After Trump visited the town on Wednesday (US time) and accused the Biden administration of abandoning residents, Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg travelled to East Palestine on Thursday morning to meet local officials and tour the crash site.
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The former Indiana mayor and presidential aspirant is regarded as one of the Biden administration’s most cut-through communicators.
But Buttigieg has come under fire in recent weeks for being missing in action, and for taking until February 13 – ten days after the derailment – to make his first comments about the incident, albeit in the form of a tweet, saying he was “concerned about the impacts” on residents.
Asked today if he had waited too long given the gravity of the disaster, he replied: “The answer to your question is yes. I felt very strongly about this and could have expressed that sooner.”
But he also said federal agencies were on the ground from the start, and that if Trump was genuinely concerned, the former president ought to support the Biden administration’s push for more safety measures and tougher rules for rail companies, which had spent years successfully lobbying against greater regulations.
Melissa Smith took this photo of the train fire from her farm in East Palestine, Ohio, on Friday, February 3.Credit:AP
“One thing he could do is express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch,” Buttigieg said.
“To any national figure who has decided to get involved, I have a simple message, which is: I need your help. Because if you’re serious about this, there is more that we can do to prevent more communities from going through this.”
As the cleanup continues around East Palestine, residents will attend a community meeting tonight demanding more assurance that they are safe.
Celebrity activist Erin Brockovich will also hold a meeting tomorrow night with a group of lawyers seeking justice for those affected. Separately, at least half a dozen lawsuits have already been filed by various firms.
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Situated near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, East Palestine is a former factory town of about 4500 people, where the average household income is $46,000 USD.
Beth Knott, who has lived here for 17 years, told The Age/Sydney Morning Herald that the derailment had rocked the tight-knit community, and residents did not know who or what to believe.
“I would like to have concrete, truthful answers about the soil and the health of people who breathed int the toxic plume,” she said. “Are the children going to be able to play in the creek again?”
Many also want the rail industry overhauled, noting that under the current rules, the Norfolk Southern-owned train at the centre of the derailment was not even classified as a “High Hazard Flammable Train”.
The company has also had 1518 safety, environmental and employee violations since 2000, amounting to $US70 million in fines.
“We do need more regulation,” said Melissa Boyer, who lives about 2000 feet from the rail line. “We also need better maintenance on them and even more tracks. Right now, it’s just not safe.”
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