(The Lansing State Journal posted the following article by Sharon Terlep on its website on May 26.)
POTTERVILLE, Mich. — Marlene Medler shakes her head and sneers, peering at railroad tracks that a year ago held a mangled heap of train cars filled with gas and chemicals.
Ever since a train derailed in the unkept field less than a block from her tidy mobile home, Medler said, she worries about things like whether her water’s clean and if the same thing could happen again.
She and her daughter were ousted from their home for five days after the Canadian National derailment forced a citywide evacuation – possibly the largest in Michigan history – thrusting quiet, blue-collar Potterville into the national spotlight.
“I hate living here now,” Medler said. She explained that her home day-care business lost two clients because the parents didn’t want their kids to play so close to the tracks.
“Knowing how far those things derailed from the tracks, every time it comes through we think about it,” she said.
No signs remain of the train cars that littered Potterville’s tracks like a massive accordion last Memorial Day, spewing volatile propane for days while crews worked to delicately remove them.
The smell of gas that coated downtown is replaced by a faint scent of fried food wafting out of Joe’s Gizzard City, a downtown bar and restaurant.
And, other than a few lingering lawsuits and questions from curious out-of-towners, locals say the city has moved on.
“It took three or four months at least for everyone to get over it,” said Maureen Bird, an employee at Joe’s, the main watering hole.
“But Joe’s is open, so everything is fine.”
Pulling together
Many in Potterville say their town is stronger for the ordeal, after people pulled together to help get through it.
“The town recovered very well, but it was a little different when they came back, because nobody had been through anything like that,” said Eaton County Sheriff Rick Jones, who oversaw the evacuation.
“They went from small town America overnight to national news.”
Churches, shops and volunteers pitched in to provide food, clothes and shelter to the 2,200 residents barred from their homes up to five days.
Joy Thackery was about to start work at Coleen’s Cuisine catering business downtown when word came that everyone had to leave the city.
Without food or a place to prepare meals, the business faced canceling planned events, including weddings, she said.
Then, St. Mary’s Church in Charlotte offered use of its kitchen, allowing the catering to continue.
“Everyone was helping out,” Thackery said.
But, for others, sour feelings linger – against Canadian National for the disruption caused by the derailment and against residents who some say tried to make money off the ordeal.
“People tried to get rich off the whole thing,” Chester Worden said while knocking back Budweisers at Joe’s, where beer bottles line the walls and high school sports banners hang from the ceilings. He thinks many people asked Canadian National to reimburse them for more money than they lost during the evacuation.
Worden had to leave his neighborhood home three days after the derailment.
He stayed in a Holiday Inn outside town. Canadian National, which attributed the derailment to a broken rail, reimbursed him $377.
“It covered the hotel, two meals and $50-a-day I didn’t even ask for,” he said. “It wasn’t a big deal, really.”
The fight continues
But it is a big deal for at least three people who are suing the railroad company for lost money. They say the $300 Canadian National offered them doesn’t cover everything they lost.
The derailment caused property values to drop in Potterville, said Frank Fleischmann, the attorney handling the cases. “The company is still trying to claim they did nothing wrong when they parked their train in my clients’ back yards,” he said.
Several local real estate agents said they’d be surprised if property values dropped because of the derailment.
Canadian National says it will talk with Potterville residents who feel they didn’t receive enough money.
“We’ve settled with the vast majority of the people up there, they found our offer fair and reasonable,” company spokesman Jack Burke said.
Meanwhile, Medler says, she gets nervous whenever a train lumbers by her home.
Her family doesn’t drink water from the tap, even though railroad and state Department of Environmental Quality officials said they don’t believe there is any contamination from the wreck.
“The cars wiggle, and the faster they go, the harder they sway,” she said. “I just don’t trust the rail system.”