AMITE, La. — The last vestiges of Saturday’s freight train derailment and hazardous material spill should be cleaned up within the next two weeks, and Canadian National Railroad has scheduled meetings next week with residents who suffered losses, the Hammond Daily Star reported.
Federal, state and railroad officials continue to investigate, but so far there is no official report about why the wreck occurred in Amite Saturday afternoon.
An open claims office will be set up in Amite City Hall from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. starting Tuesday and will continue through Oct. 26, said Ian Thomson, CNR spokesman.
“If it takes longer, it takes longer,” he said.
Residents and business owners affected by the accident are being contacted to set up times to come in, he said. Each should bring identification, copies of receipts for expenses and other items that establishes their presence in the evacuation zone.
According to North Oaks Medical Center, a total of 44 people were been treated and released in connection with the derailment.
Much of the remaining clean up work is going on in back of Dykes Feed and Dairy Supplies.
The feed store opened this morning for the first time since the wreck, owner Brian Dykes said.
“I was more concerned about my customers,” Dykes said. “We’ve been in business for 56 years, and our customers are used to us being there, and we’re used to them coming in.”
He’s bringing in fresh feed stock, even though railroad officials have assured him that the stock on hand at the time of the accident is safe.
“I don’t know what to do with the other. They claim it’s OK, but I’m not going to sell it,” Dykes said.
The tracks are clear now, and train traffic is moving through, but some derailed cars remain. Thomson said the hopper cars which carried plastic pellets will be cut up on site and removed. Other cars were either rolled out or carried out on truck beds earlier, he said.
Workers are concentrating on a 1- to 2-acre area, some of which includes Dykes’ property. They are removing dirt and gravel where hydrochloric acid and styrene spilled from leaking tank cars.
Clean dirt and gravel will be brought in, and tests are being conducted to satisfy state Department of Environmental Quality officials that all is well.
“The area is going to be corrected and we will make the area safe so there is no danger to the public,” Thomson said.