(The Associated Press circulated the following on May 19.)
LAFAYETTE, La. — Residents driven from their homes by a chemical spill returned home, but a narrow evacuation perimeter remained around the site of a freight train derailment.
About 3,000 residents were allowed to return home Sunday as crews cleaned up hydrochloric acid that spilled when six train cars rolled off the tracks a day before. State police said about half of the 10,000 gallons of acid had been collected.
A one-mile evacuation radius was cut to 1,000 feet from the accident site, said State Police Trooper Stephen LaFargue. He said the reduced area would affect only a few businesses, although the restrictions probably would not be lifted for a couple of days.
The Texas rail company that operated the train started an investigation whose results would be handed over to the Federal Railroad Administration.
“A thorough investigation will take place. It could take a while,” said spokesman Joe Faust of BNSF Railway.
Saturday’s wreck spread a toxic cloud over Lafayette, a southern Louisiana city about 125 miles west of New Orleans. Five people, including two railroad workers, were sent to a hospital and treated after complaining of skin and eye irritation, state police said.
Hydrochloric acid can cause respiratory problems and skin and eye irritation.
The train had been headed to Lake Charles, near the Texas border, about 75 miles west of Lafayette, Faust said.
The derailment caused one of the six cars to leak the acid, which formed a yellowish pool. Cleanup crews used lime to neutralize the chemical, while contractors for the rail company dug out the acid for disposal, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality.
All six rail cars were restored to an upright position, and some had been moved out of the contamination site, Trooper David Anderson said. “The stuff we’re dealing with is bad — very bad stuff,” he said.
The evacuees included 161 nursing home residents, about 35 of whom were taken to hospitals because they were too frail to be moved to other facilities, state officials said.
Faust said BNSF would reimburse evacuated residents for hotel and restaurant bills incurred during the evacuation. The company instructed evacuees to bring identification and receipts to a ballroom inside the sports arena at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.
The accident forced Amtrak’s Sunset Limited from Los Angeles to detour around Lafayette and arrived about 90 minutes late in New Orleans on Sunday, said Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole. Eleven passengers who had been bound for Lafayette and two other Louisiana stops were bused out of Houston, Cole said.