When a Norfolk Southern train derailment occurred on Feb. 3 in East Palestine, OH, 38 rail cars jumped the tracks. The locomotive was listed as carrying general merchandise; however, 20 cars were transporting hazardous material, and 11 derailed in the accident. Suddenly the ho-hum of just another train leaving its tracks became a toxic clean-up on a grand scale. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are trying to coordinate efforts with overwhelmed local authorities, but the situation is metastasizing into a political flashpoint.
Trumping the Train Derailment
On Wednesday, Feb. 22, former President Donald Trump travels to East Palestine to survey the situation. Meanwhile, the current occupant of the White House is in Poland after a surprise visit to Ukraine to demonstrate US support for the ongoing conflict with Russia. This is not a good optic for the sitting president who has made noises about running again for a second term. As always, money is part of the picture, and Biden promised another airdrop of greenbacks to the war-torn nation. Thus far, “the Biden administration and the U.S. Congress have directed nearly $50 billion in assistance to Ukraine … ,” according to Council on Foreign Relations figures.
So, what does this have to do with the toxic accident in Ohio? Well, quite a bit, because Gov. Mike DeWine was denied aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) when the spill first occurred. FEMA officials told him that his state would not be eligible for disaster assistance. But on Feb. 20, there was an about face, and FEMA announced it would deploy federal resources to East Palestine. In the meantime, suffice it to say there are a lot of outraged people in Ohio, rubbed raw by the lax federal response.
As chemicals spread throughout the community, a general panic among residents is multiplying with them. Trump’s visit comes at a politically opportune time as local officials are expressing a dire need for assistance and federal support. “I need help,” East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway was quoted as saying during a town hall last week by ABC News. He continued, “I’m not ready for this. I wasn’t built for this.”
In the two weeks since the derailment, the situation has gotten worse, not better, and questions are beginning to surface about how the toxic spill was initially handled. ABC News summed it up this way:
“Efforts to contain a fire at the derailment site stalled the following night, as firefighters withdrew from the blaze due to concerns about air quality and explosions. About half of East Palestine’s roughly 4,700 residents were warned to leave before officials decided on Feb. 6 to conduct a controlled release and burn off the toxic vinyl chloride from the five tanker cars, which were in danger of exploding. A large ball of fire and a plume of black smoke filled with contaminants could be seen billowing high into the sky from the smoldering derailment site as the controlled burn took place that afternoon, prompting concerns from residents about the potential effects.”
Without a doubt, the Biden administration has been slow to respond to the needs of the good people in East Palestine. Just yesterday – finally – Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg released what many in the media call a “sharply worded statement” about the derailment: “Norfolk Southern must live up to its commitment to make residents whole — and must also live up to its obligation to do whatever it takes to stop putting communities such as East Palestine at risk.”
(Photo by US Environmental Protection Agency / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The problem is that the rail company’s president had already been on the scene and promised Norfolk Southern would be a major player in the clean-up effort. CEO Alan Shaw surveyed the area on Feb. 18 and asserted, “I want to make sure you understand. I am terribly sorry that this happened to the community. Norfolk Southern is fully committed to doing what’s right for this community.”
All Politics Is Local
As Trump enters the danger zone in the small Buckeye community, Biden will be shaking hands with President Andrzej Duda in Poland. Even the most naïve political strategist would score one for the former president.
If there were ever a politically advantageous place to be right now, it would be East Palestine, not Poland. Perhaps Biden would be wise to remember the late 1970s when Jimmy Carter occupied the Oval Office. As Americans were brawling with one another in gas lines and interest rates were soaring, Carter was on extended foreign travel, shaking hands and being lauded by world leaders. At the time, Democratic pollster Pat Cadell was screaming into the phone for Carter to return to the States. But the man from Plains did not heed his advice, and the stage was set for Carter to be summarily booted out of office, a one-term president.
