Trains crisscrossing the country carrying hazardous chemicals have made headlines twice this year as derailments have caused large-scale evacuations inEast Palestine, Ohio, and Prinsburg, Minnesota.
In Michiana, Norfolk Southern and Canadian National railway lines go directly through South Bend and Elkhart, making derailments a real concern for emergency responders.
On Wednesday, St. Joseph County firefighters and government workers conducted drill to train for a similar disaster. Officials say they're confident in their ability to handle the situation should the worst happen locally, though they acknowledged disasters, by nature, never go to plan.
"It's chaos and we have a lot more training to do," said Al Kirsits, director of the St. Joseph County Emergency Management Agency.
The scenario on Wednesday was that a train carrying vinyl chloride had crashed near the intersection of Lincolnway and Eddy Street in South Bend. The derailment had started a fire and everyone within a mile of the crash site had to be evacuated. Matthew Dhoore, a division chief with Clay Fire Territory, directed the two to three dozen people in the St. Joseph County building department offices as they acted out the county's response.
If toxic materials really did enter the St. Joseph River, hazmat teams would work to set up a perimeter and attempt to contain the chemicals. South Bend firefighters explained. If the chemicals leaked out onto the ground, crews could dig ditches to get the waste materials to flow in a certain direction. If toxins get in the river, the situation is more difficult to contain, but officials during the simulation ordered truckloads of sand to be dumped into the river to stop the chemicals from traveling downstream.
To evacuate people caught near the crash, fire officials worked with county workers and representatives from South Bend Transpo, United Way and IUSB to make arrangements for the evacuees to go to Clay and Washington high schools.
County workers also kept track of how much money was being spent, since disaster relief spending can be reimbursed by the federal government, but can be hard to track if it’s not done in real time. Officials said just meeting everyone face to face goes a long way toward building a cohesive response.
"I have very high confidence," Dhoore said. "This just shows that everybody can come together and work together. The best time to do this is in person before the event happens."
Kirsits said the county is required by state law to do yearly disaster training, but the scale of the simulation on Wednesday is not something local agencies have done recently.
