Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw Misses East Palestine Town Meeting

Residents of East Palestine, Ohio, are furious after Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw failed to show up for a city hall meeting, almost a month after the Feb. 3 railroad crash and fire poisoning.

– Where is Alan? shouted some during a meeting at city hall on Thursday evening, according to the New York Times.

The show was widely criticized for missing the previous town meeting two weeks after the crash.

Last month, the CEO met with local officials and some railroad workers.

Mother Candace Desanzo, 43, was present at a meeting with her two young sons, aged 1 and 2, and demanded to speak to Shaw, The Times reported.

“If I did something bad to someone, I will stand up and face my mistakes,” she said. “And I’m just one simple person – they are a corporation.”

She criticized the railroad company for prioritizing restoring train traffic as soon as the evacuation order was lifted, instead of helping residents first.

“Every time I hear the sound of a train, I feel sick,” she said. “It just amazes me how ignorant they were towards us in every possible way when they should have been doing their best to help us.”

At a meeting on Thursday, residents who say they are suffering from illnesses as a result of the disaster clashed with railroad officials and demanded they be moved from homes they say they are afraid to continue living in.

“It’s not safe here,” one man said, looking at representatives of Norfolk Southern. “I beg you, by the grace of God, please get our people out of here.”

The railroad said it was ready to remove contaminated soil from under the tracks, but did not discuss buying people’s homes and moving them elsewhere.

While the EPA ordered Norfolk Southern to clean up the mess and test the area for dioxins, residents appeared unhappy with the responses they were receiving from the railroad and government officials at all levels.

Many residents fear that dioxins — poisonous chemicals that can remain in the environment for long periods of time — will have long-term effects on their health and that of their children.

“Don’t lie to us,” one resident shouted as the EPA’s regional administrator repeated that tests showed the air was safe.

The controversial meeting came just a day after leaders of the nation’s largest rail unions said workers cleaning up the toxic crash site were falling ill and demanded more safety measures from the Biden administration.

The presidents of a dozen unions met with administration officials to present their position and express concern as a new independent study found that chemicals could pose a long-term health risk.

Despite officials and experts insisting that the air, soil and water in East Palestine is safe, residents are reporting headaches, dizziness, nausea and other negative effects that they did not experience before the crash.

About 5,000 people were forced to evacuate due to the spill and subsequent burning of the toxic chemicals.

With mail wires

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