3 derailment, officials decided to burn toxic vinyl chloride from five tanker cars to prevent a catastrophic explosion.

“Sometimes I just break down,” she says.Ībout half of East Palestine’s nearly 5,000 residents evacuated when, days after the Feb. She remembers the scorched rail tanker at her property line and a backyard flooded with water from the burn site. Walker, 48, also works at a small hotel where many workers are staying, so is constantly reminded of the accident.

“I have no idea how long we can continue to do this,” says Walker, while washing clothes at a laundromat. They’re unsure how or whether to move on from the accident and worry what will happen to them and the village where they have deep family roots, friendships and affordable homes. Shelby Walker bounces from hotel to hotel with her five children and four grandchildren while crews tear up railroad tracks and scoop out contaminated soil near their four-bedroom home.Īlmost 3 months after a fiery Norfolk Southern train derailment blackened the skies, sent residents fleeing and thrust East Palestine into a national debate over rail safety, residents say they are still living in limbo. EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) - Jeff Drummond spends days and nights alone in a tiny room with fake wood paneling, two small beds and a microwave atop a mini refrigerator that serves as a nightstand - his pickup truck parked just outside the door at the roadside motel where he’s taken refuge since early February.

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