About 1,000 Graniteville residents were still waiting to return to their homes 12 days after the fatal Norfolk Southern train wreck and chlorine spill that rocked the small South Carolina community, officials said Sunday.
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Over the weekend, about 300 people moved back into their formerly evacuated residences, and more will be allowed home today, Aiken County sheriff's Lt. Michael Frank said.
That brings the total number of people who have returned to about 4,500.
One of these was 66-year-old Rosa Mae Harris, who lives in an apartment on Aiken Road with two of her grandsons.
Gripping roll after roll of paper towels, Ms. Harris said she was pleased to be back home.
"Everything was just how I left it," she said. "It smelled a little funny at first, but once I cleaned, that went away."
Her neighbor Joanne Tyler drove to her home Saturday night and arrived as environmental inspectors were checking for chemicals, so she was able to watch them finish the inspection and then move back early.
"I was told I was the first one to come back," she said from her living room. "I guess I'm lucky."
Ms. Tyler, a cloth inspector at Avondale Mills, said she was one of only a handful of employees to return to work during the past week.
The Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, a contractor for Norfolk Southern Railway, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted about 70 home inspections on Saturday, which makes about 550 homes examined so far, Lt. Frank said.
About 5,400 residents were evacuated Jan. 6 after the train crash released tons of deadly chlorine gas, killing nine people.
Reach Dena Levitz at (706) 823-3339 or dena.levitz@augustachronicle.com.
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.
