(The following article by Mike Bucsko was posted on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette website on February 3.)
EAST DEER, Pa. — Anthony Taliani and Tina Lesoon sat in East Deer’s township office yesterday and answered call after call from residents who wanted to know if it was safe to return to homes from which they were evacuated two days earlier after a train derailment.
For Taliani, the township’s commission chairman, and Lesoon, the township secretary, the incessant calls were a minor annoyance compared with the chaotic activities this week in the makeshift emergency center at the township’s offices, about 10 blocks from where a Norfolk Southern train derailed with hazardous cargo.
“The peace and quiet here is great,” said Lesoon, whose Freeport Road home was among the 164 East Deer residences evacuated.
At noon yesterday, the township and Allegheny County emergency management officials lifted the evacuation order that displaced more than 200 people from the township’s Creighton section. The order came after a railroad tank car filled with concentrated anhydrous hydrogen fluoride gas ruptured in the Allegheny River.
Al Derringer took his elderly parents, Richard, 78, and Sel, 79, and brother, John, 40, back to their Marion Street home about 12:30 p.m. yesterday. John Derringer, who uses a wheelchair, was the last to leave when the area was evacuated on Monday.
The Derringers went to their daughter’s Lower Burrell home, but the temporary move was difficult because they had to leave the family home in Creighton that is equipped for John’s disability, said Al Derringer, who lives in the Natrona Heights section of Harrison.
The 83-car Norfolk Southern train derailed at 5:28 a.m. Monday as it traveled from the Conway railroad yards in Beaver County to Allentown. The derailment occurred approximately in the middle of the train, about 18 miles upriver from the Point, on a rail line that winds through the Allegheny Valley.
The cause is under investigation by the railroad company, and the results will be turned over to the Federal Railroad Administration, Norfolk Southern spokesman Rudy Husband said.
By yesterday afternoon, two derailed tank cars filled with hydrogen fluoride had been emptied into two other tank cars brought in on a temporary railroad line and the hazardous chemical was shipped to its original destination in Allentown.
The third tank car that derailed and ended up leaking hydrogen fluoride in the river was brought out of the Allegheny with heavy equipment. The hazardous chemical that remained inside, well diluted by river water, was to be removed and transferred to two tank trucks so the cargo could be taken and disposed of in accordance with environmental guidelines, Husband said.
Seven of the 13 railroad cars that derailed were damaged beyond repair and sat yesterday on the side of an access road adjacent to the railroad tracks. The damaged cars will be cut up for scrap and shipped out on freight cars sometime in the next two months, Husband said.
The tank cars will be transferred to a flat railroad car. The workers also will complete the reconstruction of 415 feet of damaged track so railroad traffic can begin again today, Husband said.
Officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection determined on Tuesday that the leaking tank car no longer presented a risk of emission of toxic hydrogen fluoride gas because the tank was nearly empty. Most of the contents emptied into the river Monday and early Tuesday after the car rolled into the river during the derailment and the cap on top of the car was ripped off.
But the public danger was not over until late yesterday morning, when the transfer of the hydrogen fluoride gas was completed from the two tank cars that derailed and did not leak.
There were no reported injuries to residents or the approximately 300 police, firefighters, emergency medical services, hazardous response and railroad workers who were in East Deer this week.
Norfolk Southern will continue to operate an assistance center until 8 p.m. tomorrow in the Holy Family Catholic Church social hall to help residents and business owners with emergency lodging and other expenses incurred because of the evacuation. The numbers for the assistance center are 724-226-6912 or 1-800-230-7049.
In addition to paying the expenses of residents and businesses upended by the evacuation, the railroad company is on the financial hook for the loss of commercial train cargo, environmental cleanup, expenses of emergency responders including a damaged fire hose and the costs of private contractors who worked on various aspects of the recovery and repair of the tracks and damaged railroad cars, Husband said.
He declined to disclose the company’s estimated cost.
John “Junior” Revdansky was glad yesterday to return to his auto detailing and accessories business, Junior’s Automotive, on Freeport Road near the derailment site. Revdansky, who lives across the river from his business in New Kensington, said he was contacted by Norfolk Southern about a claim for his lost business as soon as he opened yesterday, but had no idea how much business he lost.
“This week’s shot,” Revdansky said. “I’m not really going to be up to par until next week.”