It’s been over two weeks since the derailment of the Norfolk Southern train carrying dangerous chemicals in East Palestine and the Biden administration is finally sending help.
No, not Pete Buttigieg. HHS and the CDC are sending both “medical personnel and toxicologists” to the town after appeals from the governor for help.
Here’s more via Fox News:
The Biden administration is deploying medical personnel and toxicologists to East Palestine, Ohio following the toxic train derailment more than two weeks ago amid pressure from state officials for federal aid.
Officials said Friday that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are sending personnel to conduct public health testing and assessments. Residents of the East Palestine community have reported severe symptoms from toxins and chemicals that have seeped into the air and waterways since the derailment on Feb. 3.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine requested HHS and CDC assistance on Feb. 16, after being denied aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Officials said federal medical personnel are expected to be on the ground in East Palestine by Saturday. The team is expected to include a medical toxicologist and others to support state health department efforts.
The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry will also be on the ground to help protect the community from “harmful health effects related to exposure to natural and man-made hazardous substances.” Officials said the ATSDR will send a team to interview members of the community and in the area of the derailment to conduct an assessment of chemical exposure investigation.
An official told Fox News that the EPA has been on the ground in East Palestine since day one. But residents feel they have received little support from the federal government.
Indeed Governor DeWine was denied FEMA support because FEMA claims they don’t do this sort of ecological disaster. They only do disasters caused by hurricanes, tornados and flooding…or something.
Meanwhile, DeWine has responded to the video by JD Vance and has confirmed that some waterways are severely contaminated:
“I know that there’s been some video played on TV circulating of visible contamination in one of the local waterways,” DeWine said at a press conference providing an update on cleanup efforts and environmental testing in the area.
“A section of Sulfur Run that is very near the crash site remains severely contaminated. We knew this. We know this. It’s going to take a while to remediate this,” the governor said.
DeWine said that this particular waterway was dammed up after the derailment to prevent it from contaminating other waterways:
DeWine said a polluted section of Sulphur Run stream was dammed in two places shortly after the accident to prevent other local waterways from contamination. He said teams were pumping clean water from the eastern dam, funneling it away from the contaminated section of the stream, and releasing it back at the western dam to divert clean water around the contamination.
“This allows clean water to bypass the area of the derailment and prevents clean water from picking up contaminants and carrying them into other waterways,” DeWine said. “The remediation of the water in the direct area of the spill is going to take some time, just as it is taking some time to deal with the dirt.”
“This is not a simple process,” he added. “We’re encouraging people to continue to avoid that area.”
I have a feeling that some people won’t be just avoiding the area, but moving out entirely after this fiasco.