Just started seeing news of this last night. For those that have paid more attention, how bad is it? 

Could this be an act of war against Ohio from China or Russia?

Just last night? Are you living in a hole?

It's beyond fucked.

Good explanation of what the tankers contained....

reddit link

posted by Automatik

Just last night? Are you living in a hole?

For the most part, yes.

Not that far from where I live. Believe the train came through the town I live in. If it would've happened here, we would've been screwed because I have tracks running about 100 yards from the back of my house.

We went to the Meadows Casino in Washington, PA Friday and I thought we were going to have to detour on the way home because we drove past East Palestine.

Seems to be one of those fucked-up stories where good luck on what to believe and how much to believe it.

You have the official statement by the EPA and state governors that says readings are back to normal and nothing to see here, just go back home and drink the water like nothing ever happened -- which seems to have infected the national media considering the amount of overall coverage this has received as compared to "we done shot us down another weird thingie in the sky!!!!!". 

On the other hand, you have residents and people there talking about how animals are dying off like crazy. And spend enough time online and you'll see all sorts of stuff about the chemicals involved that go all the way up to comparing this shit to all-time man-made disasters like Chernobyl and Three Mile Island due to the possibility of the Ohio River being polluted to hell by all the crap entering it.

Which all leads to a really tangled web where it'd be really cool if something came out where I could say that I legitimately trust what they're saying AND the intent by which they're saying it. And is more concrete than my view that it's worse than the company line, but not as bad as the "EVERYTHING IS FUCKED" crowd is saying.

Yeah, being an Ohio board (even with 7 posters), it surprises me that it took this long for a thread.

It was aliens

All just a bunch of White Noise (props to anyone who gets this reference)

Pretty informative press conference in progress with governor, EPA, director of health, emergency response teams etc..., maybe over now after the Q&A.  It does seem that the situation is under control and all the air and water tests are in the safe zone.  They were very in depth on the remediation work ongoing with the capture and removal of the contaminated soil and water.  All downstream water operators are properly managing their supply; there is one plume moving down the Ohio River - near Huntington now - and they are tracking it until it dissipates etc... East Palestine has a municipal supply and has been managed well it sounded, with good test results; for those with private wells etc.... they are encouraged to have them tested free of charge etc.... If anyone has had any health effects they are asked to contact their medical provider etc....  It seemed like a very transparent exchange of info.  They did discuss the anecdotal stories that have surfaced about some loss of animal life etc..... but where the truth ends and rumors begin, who knows for sure.  I'm sure some of that probably occurred, but doesn't sound like a widespread event.  Hopefully what was stated is all true, and it holds.

Of course, folks will believe what they want .............. 

PS - why the national media seems to be 9 days late to the game is another story.  I guess the balloon chasing was a priority.

posted by QuakerOats

Pretty informative press conference in progress with governor, EPA, director of health, emergency response teams etc...

I think QO got hacked

posted by gut
I think QO got hacked

I was thinking the same thing.

Like BR1986FB, my town is on that line, but 70 miles to the west.  

Still, cause for concern around here.

I was relaying what I heard in the press conference during the time I was able to listen to it; nothing more, nothing less.  

Have at it. 

Not sure why the link to the Youtube replay of the news conference will not paste here ............but it is available. 

I still work in Salem some (hybrid), right along those tracks, so we’ve been paying attention at work - it’s always weird when no trains are going by 50 feet behind us, shaking the entire damn building.

There are 2 surveillance videos from other businesses in Salem along the track of the axle already failing (red/fiery), so when it passed the defect detector after all of the Salem tracks something didn’t happen as it should have, because they said at pressers that it didn’t trigger until the next one in East Palestine, 15ish miles later, and by the time they hit the brakes it was too late and everything went to hell about a half mile from the PA border.

Potential long term effects will be interesting, as the EPA has already accused the railroad of burying some of the contaminated dirt in their mad rush to lay new track and get it reopened, so if that leeches there could be issues later that aren’t showing yet. But railroads haven’t had to answer to anyone for at least a century, it’s not like that’s magically going to change.

Do railroads have any type of sovereign immunity protection like our stupid government does?

posted by ernest_t_bass

Do railroads have any type of sovereign immunity protection like our stupid government does?

They have the ability to donate large sums of $$$ to politicians in order to not have to spend large sums of $$$ to do things like upgrade their stuff to actually try to prevent things like this from happening. And when you consider that Trump (R) scaled back transport safety rules (in regards to outdated train braking systems as far as this is concerned) and that Biden (D) hasn't said or done anything to counteract that AND, from what I've read, Mayor Pete actually has been considering scaling things back even further, I'd say that whether they naturally have it, the railroads have done a good  job of buying immunity from our Two-Party Grift System.

Yeah the railroads have both parties in the bag. In addition to everything you listed, Biden imposed a contract on them to avoid a strike. So their ability to write their own rules is bipartisan.

The mayor said they didn’t even hear from the White House until yesterday. How is that possible?

posted by iclfan2

The mayor said they didn’t even hear from the White House until yesterday. How is that possible?

Joe had to be reminded that Ohio is a part of the 58 states?

posted by ts1227

Yeah the railroads have both parties in the bag. In addition to everything you listed, Biden imposed a contract on them to avoid a strike. So their ability to write their own rules is bipartisan.

Oh yeah, I did read that shortly after the wreck. Not sure what's more sad: That both political parties are happy to let the train companies write their own rules regardless of the consequences OR that the companies would rather throw their money at politicians to gain influence or at dumb shit (definitely remember reading that the company in question here dumped a lot of money in that stupid-ass Cop City deal in Atlanta) than invest it in their own stuff.

The way I see it is that with both parties being owned by Big Train, a person (Quaker in this case) can cite a press conference where Daddy DeWine and the gubment are saying everything's okay and humans aren't at risk (even if animals are dying left and right), but I'm taking all that shit with more than one grain of salt. Doubly so when considering that, from an article I read this morning, East Palestine held a town hall meeting about this and the train company cowards backed out of appearing due to being worried about their safety. Well, at least they're worried about SOMEONE'S well-being!!!

I have some experience working in crisis management.  This seems to be a case study in what not to do by Norfolk Southern thus far.  They are not out in front of this thing, there are not answers forthcoming, their website only really speaks to people whose shipments are delayed as a result of the derailment.  Because the train crashed in East Palestine, OH and not say New Albany (where there aren't rail lines like this anyhow), the NS response seems to be hoping these poor people just go away.  This has been the playbook for many a crisis response effort by a large corporation.  It usually does not go well, yet they try again.

Woops, Norfolk Southern just had another train derail near Detroit.  

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-admin-turns-down-ohios-request-disaster-assistance-toxic-derailment

posted by QuakerOats

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-admin-turns-down-ohios-request-disaster-assistance-toxic-derailment

Hasn't the Ohio governor spent the last couple weeks doing damage control for Norfolk Southern, saying that nothing is wrong, the water is safe and nothing to see here...you know, like in the post you had a couple days ago where you summarized his press conference and concluded with a little "of course, folks will believe what they want..." line to dismiss any reports to the contrary? I'd say that a big part of getting disaster assistance would be to actually treat a disaster like a disaster.

Actually, during the press conference, the Ohio governor was among the people asking questions and pressing the 'experts' for answers to certain questions.  I'm not sure who is in charge of telling the residents they are being lied to, maybe the trial lawyers? 

Found out this evening that we dodged a bullet on this. The first 911 call that came in about this train being on fire (first spotted on fire)  came from the town I live in. I have tracks probably about 100 yards from my back door. If this would've happened in our town we would've been screwed.