(The Associated Press circulated the following on November 27.)
CHOUDRANT, La. (AP) — Residents within a half-mile radius of a train derailment remained away from their homes Tuesday as workers transferred chemicals from two tank cars, authorities said.
Eleven rail cars in a Kansas City Southern train derailed around 4 a.m. Monday.
Three of the tanker cars left the track but stayed on the rail bed. Two left the track, went down an embankment and settled among trees perpendicular to the road, but remained connected.
The five derailed cars carrying butadiene, a highly flammable chemical, did not leak and there were no reports of injuries, authorities said. A cause of the derailment had not been determined.
Capt. Wesley Miller, a spokesman for the Lincoln Parish sheriff, said KCS had pulled in another train with tank cars and planned to transfer the chemical from the cars that went down the embankment. He said it would take until at least sometime Wednesday for the task to be completed.
In the meantime, about 25 families who lived within a half-mile of the site would remain evacuated, Miller said. Evacuation centers were set up at two churches.