East Palestine officials, residents seek to hold Norfolk Southern accountable for train derailment

Officials in Columbiana County held another briefing Thursday afternoon in the aftermath of last week's train derailment in East Palestine that released potentially hazardous chemicals into the air.

The press conference from the county emergency management agency as well as East Palestine's mayor and fire chief came after the evacuation order in the village was lifted on Wednesday. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine made the announcement Wednesday in conjunction with the East Palestine Fire Department and United States Environmental Protection Agency.

In recent days, much of the attention has turned to the Norfolk Southern Railway, whose freight train was the one involved in the wreck. A lawsuit filed by residents this week accuses the company of negligence, and Mayor Trent R. Conway claimed he has talked to U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson and Sen. JD Vance about holding them accountable throughout the process.

"We're going to hold their feet to the fire," Conway said. He and others added the railroad has its own contractors on-site and that residents can request coverage of expenses by calling [phone].

Still, local leaders have expressed their own frustrations with Norfolk Southern, including railroad crews clearing equipment from the crash scene with trucks that could potentially spread hazardous material to East Palestine roads. While the mayor says he was promised company street sweepers would rectify that issue "immediately," he also acknowledged his anger at NS now running trains on the line as soon as the order expired.

"Anybody who was in incident command last night can tell that I was not very happy with that," Conway said, telling reporters the railway had said operations wouldn't resume until all residents were back home. "Unless I go tie myself to the railroad tracks, that's about the only way I can stop them, and I'm not going to do that. ... I know they have a job to do; they have to get through town."

"This isn't going to get swept under the rug. I'm not going to be the country bumpkin that gets talked over by a big corporation. We're going to hold their feet to the fire. They're going to do what they said they're going to do and they're going to protect the people of this town."

[stevew]

HERE WE GO!!!! I've been wanting this Mayor to say things like this. Hold these criminals accountable. The burden of cleaning this up was put on him and his team who had no knowledge of or way to handle the situation. Keep calling out those who are responsible. When possible do so BY NAME! I respect this guy.

[moondogspot]

Norfolk Southern is offering just $25, 000 to help the town....NS over last few years did $8 billion in stock buybacks...

[johnny]

Those poor poor people are going to riddled w cancer

[pinkeye]

$5M to everyone ... that's probably the only way out of this.

[theusconstitution]

If you can smell it that means the chemical is still hanging in the air and you should NOT BE THERE🛑

[BorgKween]

BS - you had that journalist arrested for holding them accountable. I recognize your faces

[Brendan_Johnson]

The Mayor needs to put these people in jail for the rest of their days or give them the death sentence. Then no one will try this stuff again because this company will be made an example. It will put fear in the rest of the train companies.

[chelseastewart]

What are they going to do for the people who live a little bit outside the mile evacuation Zone everything smells in my house. I hope the town comes together and we do something about this. The railroad company coming around giving people $1, 000. Like that's enough to replace everybody's clothing and curtains and everything in their house that smells. This town deserves better than this. I hope this town gets a shark of a lawyer and we'll make this railroad take responsibility for all the damages caused

[Davej]

Its safe but we need hazmat suits. But goverment says its safe so must be true.

[roddavis]

have a one on one with the Ns ceo Mr Allen Shaw Mayor Conway.

[tralijntje]

so nobody is after the chemical company?

[pinkeye]

1:05 actually that's the meth from the car before you did this interview. sorry.