People impacted by East Palestine train derailment have Thanksgiving meal
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (KDKA) — People impacted by the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio last winter sat down for a Thanksgiving meal.
Family and friends whose lives have been turned upside down after the toxic East Palestine Norfolk Southern train derailment more than nine months ago shared a free Thanksgiving meal together on Tuesday.
"Just having that togetherness. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in the twilight zone," Jami Wallace of East Liverpool said. "I'm all by myself, that I have been abandoned by town, by my government."
Living in hotels, life has been exhausting for Wallace and her 4-year-old daughter Kyla.
"We evacuated the night of the derailment and we've not been back to our house to spend the night since," she said. "We lived in hotels for five, six months, Airbnbs. We finally found a rental place in East Liverpool."
Single mother Zsuzsa Gyenes and her son say they don't have a permanent place to stay either. Right now, they are staying in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania.
"It's been completely on hold since Feb. 3," Gyenes said. "We've not had a home to live in since then. My son is doing online school because we don't have a place to settle down. We don't know where we are going to end up."
The volunteer group Unity Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment organized Tuesday's meal, which was hosted by the Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community. Hilary Flint, the communications director, says 200 families are still living in temporary housing because they don't feel safe living in their homes.
"The people behind me, they don't have the peace of mind," Flint said.
To date, no federal disaster declaration has been made.
"Don't forget about East Palestine because it could happen again," Christina Siceloff of South Beaver Township said.
"Norfolk Southern can never make it right," Wallace said. "Because the things they took from me, you can't buy with money."
Norfolk Southern's CEO apologized for the derailment and pledged to make things right, including giving nearly $102 million to the community. The company also has been cleaning up the mess, while the Environmental Protection Agency is monitoring those efforts.
The National Transportation Safety Board's final report on the cause of the derailment should come out sometime next year.