The "Derailed!!!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  There on the cover of my latest "TIME" magazine was a multi-layered headline that read: "A TRAIN CARRYING HAZARDOUS MATERIALS CRASHED IN A SMALL TOWN IN OHIO.  ONE YEAR LATER, THE IMPACT CONTINUES",  The headline was the start of a story titled "Derailed" by Alejandro de la Garza.  Really caught my eye, since after reading the story, I realized it could happen down the street from me!  A sub-headline continued with...A hazardous chemical accident takes place almost every day in the U.S.  The worst in recent history occurred on Feb. 3, 2023, in East Palestine, a small Ohio town on the Pennsylvania-Ohio border.  Their town motto was: "The Place You Want to Be!" The images featured in the magazine captured the many shades of human response in the long half-life of a major chemical disaster - the despair, the resilience, the endless apprehension.    TIME's story features five individual stories as told by five residents who lived near the derailment.  I could feel chills run down my spine as I read each and every one of the stories...for you see...I too, along with my wife and an entire village of retired, aging citizens live close to a railroad line whose trains carry...who knows what!  Twice a day we hear the sound of the whistle as the train approaches the intersections that are about a mile from our retirement village known as Woodcrest Villa.  I know...the chances are slim, but could it happen here?  I stare at the cover of my "TIME" and see the scared faces of the mother and her four children as they stare off into the distance.  Could that be me someday?  I don't want to die because of a train derailment that could cause poisonous gases to drift a mile through the air to my villa that I have inhabited for over a year at present.  Many of the residents who live here have respiratory problems and would suffer the most.  But, how could all that happen in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania?  Well, the trains sound their message that they are arriving and all vehicles and humans are supposed to clear the area around the tracks.  Metal "arms" lower to keep the traffic off of the tracks before the train arrives shortly after the "arms" have dropped.  But...what if a large semi-truck is in the midst of crossing the tracks and in front of it is an entire line of traffic that is held back by a red-light signal.  Could the train, possibly loaded with unknown chemicals get stopped in time before it strikes the semi-truck?  Could this newspaper headline..."A TRAIN CARRYING HAZARDOUS MATERIALS CRASHED IN A SMALL TOWN IN PENNSYLVANIA" appear in my Lancaster newspaper the following day.  I know...I'm being a bit...paranoid!!  Perhaps over-cautious!!  But...could it happen???  I'm sure those in East Palestine never thought it could have happened to them.  And now, many of them still are suffering....and may be for the rest of their lives!! The railroad might tell me they never carry hazardous materials on the line that passes through Lancaster, and if an accident did happen, it wouldn't affect more than those in the mishap!  But, HOW CAN I BE SURE!!  As I type these final sentences...I can hear the horn of the latest train that at this instance is passing through the intersection less than a mile away.  Am I scared?  Maybe!!!  But, what can I do!  Wait until I hear sirens in the near distance?   My next choice would be to take out my hearing aides before I know the train is about to arrive...so I can't hear the whistle!!  I know I am being overly cautious!  So Be It!  Life will go on, hopefully, for all in my neighborhood!  But, how can I be sure??  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.