GRANITEVILLE - Hundreds of residents left homeless because of last week's fatal train wreck flooded back into evacuated neighborhoods Thursday, and hundreds more could follow today or Saturday.
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
|
|
Have a thought?
Go to the Forums or Chat.
|
|
|
|
Graniteville resident Sherry Scott watches as contractor Chuck Colton checks the level of chlorine gas in her bedroom.
Ron Cockerille/Staff
|
|
The first phase went so well that Aiken County Sheriff Michael Hunt decided to open three more neighborhoods starting this morning.
Evacuees Return
|
For the second day in a row, Sheriff Hunt planned to shrink the mandatory evacuation zone to allow residents of Quimbytown and homes located north of Marshal Street and Ascauga Lake Road to start returning at 8:30 a.m.
Evacuees also can return to their homes along Taylor Street and Kalmia Drive, north to Gregg Highway.
But the Canal Street corridor closest to the wreck of Norfolk Southern Train 192 will remain quarantined as salvage workers continue to work on moving damaged rail cars and cleaning up diesel fuel and residue. More than 220 tons of chlorine already has been moved.
"This re-occupation went much smoother than planned," Sheriff Hunt said. "We still have a long ways to go in some of these areas, but that's because of logistics rather than danger. Heavy equipment is operating in there, and we don't want residents to interfere."
About 125 residents took advantage of free home monitoring by technicians from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and an environmental contractor hired by Norfolk Southern - far fewer than expected. Air quality monitors - about 26 in all - detected no chlorine emissions except for a small, momentary blip at the crash site, officials said.
Aiken County school officials, who will meet today to plan whether to reopen schools in the evacuation zone, also received promising news.
Monitoring devices detected no chlorine contamination in Leavelle-McCampbell Middle School and Byrd Elementary School, which means pupils could be allowed to return to class there. Nor was any chlorine detected in school buses parked near the middle school.
When asked when those schools would be reopened, Sheriff Hunt, whose only son goes to Leavelle-McCampell, said he'd follow the Michael Jr. Rule.
"When you see my child go back in, it's safe," Sheriff Hunt said. "I don't have but one."
Avondale Mills officials also said the corrosive chlorine, which destroyed computerized financial records in a data processing center and heavily damaged the Stevens Steam Plant, spared the delicate control circuits of their most sophisticated facility - the Gregg Division finishing plant.
"I've dodged a bullet on that one," said Stephen Felker Sr., the company's chief executive officer and principal owner.
The return to three neighborhoods and the promise of a return to three more marked the end of a week from home for about half of the 5,400 residents who were evacuated Jan. 6, when Norfolk Southern Train 192 crashed into a parked locomotive and let loose a cloud of chlorine that killed nine people and sent 250 to the hospital.
Peggy Campbell was the first evacuee to arrive at the Trolley Line Road blockade, at about 8 a.m. She'd been staying with relatives 45 miles away in Appling.
The incident and the aftermath have been emotionally draining, she said.
"I've lost about 10 pounds," Ms. Campbell said. "I work in a doctor office, so you'd think I could handle this. But it's been bad. Hard."
Being evacuated was nothing new for Scot Brady. He was forced to leave Charleston during Hurricane Hugo, south Georgia during a flood and South Dakota when a tornado struck.
"I think our place will be OK," he said on the way to his house to check if chlorine gas had damaged it. "It's the folks down close that probably have it worse."
What effect the corrosive gas has had on homes close to the wreck site off Canal Street remained unclear Thursday. Air quality tests in homes that were re-inhabited showed no sign of the gas, according to private contractors hired by the Norfolk Southern Corp.
Salvage workers near the crash scene, where the concentration of chlorine has been highest, even worked without protective suits Thursday.
Thousands of gallons of chlorine in the three tankers involved in the crash had been drained into empty tankers Thursday, and the railroad planned to move the chemical out of town on flat rail cars, said Susan Terpay, a spokeswoman for Norfolk Southern.
Officials warn of scams
Authorities warned against scam artists soliciting funds for the nonexistent Warrenville Police Department in the wake of the Graniteville train accident. Lt. Michael Frank of the Aiken County Sheriff's Office also warned residents about telephone sales of water purifiers and decontamination kits.
DEVELOPMENTS
• About 2,700 of the residents living on the edges of the evacuation zone were allowed back into their homes beginning Thursday morning.
• Midland Valley High School, Midland Valley Preparatory School, Aiken County Career and Technology Center and Warrenville Elementary opened Wednesday. Leavelle McCampbell Middle School, Byrd Elementary School and Freedman Parenting Center will remain closed through the end of the week. A meeting will be held today to determine when these schools can be reopened. Monday, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, will not be used as a make-up day for Aiken County public schools.
• Aiken Technical College will be open Monday as a make-up day for classes missed Jan. 10.
• Avondale Mills management will maintain the information center between 1 and 5 p.m. at the Administrative Services building at 1089 Augusta Road on Highway 421 in Warrenville. The board of directors has established a fund for helping associates affected by the accident. Checks can be made payable to The Avondale Mills Associate Disaster Relief Fund, P. O. Box 1109, Monroe, GA 30655.
• The barricade for eastbound traffic from U. S. Highway 1 has been moved from Midland Drive to the Graniteville exit, freeing motorists to drive to Aiken Technical College from Augusta.
Special Section: Graniteville Train Wreck
On January 6, 2005, a Norfolk Southern Corp. freight train carrying chemicals hit a parked train near an Avondale Mills plant in Graniteville, South Carolina. The impact caused poisonous chlorine gas to leak from three of the moving train's cars. Nine people were killed and more than 5,000 people were evacuated from the site.
For complete coverage of the Graniteville train wreck, visit our special section.
