(The Associated Press circulated the following article by Dylan T. Lovan on March 2.)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It’s been six weeks since Angela Smith slept in her own bed.
That morning she awoke to a thick black cloud of smoke billowing from burning rail cars that went off the track a few hundred yards from her home just south of Louisville.
“It’s been very hard on us,” said Smith, who has been living in a hotel with her husband since the CSX train derailed on Jan. 16. “After about a week in a hotel, you’re ready to go home.”
The train was carrying dangerous synthetic chemicals, complicating the cleanup and keeping about 15 families who lived close to the tracks away from their homes for a month or more. The massive chemical fire shut down an interstate for hours and sent toxic smoke into the sky over homes and businesses.
About 10 of those families are still living away from their homes, in hotel rooms or apartments furnished by CSX. The company will spend $10 million to $20 million to clean up the site and accommodate residents affected by the crash, CSX spokesman Gary Sease said.
Sease said the local water district had to replace underground water lines throughout the small neighborhood near the crash site, lengthening the evacuation. CSX has also excavated more than 4,500 tons of soil and drawn out 200,000 gallons of waste water from the area.
“I don’t recall an evacuation lasting this long; it’s been unusual,” Sease said.
Twelve of the thirteen cars that went off the track were filled with or were carrying residue from hazardous chemicals, including butadiene, used to make synthetic rubber.
Smith said she and her husband built their three-bedroom brick home in 2002. She said they’ve considered moving but can’t find a better location.
“This location for us, it was so convenient,” she said. “We have looked and looked and looked, and we just can’t find anything.”
Other evacuated families said they’ll never return to the neighborhood.
Anna Garcia lived in a hotel room with her husband and 3-year-old son for about a month before she asked CSX to put the family into a more spacious apartment. Garcia said the family is planning to move out of the neighborhood, just five months after moving in.
“I just don’t feel comfortable living around the train tracks anymore,” Garcia said.
Sease said a few families have asked CSX to buy their homes, and he said the company is considering it.
Other residents who live near the crash scene have filed a class-action suit in federal court against CSX, claiming the derailment harmed their property and their quality of life. None of the seven plaintiffs in that suit was ordered to leave home for more than a day, according to court records.
Another class-action suit against CSX was recently transferred to federal court from Bullitt County.
Sease declined to comment on the lawsuits, but CSX has asked that all three be dismissed, according to court records.