(The following report by Michael Gartland appeared on the Post and Courier website on January 25.)
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Days after boxcars filled with bombs, other ammunition and rocket motors derailed in a North Charleston train yard, local and state officials still were struggling to determine exactly what went wrong and what procedures should have been followed in response.
The derailment, which occurred at Bennett Yard at 8:20 p.m. Thursday, resulted in no injuries, but it has raised concerns that notification procedures were not followed and that local authorities and the freight company involved would not be prepared in the event of a terrorist attack.
First responders and officials from CSX Transportation, the rail company whose cars derailed, have given conflicting reports of when phone calls were made to authorities and have not been able to establish clearly which group is responsible for transmitting word of such a mishap.
“The Homeland Security Department is a new organization, and they’re making great strides, but that’s still a work in progress,” said Chief Robert Stewart, head of the State Law Enforcement Division and state adviser to the federal agency. “I’m sure there’s some type of procedure when a railroad is carrying those materials about what the rules and regulations are.”
Exactly what that procedure is Stewart could not say.
“There needs to be a notification and a response from local agencies and the state as soon as possible so security can be established around the site and so none of these weapons can fall into the wrong hands,” he said. “All this needs to be reviewed. … There needs to be a better notification system.”
Stewart will begin discussions with federal Homeland Security representatives and CSX on Monday to establish exactly how the derailment occurred and what needs to be done in the future in terms of transmitting information to local police, fire, and ambulance services.
Stewart, along with North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey and Police Chief Jon Zumalt, did not learn of the derailment until hours after it happened. After reviewing the city’s dispatch log, Zumalt said Friday that the first call from CSX came at 9:11 p.m. Thursday, about 51 minutes after the accident occurred. CSX did not notify the city of hazardous materials until well after midnight, said Summey, who learned of the accident after 2 a.m. Friday.
It was not until after 3 a.m. that Stewart was notified.
“We’re going to sit down Monday with both the fire chief and the police chief and make an assessment and move forward from there,” Summey said. “My initial assessment is that (CSX) didn’t let us know there was dangerous cargo until some four hours afterwards. My future response if there’s a derailment will be to instruct my people to respond no matter what kind of material it is.”
Representatives from CSX maintained that their rail workers did everything according to protocol.
“We notified the 911 operator at 10:30 p.m. of hazardous materials,” said spokesman Adam Hollingsworth, who noted an unspecified number of CSX hazardous materials specialists responded and that the owner of the cargo, the Charleston Naval Weapons Station, also was notified. The cause of the derailment has not been determined, he said.
As far as notification goes, said CSX spokesperson Jane Covington, the rail company is not responsible for contacting specific agencies after calling 911.
“Each 911 agency has their own procedure for that,” Covington said.
Whatever that was, it did not involve notifying the Charleston County Emergency Medical Service until almost 12 hours later.
“If you look at the greater homeland security situation, we want to be notified as soon as possible,” EMS Director Don Lundy said. “This falls to CSX as far as an emergency plan of who is contacted.”
About one hour and 20 minutes after the accident, at 9:40 p.m., CSX notified the Naval Weapons Station, Hollingsworth said. The military agency responsible for transportation was notified at 10 p.m., he said.
When asked when CSX requested military assistance, Hollingsworth replied, “At 10, I think we requested assistance from the Military Traffic Command.”
The agency he referred to recently changed its name to the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command.
Susan Piedfort, spokeswoman for the Naval Weapons Station, gave an account that differed slightly from Hollingsworth’s.
“They first called us to tell there was a derailed car at 22:14, what would be 10:14 p.m.,” she said, adding that at 12:30 a.m., “they called and requested assistance.”
Had the emergency been a terrorist attack and not a derailment of weapons, Stewart said, it would have been handled much differently and an FBI task force would have responded.
“If there had been any indication of terrorist involvement, the Joint Terrorism Task Force would have taken the lead,” he said. “Local authorities would be involved, too.”
Moving the military materials continued throughout Friday night, Stewart said.
“I got a call around 6 or 6:30 a.m. that the train was safely in the Naval Weapons Station. We escorted the train over,” he said.