Ohio Train Derailment

[mom2rtk]

Yeah, I think what is happening is that it's worse than they thought, so news coverage is picking up again. People who are showering are breaking out in rashes. One woman quoted in the NYT who was outside the evening of the "controlled burn" said she felt like her tongue was "scalded" and had blood in her stool for days. Not great. I mean, I guess it makes sense that they did the controlled burn....lesser of two evils I guess? They didn't want that stuff leaching into the ground water, but plenty of it already had. Just a terrible situation.

The controlled release started 10 days ago. That's when the story should have jumped from run of the mill train wreck story to ecological disaster story.

 

[Colleen27]

I think it's naive to think that corporate media, owned by some of the richest people in the world, doesn't actively downplay stories that are bad for business interests. Many people are distrustful of "mainstream media" but don't seem to remember or understand WHY they aren't trustworthy.

But listening exclusively to corporate-owned media that engages in those practices is a choice like any other. You can't eat only at McDonalds and Burger King and then complain that American restaurants don't serve healthy food. NPR, both nationally and on regional affiliates, has covered this. Newshour on PBS has covered this. And in the for-profit space, but somewhat less corporate/consolidated/ratings driven than the major news networks, this has been in my NYT daily newsletters every day for quite a while now. I won't say since it first happened - I think there were a couple of quiet days between the initial reporting of the derailment and the beginning of the concern about what it carried, but there have been daily updates since the "burn it off" effort was announced at least.

In my experience, people who complain about media the most get virtually all of their professionally-produced news from television, don't have time to watch a whole lot of it, and then claim "media blackout" because a story wasn't covered in the 30 minutes they tuned in while getting ready in the morning or whatever.

I don't have an issue so much with the media as I do the sources feeding the media. I can't really blame people for skepticism that we aren't getting the whole story when you have prior things like Flint.

But how did the Flint situation come to light? A whistleblower dismissed by the state went to the press, people in Flint went to the press. It was an ongoing story locally for a year before it got picked up nationally, and without all those local efforts, the national media wouldn't have had a story to latch onto and build upon.

 

[Colleen27]

What I don't understand is why the Governor told the President that they didn't need any help when he offered whatever they needed.

Oh, I think we all understand it. We just can't talk about it here. That's an issue that has been and probably will continue to be a complicating factor in disaster response and recovery in America for a long time. When concerns about perception become more important than practical needs, no one wins except the posturing politicians.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Again, you don't get it. Many of these people don't have the resources for down payments, maybe their credit isn't good enough. Maybe they can't afford even a cheap house right now at the high interest rates. They might not even be able to afford the moving truck right now.

I saw somewhere that people were being given $1K vouchers. That's nice. But then what do they do a few days later when that's gone?

What a mess. Someone needs to back up the money truck. Fast.

I absolutely do get it. I understand the dyer straights that many of those folks are in....same as the people in Flint Michigan...and all of the other places where we've had environmental or natural disasters like Ian along the west coast of Florida. The people of Flint didn't have anywhere to go. The people with big homes and insurance on that coast are fine. Those in the mobile homes that got leveled...are already gone. It always hits the poor hardest.

The money truck isn't coming....whatever truck does arrive won't be enough and it never allay the real fear and possibility of respiratory, inflammatory and cancerous diseases that will take a big jump up in coming years. It will always be in the back of the minds of the people of that town.

Hopefully they can mitigate some of the damage by doing a massive clean-up of the site....but as you said, we're at two weeks and so far it seems like they're cleaning up the wreckage. I saw some of those floating things that they put in areas the water where there are oil spills, but lots of dead fish and frogs are downstream.

 

[Colleen27]

Are you saying the Governor of Ohio turned down federal help for this mess because of politics?

He acknowledged that the president reached out with an "anything you need" offer of assistance but then went on to say that he doesn't see a problem that would require such help at this time. What other motivation could there be for turning down any and all help that is offered to deal with a disaster of this scale? It is probably the worst ecological and human health catastrophe since Chernobyl. If there is any situation that deserves an "all hands on deck" response, this would be it.

 

[mom2rtk]

He acknowledged that the president reached out with an "anything you need" offer of assistance but then went on to say that he doesn't see a problem that would require such help at this time. What other motivation could there be for turning down any and all help that is offered to deal with a disaster of this scale? It is probably the worst ecological and human health catastrophe since Chernobyl. If there is any situation that deserves an "all hands on deck" response, this would be it.

I don't have a clue why he turned it down. I'm scratching my head as well. But I'm not ready to say a sitting Governor would turn down assistance because of politics. I feel like there has to be more to that story.

 

[DeeBee3]

I saw somewhere that people were being given $1K vouchers. That's nice. But then what do they do a few days later when that's gone?

I just came here to post this - they were given $1,000 in exchange for signing a waiver that they wouldn't pursue legal action in the future. Not sure of the exact language. I believe this was from representatives of the railroad company.

Paging Erin Brockovich!

 

[mom2rtk]

I just came here to post this - they were given $1,000 in exchange for signing a waiver that they wouldn't pursue legal action in the future. Not sure of the exact language. I believe this was from representatives of the railroad company.

Paging Erin Brockovich!

So $1K but with strings? That's awful.

 

[DeeBee3]

So $1K but with strings? That's awful.

It was reported via citizens who received the offer. The attorneys in the area were advising them not to sign because they needed to make sure it wasn't absolving the railroad company of damages. It seemed to be a very "legalese" type thing. One of the articles showed a reply document that a lawyer drew up for the citizens.

Meanwhile - if you see the financials on this company, they have TONS of dough. That much doesn't bother me, but this community is not in an area where they have the means to clean up and move on with all this. My concern is they cleaned this up quickly and did the burn just to get the train cars out of the way and move on with business. I still don't think a controlled burn of that substance was the best option, but I am not a chemist.

 

[persnickity]

I just came here to post this - they were given $1,000 in exchange for signing a waiver that they wouldn't pursue legal action in the future. Not sure of the exact language. I believe this was from representatives of the railroad company.

Paging Erin Brockovich!

Ughh, I was really worried when I heard about the vouchers that they might have attached conditions. And, if course they made record profits in the billions last year while lobbying against their own workers.

 

[Princesca]

I read somewhere the town was offered $25k for this mess.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

I heard about it on a different social media site and started following the story from there. It really grabbed my attention because I just watched White Noise on Feb 1.

It grabbed my attention because I have friends in Ohio including the one I mentioned previously who is only about 35 minutes away

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Where the heck do you live? I'm in Canada and I have seen it on the news, in the newspaper, on the radio and on social media.

Tri state area….tbh we have so much going on by us it’s bound to get buried. I’ve finally heard about it more and more since the weekend

 

[DCLMP]

Again, you don't get it. Many of these people don't have the resources for down payments, maybe their credit isn't good enough. Maybe they can't afford even a cheap house right now at the high interest rates. They might not even be able to afford the moving truck right now.

I saw somewhere that people were being given $1K vouchers. That's nice. But then what do they do a few days later when that's gone?

What a mess. Someone needs to back up the money truck. Fast.

I think the majority of people across all income levels would struggle to pick up move and start over on a dime. That's a huge financial burden,

 

[DCLMP]

Tri state area….tbh we have so much going on by us it’s bound to get buried. I’ve finally heard about it more and more since the weekend

If it wasn't for social media I think it probably would have stayed buried.

 

[leahgoogle]

I asked some people about it at work and nobody had heard of it. I spend a lot of time on alternative news sites so I read about a lot of things that never hit the mainstream media. I find most people don’t know what’s going on in the world unless it’s really thrown in their face.

Yep. All mainstream media does is gaslight us anyway so I use alternative sites and it just so happens that they post on twitter. I'm glad it is finally getting the attention it deserves.

 

[leahgoogle]

If you first heard about this on Twitter, I'm sorry but you are using terrible news sources.

I was sick of being gaslit by mainstream media. Twitter actually has some great news sources for people that want to actually hear both sides of the story. To each their own.

 

[lifesavacation]

I’ve been following this story for a couple of reasons. I hate railroad companies (my husband works for one) and I live within a couple of miles of tracks and know all the hazardous materials that are shipped daily (thanks, husband).

As recently as yesterday, I was sending my husband pictures of the damage while he was at work. Upper management was praising Norfolk’s response and how fast they were able to get the tracks cleared and the trains running again. My husband asked them how they could praise the response when it was killing livestock and fish and sending toxic chemicals into the air and water. They said it was fake news. Until its reported by a government agency none of what’s reported is connected.

Railroad companies only care about profits. They don’t care about people or the environment. They have a tremendous amount of power and influence within the government. I have very little faith that this ecological disaster will get the recognition and response it deserves.

 

[DCLMP]

Yep. All mainstream media does is gaslight us anyway so I use alternative sites and it just so happens that they post on twitter. I'm glad it is finally getting the attention it deserves.

If you look at TV ratings it's obvious that most people don't get their news from the tel- lie- vision anymore. Thank God for the internet and all the options we have now.

 

[leahgoogle]

Nobody is keeping anything secret. My gosh. Some lawmakers are already finger pointing and trying to blame the wrong person for this whole disaster, as usual.

They are not being forward either. Trying to pay residents a measly amount so they won't sue in the future. This is going to be a health disaster for years and years for multiple states.

You should watch the documentary Atomic Homefront on HBO. Our government has denied and tried to cover up environmental issues before. It's horrible, really. I don't trust they will handle this correctly or make the railroad handle the clean-up correctly.