Thread by @PreparednessJoe

I grew up about 30 miles from East Palestine, love trains, and am obviously an emergency manager. Here’s a thread on what we know about the train derailment, the response, and things I am thinking about. #EastPalestine #EMGTwitter 🧵 (1/15)

Here’s what we know: Norfolk Southern train 32N left Illinois en route to Conway, Pennsylvania. This is a daily mixed freight train, meaning it has box cars, tankers, gondolas, and flatcars full of various products. 32N in happier times: (Flickr) (2/15)

The train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. EP is a village of about 4,500 people on the Ohio/PA line. It's in Columbiana County, which is mainly rural. It's in the Youngstown-Warren CSA but culturally tied to Appalachia and Pittsburgh. EP in happier times: (Wikipedia) (3/15)

Reports are that a journal box on the axle caught fire. “We have obtained two videos which show preliminary indications of mechanical issues on one of the railcar axles,” said NTSB member Michael Graham. (4/15)

This is known as a hot box, a term used when a wheel bearing overheats on a railcar. In this case, the overheating led to a fire which then led to the derailment. (5/15)
wkbn.com/news/local-new…

Once it failed, it was a matter of time until there was a catastrophic collapse of the car. There are detectors along the rail for this type of failure. “The crew did receive a wayside defect detector, shortly before the derailment...." They didn't stop soon enough. (6/15)

Most EMs know this, but trains carry a lot of bad stuff through communities every day. In this case, N32 was carrying several tank cars of vinyl chloride. It has its own page on cancer.gov. (7/15) cancer.gov/about-cancer/c…

Rail travel is a million times safer than the road but when it fails, it fails spectacularly. Rail-heavy communities may have dedicated emergency planning but many don't. The DC area has a dedicated rail response plan. #StealIt (8/15) montgomerycountymd.gov/frs-ql/Resourc…

Rail incident response requires communicating with the community. Local officials have *attempted* to do so. @suttonj breaks down how this hasnt went well. Both OH and PA governors and state EM have been prominent in recent communication efforts. (9/15)

Other EM issues: The East Palestine PD evacuated its communications center for safety reasons. While managing a critical incident, activating your agency’s COOP plan requires the capability and capacity to walk and chew gum. Is your agency prepared for that? (10/15)

EP schools will be closed for the rest of the week, citing a local state of emergency. Roads are closed. Trash collection isn’t happening. Businesses are closed. Parents have childcare issues. Ppl in evacuated areas need to stay in a hotel. Nearest hotel? 20 miles. (11/15)

A striking thing about this has been the images of giant plumes. No one wants to breathe in vinyl chloride, obviously. Engaging with meteorologists is key to understanding where that air is going. (WFMJ) (12/15)

So what's next? First, the fires have to go out. How long that takes is not in my wheelhouse. Heavy equipment will need to get in to remove the railcars. Photo shows some staging in Columbiana. Air and water monitoring will continue for days, weeks. (13/15)

What will take longer is rebuilding trust in the community. The initial alert and warning was a failure, and people will remember that long after the burned train disappears. Proactive engagement moving forward needs to be the name of the game. (14/15)

I hope the collective powers that be make a public after action report of this incident. In emergency management, it will certainly become a case study. I also imagine it will end up in court. There's a lot to learn from this. (15/15) -30-