(The following article by Sulaiman Beg was posted on the White Plains Journal News website on February 20.)
HAVERSTRAW, N.Y. — A freight train derailment last night on the CSX tracks led to a partial evacuation of village residents and closed Route 9W and many surrounding roads for hours.
Before the spilled silicon metal cargo on the four-car train was determined to be nonhazardous, police and firefighters began going door to door in the Tilcon plant area of the village, advising residents to leave their homes.
Three railroad workers and a town police officer were decontaminated by volunteers from the West Haverstraw Fire Department at the accident scene before being taken to Nyack Hospital by the Haverstraw Ambulance Corps, said John Tesik, West Haverstraw’s assistant fire chief.
“They came knocking at the door and told us we had to evacuate,” said Melissa Cohen of New City, who was visiting a friend on Riverside Avenue. “They said a train derailed and told us of a chemical spill. They said we had to evacuate for our safety.”
Cohen said her friend’s two young children were frightened. The group went to a relative’s house, but others went to the Haverstraw Community Center, which was opened as a shelter.
The northbound train derailed about a mile south of Short Clove Road and Route 9W just after emerging from the tunnel in the Dutchtown area of Haverstraw village around 7:30 p.m., police and fire officials said.
Two cars were split open, said John O’Mara, an environmental engineer with the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation.
Officer Ed Devoe of the Haverstraw village police said CSX called police about the derailment before 8 p.m., but didn’t have an exact location.
Devoe said the crew uncoupled an engine from the train and motored north to West Haverstraw until it found his cruiser.
“They said they were feeling dizzy,” Devoe said of the crew.
Devoe then drove down the tracks to find the rest of the train. “I didn’t want to get too close,” he said.
“The tracks were mangled,” he added.
The three train crew members and a town police officer who were exposed to the pebbly cargo that spilled from two cars were sprayed down with water and then taken to Nyack Hospital.
Parts of Route 304, Route 202, Ridge Road, New Main Street and Route 303 were among the roads closed. The county’s helicopter Chopper One hovered overhead. The county’s Hazmat team helped to secure the area.
Dan Greeley, assistant director of fire and emergency services, said the reverse 911 system was used to notify some residents.
“It was a cautionary evacuation,” he said.
Members of a Newburgh-based environmental company began the cleanup last night, Greeley said. Police began opening roads around 10:30 p.m.
On Oct. 6, a CSX Transportation train derailed, but the company didn’t notify the county for several hours. Two locomotives weighing more than 1,000 tons each were tilted, and one threatened to topple down a 30-foot embankment.