(The following article by Amanda Casciaro was posted on the Daily Home website on January 19.)
LINCOLN, Ala. — When Honda announced it would open a plant in Lincoln, resident Polly Tanner knew it would mean more traffic on the railroad in front of her neighborhood on Lomar Drive.
Because the tracks isolate the 30 or so homes in the area, Tanner approached the Lincoln City Council in 1999 to request funding for a bypass road.
She hit a dead end.
Since then, Tanner said, trains have routinely blocked the only exit route. For up to 15 minutes at a time, people on Lomar Drive have no way out.
That danger became all too real Wednesday afternoon when two trains collided, blocking the tracks in front of Tanner’s house for hours.
“We’ve had to shelter in place and Nelson (Bates, director of the Talladega County Emergency Management Agency) has been keeping in contact with us real often,” Tanner said Wednesday evening.
“He’s told us to activate our air filtration units, which they got for us. If it wasn’t for Nelson Bates, we’d be in a mess right now, one big mess.”
The disaster Tanner was dreading finally came Wednesday, as the Talladega County EMA informed residents one of the trains was carrying sodium cyanide.
“Right now, it looks like we’re dealing with — we’re not sure if it’s been released, but we’re taking precautions — sodium cyanide,” EMA Deputy Director Deborah Gaither said shortly after the collision. “It is toxic for inhalation, ingestion or contact with vapors, dust or substances. It may cause severe injuries, burns or even death.”
With her air filtration unit humming steadily in the background, Tanner ordered her grandchildren to sit down, then continued to talk about the countless times she and other residents had addressed the Lincoln City Council in search of help.
“It’s bad, but all I can tell the mayor is that we told him,” said the 61-year-old Tanner. “We’ve been trying since 1999 to get them to build us a bypass road. … Mrs. Jean Burk (Lincoln councilwoman) has assured me they will be on the doorsteps of some people with some power after this. I said it may be too late.”
Despite repeated failed attempts by residents for a bypass road on Lomar Drive, Mayor Lew Watson said Wednesday it wasn’t due to a lack of concern.
“There’s just no funds being made available to do anything,” he said. “Norfolk-Southern Railroad has told us they’d provide some financial support to build a road in there, but they want to close the other crossing. The amount of money they’ve provided is not sufficient, not with over $1 million as an estimate for this road.”
As the EMA reported at about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, sodium cyanide can become “highly toxic” if combined with water or moist air, Tanner braced for an emergency.
“I feel a lot better since I know what to do,” said Tanner, a member of the EMA’s Community Emergency Response Team. “We wouldn’t have had any idea what to do. I feel better, although I don’t feel secure right now because nobody can keep the cyanide from getting in my house.”
Now that the residents on Lomar Drive have proven the value of a bypass road, Watson said, the council will get to work “tomorrow.”
“We’ll be on the phone with our congressmen tomorrow to hopefully get some (Federal Emergency Management Agency) money or some Homeland Security money to build this right away,” Watson said.