(The St. Louis Post-Dispatch posted the following article by Robert W. Duffy on its website on February 10.)
TAMAROA, Ill. — Authorities evacuated the Southern Illinois town of Tamaroa and its surrounding rural areas on Sunday after a freight train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in the middle of town.
There were no reports of injuries after 16 cars of a northbound Illinois Central-Canadian National train derailed just after 9 a.m., according to authorities.
Officials estimate about 1,000 people were evacuated. Tamoroa has a population of 800.
Within 15 minutes of the derailment, residents as far as a mile away were evacuated, said Perry County Sheriff Keith Kellerman. The evacuation was extended around 3 p.m. to everyone within a 3-mile radius of the crash site.
The train was carrying methanol, vinyl chloride, formaldehyde and hydrochloric acid. The chemicals are hazardous to breathe and could cause death in high concentrations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many emergency workers were kept away from the trains because of the danger, Kellerman said.
Between three and six cars leaked chemicals, authorities said. Vinyl chloride and methanol that leaked from the cars caught fire, according to Kellerman and Canadian National spokesman Jack Burke. The fire was still burning Sunday evening as emergency crews developed a plan to put it out and clean up the spill.
Workers were not able to get back to the site to assess the mess until after 6 p.m., according to David Searby of Du Quoin Emergency Services.
A command center was set up at Du Quoin City Hall, about 10 miles south of Tamaroa. Personnel included Canadian National’s own emergency response team and specialists, the Perry County Sheriff’s Department, Illinois State Police, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and surrounding fire departments and district.
“We are appraising the situation to determine how best to eliminate any danger and get people back in their houses as soon as possible,” Burke said.
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Sunday activated the state’s Operation Emergency Center to provide all necessary state resources to residents of Perry County.
The derailment disrupted Amtrak passenger train service between Chicago and Carbondale, said spokeswoman Kathleen Cantillon. Passengers on those trains were put on buses to complete their trips.
Two other trains between New Orleans and Chicago were rerouted through St. Louis, she said.
Displaced residents took refuge at a community center in Tamaroa and were later moved to the American Legion Hall in Du Quoin when the evacuation area was extended. About 50 residents were there Sunday night, said American Legion employee Sabrina Bathon. Most went to hotels or the homes of family and friends.
The American Red Cross provided those at the Legion Hall with a dinner of soup and sandwiches and cots to sleep on. Mary Nippe, 35, spent Sunday night there with her husband Rick, and their two children, ages 7 and 9; but she said they planned to sleep at her sister’s apartment in Du Quoin.
The Nippes live just outside Tamaroa and were told to leave their house around 3:30 p.m. They were able to pack a change of clothes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, blankets and pillows.
Mary Nippe said everyone was in disbelief. “It almost seems like a bad dream,” she said. “Reality hasn’t sunk in yet.”
Her children are scared they might lose their house or school, she said, and she’s worried about the environmental dangers.
“It’s scary because you don’t know what long-term effects will come from this,” she said. “Everyone has speculations.”
Searby said he was unsure when residents could return to their homes. “Whether it’s safe for people to go back tomorrow, I don’t know,” he said. “Whether it’s safe to go back in two days, I don’t know.”
Melissa Grissom, 36, of Tamaroa briefly sought shelter Sunday at the American Legion post. Grissom had rushed to her mother’s house after learning of the derailment and saw four tankers off the track in flames.
She went home to pack her bags, fully expecting to be evacuated and, sure enough, a knock on her door came. She and her 6-year-old son, Jordan Grissom, were told to leave.
“You can’t go back for anything, even my mother’s medicine,” she said. Grissom and her son planned to stay in a motel.
Mark Rojek of Tamaroa was behind the wheel of his van on Main Street waiting for the train to go by at 9:05 a.m. Sunday.
He looked to the south and saw a tanker car that was missing its back set of wheels being dragged by the train. Rojek speculated that that is what caused the train to derail.
“I saw stuff spewing out and I hit reverse and backed away,” he said. “I yelled at someone at the general store to call 911.”
Frightened, he went to his house and got his wife, Angela, 35, her grandmother and the couple’s four children. “I wanted to get my family out,” he said late Sunday at the American Legion Post.
The train was being operated by a two-person crew and likely had 100 or more cars, Burke said. He said chemical-hauling trains normally come north from Louisiana to Chicago or to a switching point in Effingham for movement elsewhere.
Each car was carrying 24,000 pounds of chemicals, Kellerman said.
The cause of the accident remains under investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to arrive on the scene today and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was en route Sunday.
(Michele Munz and Ken Leiser, of the Post-Dispatch, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.)