EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Norfolk Southern announced earlier today it would not take part in tonight’s scheduled town hall meeting on the East Palestine derailment, citing concerns about “a growing physical threat.”
The meeting was slated for 7 p.m. at the East Palestine High Auditorium. WEWS-TV reports the meeting would not feature speakers, but was to offer tables where residents could speak to different officials about their concerns.
In a statement reported by the station, the railroad said it had hoped to join local, state, and federal officials to update “the steps we are taking to thoroughly, responsibly, and safely clean up the accident site and to provide the latest results from ongoing water and air testing. We also wanted to be available to provide information on resources from our Family Assistance Center.
“At the same time, we know that many are rightfully angry and frustrated right now. Unfortunately, after consulting with community leaders, we have become increasingly concerned about the growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community around this event stemming from the increasing likelihood of the participation of outside parties. With that in mind, Norfolk Southern will not be in attendance this evening.”
The railroad said its representatives remain available at its assistance center and a hotline number.
.
NS continues their awful PR.
Contact the local police and send a half dozen special agents with the reps.
So what it sounds like is that Norfolk Southern placed an “Embargo” on the town of East Palestine. See, UP is the industry leader in something… I would have liked to see how he would have handled this. At least NS CEO Shaw said the right things after giving his mea culpa. I think Fritz would have blamed it on the weather… LOL
Whether or not NS was justified in withdrawing from participation, it just plain looks bad. From a PR standpoint, it’s best to show up, hat in hand, and take your lumps. To stay away in fear of hooligans is not helpful to anyone.
Being angry is understandable. Physical threats are not justified or appropriate.
When the local police will not guarantee the safety of the people trying to help get this mess cleaned up, maybe there needs to be a timeout among everyone, including those who are suffering. And apparently that includes threats against workers out on site.
Yes it’s a mess and things will take a while to get back to regular order, but no one died, no one is even listed as sickened so far by what happened. And everyone wants to believe the politicians are right when they say something. In situations like this, give me salt pills with those comments.
It’s time to stop pointing fingers (or guns) and everyone needs to chill a little bit.
Hey NS, there is this thing called Zoom, Skype, MS Teams, WebEx, WhatsApp and other various video conferencing software that allows one to participate without physically being there.
Yes John, but to do a hybrid meeting one has to have the right equipment– like microphones and practice at using them. I agree that NS could have offered to arrange for this ASAP, but meeting would need to have been postponed. Best approach may have been to do meeting as planned without NS or at least listening in remotely and then set up a virtual/hybrid meeting quickly. Of course one is assuming East Palestine or locations able to host group meetings has the internet capacity for this– which may not be true fo 100% of America.
Jacob,
Dont buy it. It was at the high school which has internet. All they needed was a laptop with the sound out plugged into a PA. I am sure that high school has at least one video projector and a screen. This isn’t some rural high school with a enrollment of 102.
I have set up events like this on as little time as 15m and just single 4G link.
Would they have been yelled down? Probably, but that isn’t the point, they would have shown they at least tried instead of hiding behind a security excuse. The police were there, even the county sheriff. Yes people are emotional, but it was clear they didn’t bring their pitchforks.
John,
Apparently you didn’t read the same story I just read…it almost sounds like the local police and sheriff was not going to promise the safety of any NS personnel that appeared in East Palestine…that in of itself is cause for not showing up.
As for your other comment, just because it has a high school does not mean it has access to the video technology you speak of, East Palestine is basically a rural town, high school enrollment does not equate to capabilities. Postponing the meeting to set up a virtual meeting with NS was going to be a no go with the residents…which is another reason it wasn’t proposed.
People are just stupid and it seems everyone has forgotten we had acid rain in the 70’s and 80’s from unregulated polution, no different than the acid rain caused by burning off the vinyl chloride from this derailment.
Look at the bright side, the evacuation would’ve been the perfect time to take a vacation…since most of these peopel probably never take vacations like the majority of Americans(a majority is 50.1% of the population).
Gerald – Vacation? With what money? East Palestine is rural, and not exactly brimming with high-paying jobs where people can afford to just lay out on the beach in Cabo for a week every February. I come from a similar place, and people there don’t take vacations because they can’t AFFORD to.
If the Rail World president and CEO was harassed by furious Lac-Megantic locals after the Lac-Megantic disaster, then I would not have been surprised if NS officials were heckled by East Palestine residents over this as well. If a railroad had a derailment which would have forced me to evacuate, or if the derailment destroyed my home, I would be angry too.