East Palestine residents rally for disaster declaration at Ohio Statehouse
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — Residents of East Palestine rallied at the Ohio Statehouse Wednesday, saying they are frustrated and that their community has not bounced back since the February train wreck.
The group, 'Unity Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment,' gathered to pressure Gov. Mike DeWine to submit a disaster declaration before the July 3 deadline.
They say they are here to ensure the right of people to maintain clean air, water, and soil. They also claim the community of East Palestine is still suffering from health issues, and some still cannot live in their homes.
"I don't want to leave home. I just want it cleaned up. I want it to be like how it was February 2nd," East Palestine resident Daren Gamble said.
"Where are you staying?" asked another East Palestine resident Ashley Mccollum. "I'm staying at a hotel. I've been at a hotel for three months now. I was staying with my mom before that. It's been difficult. At least I'm staying with other residents. So we have some kind of community."
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said a few weeks after the incident that Ohio doesn't qualify for assistance. The next day in a joint statement with Ohio, FEMA said it would "supplement federal efforts" with "incident coordination and ongoing assessments of potential long term recovery needs."
On Tuesday, DeWine said he requested a second 120-day extension from FEMA before the current extension deadline on July 3.
"This extension would allow the State of Ohio to continue its efforts to ensure that Norfolk Southern provides the impacted areas with the resources needed to recover from the event, including financial assistance, and to identify any gaps in areas of recovery where federal assistance may be needed," DeWine wrote.
The State of Ohio has said water sampling has not detected any contaminants associated with the derailment. Also, state necropsy examinations and plant testing results were negative for chemical toxicity and contamination.
We reached out to DeWine's office for a statement regarding today's rally but have not heard back.