Thread: The Ohio Catastrophe

Originally Posted by misskit

Perhaps you can't read

FTFY.

Originally Posted by misskit

You seem to imply this incident was not reported on in the US. The local media was there reporting while it was happening. It made national headlines the next day.

It looks as though you just found out about it two weeks after it happened and posted a hair on fire opinion piece bye Jessie Watters in World News.

Get a grip.

Are you surprised that this nitwit follows Fox News?

Originally Posted by misskit

It looks as though you just found out about it two weeks after it happened and posted a hair on fire opinion piece bye Jessie Watters in World News.

Originally Posted by sabang

Just making up for lost time.

Idiot, caught out in another lie . . .


So, can we:

But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But China But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Russia But Iran But Iran But Iran But Iran But Iran But Iran But Iran But Iran But Iran But Iran But Iran But Iran But Iran But Iran But Iran But Iran But Iran But Iran But Iran

Originally Posted by S Landreth

Bank of America’s Ken Hoexter wrote that Norfolk Southern may have to pay $40 million to $50 million in a “casualty charge.” In 2022, the rail giant generated some $12.7 billion in revenue and $3 billion in profits. A $50 million charge would equal roughly 1.7% of its 2022 profits.

Drop of water

^ Seriously, you've really lost it. Get a shrink.

Originally Posted by sabang

^ Seriously, you've really lost it. Get a shrink.

Funny coming from the indoctrinated chinky cult member.

He's married to one.

Originally Posted by panama hat

Drop of water

Hopefully congress will get a bill on Biden’s desk to sign.

Originally Posted by sabang

He's married to one.

To one what? Mainland Chinese? Nope. You were, though. Is that why you're so pathetic? The fact that yours is a Mainland Chinese or that you . . . were married?


I hope you feel good bringing family into this constantly, sets you up nicely with the lowest of the low here

Originally Posted by S Landreth

Hopefully congress will get a bill on Biden’s desk to sign.

The chances of actually passing, though? Double-digits even?

Is sabang married to a chinky? It might explain the incessant brown nosing...

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Is sabang married to a chinky? It might explain the incessant brown nosing...

Let's leave the family comments to the likes of Sabang, Taxexile et al. Shows their class.

Originally Posted by panama hat

The chances of actually passing, though? Double-digits even?

Something needs to be done and both parties recognize the fact. https://www.washingtonpost.com/clima...xic-chemicals/

If a bill is passed (related to chemicals, brakes and labor), it’ll be a win for Biden and his administration.

Republicans don’t want that.

So, the chances of a bill reaching Biden’s desk might be slim.

Originally Posted by S Landreth

Hopefully

Originally Posted by DrWilly

Let's leave the family comments to the likes of Sabang, Taxexile et al. Shows their class.

STFU you sanctimonious twat.

in the link of my last post

• Drink bottled water, officials tell Ohio town hit by toxic train crash

Eleven days after a train derailed, spilling toxic chemicals and causing a massive fire here, officials told residents Tuesday to use bottled water until testing could confirm whether the local water supply was safe to drink — heightening concern among some locals who were already wary of returning to their homes.

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As questions continued to swirl around the cause of the Feb. 3 accident and the official response to it, the disaster’s still-emerging list of effects became more clear: Water officials are tracking a large plume of contamination flowing down the Ohio River; about 3,500 fish in local waterways have been killed by the chemical release; and cleanup crews are excavating a “grossly contaminated” 1,000-foot area around the train tracks where butyl acrylate puddled and vinyl chloride burned.

“For right now, I think bottled water’s the right answer,” Ohio Health Director Bruce Vanderhoff said at a news conference Tuesday.

Along with wondering about their drinking water, many residents pondered their options as a strong odor of chemicals continued to hang over the town. Some locals said they are considering leaving East Palestine and are frustrated with how little they know about their potential exposure to toxic chemicals.

Bodiah Cepin, 21, showed up at a local assistance center Tuesday and said he has spent time online researching ethylhexyl acrylate, one of the toxic chemicals that leaked out from the crash site.

“I’ve got my eye on moving somewhere else because I am young and it will take years to clean this up,” said Cepin, who evacuated the area and has been staying with his father outside of Pittsburgh. “Even a minute size of ethylhexyl can stay in the soil for years.”

A mechanical issue probably caused the Norfolk Southern train to derail near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, federal investigators have said, suddenly hitting the small town with a pollutant-laden fire, the threat of an explosion and the release of at least six toxic chemicals. Officials now face the task of assessing how much contamination has seeped into the ground, soil and water.

Ohio state officials on Tuesday focused on reassuring residents that the air in East Palestine remains safe to breathe and that those who evacuated last week can live in their homes. Despite the extent of the cleanup ahead, officials indicated new contamination wasn’t happening.

The plume flowing down the Ohio River is being diluted as it moves and is not expected to taint any drinking water, Tiffani Kavalec, head of surface water for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, said at the briefing. In addition, fish are not continuing to die, said Mary Mertz, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, indicating that new contamination isn’t flowing into the local waters.

On Tuesday morning, East Palestine was quiet except for the hum of industrial equipment. At the site of the accident, cleanup workers were using cranes and other heavy machinery, hauling sheets of metal by hand, and moving wreckage into dumpsters — pausing their work whenever a train came through.

“Please Pray for EP,” read a sign at the Dairy Mill, an ice cream shop closed for the season.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) told reporters that Norfolk Southern had committed to paying “for everything” and said the state would hold the rail company responsible.

“The impact on this community is huge. Not just the physical problem that might be caused, but the inconvenience, the terror,” DeWine said. “I understand people’s skepticism and I understand their anger, and if I lived in the community, I would be angry, too.”

A chemical ‘soup’

The train was not categorized as a high-hazardous material train, DeWine said, meaning the railroad company wasn’t required to give the state any notification about its passage. The governor called on Congress to reexamine regulations for trains carrying toxic substances, something some environmental advocates have long pushed for.

Norfolk Southern said Monday that it has paid out more than $1 million to displaced residents in “reimbursements and cash advances” for lodging and other expenses and is “in the process of contacting and meeting with affected local businesses.” The company also donated money to the Ohio Red Cross and the local fire department.

Twenty cars of the 141-car train were carrying hazardous materials, 11 of which derailed, the National Transportation Safety Board reported Tuesday, along with other cars carrying cargo not categorized as hazardous. When the train derailed, federal investigators and chemical safety experts immediately homed in on a toxic and highly flammable gas being transported in five of the cars: vinyl chloride.

Afraid the train cars would explode, sending shrapnel into neighborhoods, authorities decided the better of “two bad options” was to release and burn the vinyl chloride, DeWine said Tuesday. The move sent dangerous gases, hydrogen chloride and phosgene, into the air, but averted an explosion that DeWine said he had been told would be “catastrophic.”

Residents for days have wondered what else leaked from the train, and information has emerged slowly. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said last week that several more toxic chemicals were on board, which the agency confirmed Sunday when it published a list from Norfolk Southern showing which rail cars had been breached.

Vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate were the primary chemicals that were released, Ohio EPA spokesman James Lee told The Washington Post on Tuesday. The others included ethylene glycol monobutyl ether and ethylhexyl acrylate.

Neither government agencies nor the railroad has detailed what quantity of the chemicals was released into the air or how much spilled on the ground.

“I wouldn’t want to be exposed to any of them in significant amounts,” Erik D. Olson, a senior strategic director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, said in an email. “They all pose hazards if inhaled.”

Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, a combustible liquid that’s used commercially as a solvent in spray lacquers and latex paint and is an ingredient in paint thinner, can cause irritation of the eyes and nose, headache, and vomiting in people exposed to it at high levels, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. On the railway’s list, the status of this chemical is listed as “unknown.”

Exposure to large amounts of the other three chemicals, two of them liquid and one, isobutylene, a flammable gas, is also known to cause headaches, nausea and respiratory problems. The car carrying isobutylene was not breached.

“The whole thing was a little bit of a toxic soup,” said David Masur, executive director of the advocacy group PennEnvironment. “It feels a little like a sci-fi movie when you are told that one of the byproducts being released is an agent that we used against our enemies in World War I,” he added, referring to phosgene.

Whether the air is now safe to breathe largely depends on whether chemicals are still being emitted, experts have said. Because residents can smell odors and have reported symptoms such as headache and nausea, which are consistent with what some of the chemicals can trigger, some remain uneasy.

The EPA has said that no concerning levels of toxins have been detected in the air, though some experts cast doubt on the initial measurements, telling The Post the testing should have been more robust. Officials at the governor’s briefing said residents should be confident in the data coming from authorities.

After a fire or chemical release ends, the air eventually becomes clear, experts said, and the contamination concern shifts to what is on the ground or could have gotten into the soil. State and EPA officials have said that the chemicals being cleaned up can emit smells even when at levels not deemed hazardous to inhale.

“What’s really important is that the government officials are monitoring the levels to make sure that they’re safe and clearly communicating that,” environmental epidemiologist Lynn R. Goldman, dean of public health at George Washington University and a former EPA official. “But if you’re smelling these odors and they’re making you feel sick, I would want to be somewhere else.”

Disbelief and frustration

On Feb. 3, Travers and Tangie Mohrbacher saw fire from their front porch, a mile and a half from the accident site.

“What I was feeling was disbelief as it got bigger and bigger,” recalled Tangie Mohrbacher, 45.

“Nothing happens here,” she added. “It’s East Palestine, Ohio.”

But like many small U.S. towns, this village has train tracks running through it, and they are busy.

Environmental advocates have long warned about the dangers of trains freighting hazardous chemicals. Meanwhile, some in the Republican Party’s right wing have used the incident to criticize the Biden administration and, in particular, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

“Another transportation failure under Mayor Pete’s leadership,” tweeted Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), one of the central players in the effort to block Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s bid for House speaker.

Toxic chemicals burn over Ohio derailment site

J.D. Vance, Ohio’s new Republican senator, released a statement Monday raising questions about the quality of the braking system used on the train and the Transportation Department’s approach to regulating the rail system.

DeWine said that President Biden had last week offered federal assistance but that the state had not needed to take Biden up on that offer. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday that the administration was “in close touch with local officials to ensure that they have what they need and that their needs are being met.”

Buttigieg weighed in Monday evening. “I continue to be concerned about the impacts of the Feb 3 train derailment near East Palestine, OH, and the effects on families in the ten days since their lives were upended through no fault of their own,” he wrote on Twitter.

In downtown East Palestine, Melissa James on Tuesday reopened her store, Manetta’s Furniture & Décor, for the first time since the train derailment.

She left with her fiancé Jared Clark and his son, who is afflicted with myotonic dystrophy and is autistic. They fled to a hotel for several days but frequently returned for medical supplies and specialty items.

Standing outside the store, she and Clark, 45, said they weren’t sure they will stay in East Palestine. “I am still in a state of shock,” said James.

As for the Mohrbachers, they evacuated with their 13- and 18-year-old children and have since returned — still unsure about the safety of returning home, but hopeful.

“We have trust in our elected officials and the people above them,” said Tangie, referring to local leaders. “We think it’s safe to stay here until they tell us not to.”

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

STFU you sanctimonious twat.

So join that crew then.

Originally Posted by S Landreth

DeWine said that President Biden had last week offered federal assistance but that the state had not needed to take Biden up on that offer.

been following this story since the start and the general response from authorities has been appalling, got to feel for those affected. God knows what the long term holds for the townspeople and their health.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

STFU you sanctimonious twat.

No, you shut up you fucking twat. Sand pit comments from an adult. Grow up.

Norfolk Southern CEO visits East Palestine derailment site ‘to support the community’

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw made a brief visit to East Palestine, Ohio, on Saturday amid heavy criticism about the company’s response to the train derailment earlier this month that prompted area evacuations, as well as health and environmental concerns.

Shaw said he was there ” to support the community,” but declined further comment, according to Fox News.

The trip comes in light of the company’s decision earlier this week to back out of a town hall meeting to address the public’s concerns. Norfolk Southern said in a statement at the time that it would not send anyone to the meeting due to concerns about employees’ safety.

“Unfortunately, after consulting with community leaders, we have become increasingly concerned about the growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community around this event stemming from the increasing likelihood of the participation of outside parties,” the railroad said in a statement, first reported by WKBN 27.

While it is unclear what prompted the railroad CEO’s visit, it was reported earlier this week that Gov. Mike DeWine was upset by the railroad giant’s decision to skip the meeting — which drew further criticism from East Palestine residents and politicians alike — and asked Shaw to take the trip.

In a statement on Friday, Norfolk Southern said it was “committed to coordinating the cleanup project and paying for its associated costs,” as well as ensuring the environment and residents “not only recover but thrive.”

“Our company will be working tirelessly every day to get East Palestine back on its feet as soon as possible,” Shaw said in the statement. “We know we will be judged by our actions, and we are taking this accountability and responsibility very seriously.”

DeWine also announced on Friday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would deploy federal resources to the site of a train derailment.

FEMA will also deploy a senior response official and regional incident team to the area on Saturday to “support ongoing operations, including “incident coordination and ongoing assessments of potential long-term recovery needs,” according to the agency.

Originally Posted by Little Chuchok

No, you shut up you fucking twat. Sand pit comments from an adult. Grow up.

Who asked you for your worthless opinion?

First lawsuits filed in East Palestine train derailment

First class-action lawsuits filed in East Palestine toxic train derailment

At least four federal class action lawsuits have been filed against the rail operator whose train derailment in Ohio has resulted in a chemical spill so toxic that thousands of residents were forced to evacuate.

The massive derailment of a train operated by Norfolk Southern Railway Company happened on Feb. 3, 2023, near East Palestine, a city of around 4,700 residents located about 60 miles southeast of Akron, close to the Pennsylvania border. At least 38 cars derailed, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, and a fire engulfed a total of 50 cars.

Eleven of the train’s 20 cars carrying hazardous material were among those that derailed, the NTSB said. Among that hazardous material was vinyl chloride, which turns into a highly toxic gas when burned.

That lawsuit, brought by Ohio resident Aysia Canterbury and Pennsylvania resident Lisa Sodorgen, accuses Norfolk Southern of allowing the chemical to burn instead of cleaning it up.

A lawsuit filed by Harold Feezle and Susan and David Scheufele accuses Norfolk Southern of negligence. They live near the derailment and were forced to evacuate their homes.

The lawsuit details the side effects of burning vinyl chloride.

A lawsuit brought by Andrew Erdos and David Anderson notes that businesses in the area were forced to close and seeks damages for the loss of business. A different complaint filed by Grayce Eisley and Jeffrey Zalick details what residents have faced due to the derailment.

According to the NTSB, the possible cause of the derailment was “a wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat failure moments before the derailment.”

The wheelset from the suspected railcar has been collected as evidence for metallurgical examination. The suspected overheated wheel bearing has been collected and will be examined by engineers from the NTSB Materials Laboratory in Washington, D.C.

Norfolk Southern has insisted that it will not abandon the residents and businesses of East Palestine.

The company also said that it has removed more than 3,100 cubic yards of contaminated soil from the area and 942,000 gallons of contaminants and contaminated liquid from the crash site.

Norfolk Railway says it has distributed more than $1.7 million in “direct financial assistance to more than 1,100 families and a number of businesses” to cover costs related to the evacuation.

Ohio senator condemns train operator and lobbyists over toxic derailment

The Ohio senator Sherrod Brown had harsh criticism on Sunday for corporate lobbyists and Norfolk Southern, the Atlanta-based operator of the train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, two weeks ago while carrying toxic chemicals.

Speaking on Sunday to CNN’s State of the Union, the Democrat said the derailment, which released toxic chemicals including the carcinogenic vinyl chloride, was an episode of “the same old story”, and that Norfolk Southern “caused it”.

“Corporations do stock buybacks, they do big dividend checks, they lay off workers,” Brown said. “Thousands of workers have been laid off from Norfolk Southern. Then they don’t invest in safety rules and safety regulation, and this kind of thing happens. That’s why people in East Palestine are so upset.

“They know that corporate lobbyists have had far too much influence in our government and they see this as the result … These things are happening because these railroads are simply not investing the way they should in car safety and in the rail lines themselves.”

Brown said Norfolk Southern and corporate lobbyists were wholly responsible for the accident, which has caused breathing difficulties, rashes, nausea, headaches and swollen eyes, as well as killing pets and wildlife.

“There’s no question they caused it with this derailment because … they underinvested in their employees. They never look out for their workers. They never look out for their communities. They look out for stock buybacks and dividends. Something’s wrong with corporate America and something’s wrong with Congress and administrations listening too much to corporate lobbyists. And that’s got to change.”

Republicans have criticized Buttigieg’s handling of the accident, arguing that the federal government has been too slow to respond.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Buttigieg said that the administration was restricted by certain laws on rail regulation.

“We’re constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation (like the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015), but we are using the powers we do have to keep people safe,” he said.

That was a reference to to an Obama-era rule the Trump administration repealed, which required trains carrying highly flammable crude oil be equipped with special brakes to halt all cars at the same time.

EPA orders Norfolk Southern to clean up Ohio train derailment site

The Environmental Protection Agency ordered Norfolk Southern on Tuesday to clean up the contamination from the derailment of one of its trains carrying hazardous materials in East Palestine, Ohio, earlier this month.

Why it matters: The railway operator has been cleaning up the crash site voluntarily, but the EPA's order will require the company to do so under a plan approved by the agency.

• In issuing the order, the EPA is effectively taking over the longer-term remediation phase of the site's cleanup.

Catch up quick: Train cars carrying at least five different types of chemicals were involved in the Feb. 3 derailment, and at least three of those chemicals were either spilled during or released and burned after the wreck.

• After the derailment, the company released and burned vinyl chloride, a colorless but hazardous and carcinogenic gas used to produce PVC plastic and vinyl products, from five tanker cars because of an explosion risk.

What they're saying: "The Norfolk Southern train derailment has upended the lives of East Palestine families, and EPA’s order will ensure the company is held accountable for jeopardizing the health and safety of this community," EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.

• "Let me be clear: Norfolk Southern will pay for cleaning up the mess they created and for the trauma they’ve inflicted on this community," he added.

The big picture: Along with cleaning up contamination, the EPA ordered the company to reimburse the agency for cleaning services it will offer to East Palestine residents and businesses and to attend public meetings over the wreck.

• The company backed out of a town hall meeting in East Palestine last week because it perceived a physical threat from "the participation of outside parties."
• The EPA said in an update on Monday that it continues to detect normal air quality inside the town, and that its tests of the town's municipal well water showed no water quality concerns.
• The EPA's order came shortly after Regan and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) drank tap water at home in East Palestine as a show of confidence in the quality of the town's drinking water.