instead, Conaway was confronted with more questions.
Norfolk Southern Railway, the company responsible for the derailment, pulled out of the meeting at the last minute, expressing concern for the safety of its employees. State officials said they were confident residents were not in imminent danger, but that was little comfort to those still seeing dead fish in their creeks and smelling foul odors in the air.
Conaway said he was working around the clock to try to get answers for his constituents, but he was struggling, too. He said he also didn’t feel safe. And as he prepared to stand in front of a gym filled with his fellow residents, he was unsure what more he could do.
“I’m a mayor of a town of 4,700 people,” Conaway said. “If you think I can fight against a railroad or fight against the EPA or fight against any like that, you’re crazy.”
For Conaway and many of the people gathered that night in the gym, the fear went beyond the immediate threat from the derailment. The deeper fear, residents say, is about what happens when the broken train cars are hauled away and the TV cameras are gone.
They are afraid they’ll be left on their own to solve whatever long-term damage the derailment did to their air, water and soil.
They are afraid their town will be forgotten.
‘We want to get back to normal’
East Palestine, which sits 40 miles northwest of Pittsburgh and 20 miles south of Youngstown, was founded in the early 1800s and became home to pottery and tire manufacturing from the late 1870s to the mid-1960s. Today, farmers, small business owners, teachers, veterans, restaurateurs and industrial workers make up the village’s economy.
The village, originally called Mechanicsburg, got a name change when a resident sought a more “euphonious appellation” to illustrate the town’s beauty and its residents’ “earnest, virtuous, simple life.”
The town was renamed “Palestine,” pronounced “PAL-AH-STEEN,” and later renamed again when it was discovered a village in Darke County bore the same name.
“We want to get back to normal, we want to get back to our homes,” Melissa Smith, a candle store owner, said. “My family came here in 1802, so we’ve been here forever. We have no intentions of leaving.”
Returning to “normal” may be further down the road than many had hoped.
The derailment sent plumes of thick black smoke into the air, and a controlled burn to avoid a massive explosion days later shocked the nation. The smoke resembled the mushroom cloud of a nuclear blast.
Then, the aftermath began to rear its ugly head. When residents returned from evacuation after being told it was safe, they began to develop sickness, rashes and headaches. Thousands of
dead fish have floated to the surfaces of surrounding creeks, and in some areas, the water is covered with film.
Federal, state and local officials have told residents it is safe to use the water and return to their homes. But given the symptoms they face, they are reluctant to accept an all clear.
“Why are people getting sick if there’s nothing in the air or water,” one woman shouted at the town hall Wednesday night. Many residents clapped along in agreement.
It was the question on everyone’s mind.
Residents look to pick up the pieces following derailment
Minutes into a meeting hosted by a number of attorneys at the village’s American Legion Wednesday, an alltoo-familiar sound echoed throughout the main room of the dimly lit nonprofit.
It was the loud horn of a passing train. The irony wasn’t lost on attorney Michael O’shea.
“That terrifies me right there,” O’shea, of Lipson O’shea Legal Group, said.
East Palestine residents hear trains pass through their village every few minutes. But the speed at which the railroad returned to normal business while residents are still trying to figure out if they’re safe, hasn’t gone over well.
“They’re taking care of the railroad, but they’re not taking care of business here,” said Tim Cumberlidge, a hardware store worker. “Who’s to say people won’t have health impacts five years down the road.”
The village’s frustrations with Norfolk Southern have been front and center at every meeting, media interview and legal consultation. Residents from day one have asked for more transparency. And when the company didn’t show up to the town hall, telling the mayor it feared for its employees’ safety, those tensions erupted.
On Thursday, Norfolk Southern Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer Alan Shaw penned a letter to East Palestine residents to try to lower the temperature.
“I know you also have questions about whether Norfolk Southern will be here to help make things right,” Shaw wrote. “My simple answer is that we are here and will stay here for as long as it
takes to ensure your safety and to help East Palestine recover and thrive.
“I know you’re tired. I know you’re worried. We will not let you down.”
He promised Norfolk Southern “will not walk away” from East Palestine.
Residents, though, are unconvinced the company cares about anything more than the railroad tracks that run through their town. If they’re unsatisfied with the company now, they reason, how responsive will it be when the media and state inspectors are gone?
Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine has threatened to take action against Norfolk Southern if the company doesn’t make good on some of its promises. He also called on congress to revisit how a trains are allowed to carry hazardous materials through the state without notifying officials.
“This is absurd. …Congress needs to take a look at how these things are handled,” the governor said earlier this week.
Dewine also called for federal assistance Thursday, nearly two weeks after the derailment, and announced Friday the state would open up a clinic to help address medical needs of residents.
Across the border, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro penned a letter to Shaw and accused the company of providing “inaccurate information” about the train derailment.
A number of lawsuits against Norfolk
Southern have already been filed and more are expected.
In the short term, residents are still facing basic questions about the safety of their food and water. In the long term, they worry about medical problems, home values, small business effects and proper compensation from the railroad.
“I think everybody’s in for a real rough time,” 76-year-old Joyce Davis said bluntly.
Residents like Jessica Helpy, who moved her family back home to East Palestine from northern Kentucky after her house burned down, still find themselves searching for answers amid health concerns from the derailment.
“I had a headache so bad that I took a shower to try to relieve it because nothing was helping,” she said. “It was the strangest headache. I had to sit down because I thought I was going to fall over.”
At the town hall Wednesday night, Conaway said he hopes “this isn’t what it’s going to be like in the future,” commenting on the rail company’s absence from the event. Conaway told reporters he’d much rather be watching a basketball game in that gymnasium or watching his kids run around with joy. Villagers want their old lives back. Conaway does, too. To get there, the exhausted mayor has one small plea.
“I need help. I’m not ready for this,” he said. “But I’m not leaving.”