Concerned East Palestine residents attend series of town hall meetings seeking answers from leaders

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Hundreds of East Palestine residents took part in a series of town hall meetings on Wednesday.

They came looking for answers and guidance on what to do next.

RELATED >>> ‘We need answers’: Families near East Palestine train derailment site concerned for health, homes

“Not sure we’re getting all the answers that we need, so we’re hoping to find something else out,” Trudy Barton said. She lives just outside the evacuation zone.

Barbara Georgescu lives even closer. She’s just blocks from the derailment site. She wears a heavy-duty mask around town.

“I bought it first and foremost because I’m leaving Dodge and starting to clean out my house,” she said.

Georgescu told Channel 11 she made the decision to move just hours after the incident happened.

She might not be the only one. Barton told 11 News that she is thinking about it, too.

“That would be a possibility, but who is going to buy the home?” she said.

Loss of property value was one of many topics brought up at a pair of town hall meetings hosted by a law firm specializing in environmental incidents.

The third brought hundreds of residents to East Palestine High School.

Several agencies were on hand to field questions, including the Ohio EPA, local officials and more.

Norfolk Southern was noticeably absent.

“We had concerns about the physical safety of our employees,” Will Harden, senior director for Norfolk Southern, said. He spoke with Channel 11 before the meeting.

“We’ve been working with the NTSB on the investigation. We can’t really comment on it further than that, but I do know the Federal Railroad Administration has been involved as well,” Harden said.

When asked what he would say to people who are skeptical of Norfolk Southern’s efforts to make things right, he had this to say:

“I want to say to those people that Norfolk Southern is here to address the health and safety of the community.”

The company is staying in the area indefinitely.

Harden also told Channel 11 the area eligible for reimbursement has expanded from the one mile evacuation zone to the entire zip code.

Legal experts who met with citizens Wednesday said it’s best not to sign anything without a lawyer looking at it first.

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