For East Palestine residents John and Lisa Hamner, life as they knew it came to a screeching, flaming halt on February 3 at 20:55.
It was the day a toxin-laden train derailed just meters from his successful garbage truck business, which had grown to five customers over 18 years in and around the nearby Ohio city. It was more than 7,000.
“It has completely destroyed our lives,” he told the BBC, choking back tears in the parking lot of his business, where the smell of derailment chemicals and sulfur is strong.
“I am now at a point where I want to get out of here,” he added. “We’re going to relocate. We can’t do this anymore.”
Mr. Hamner’s eyes are red and swollen, which he attributes to the long-term physical effects of chemicals spread in East Palestine.
But he and his wife told the BBC that their primary wounds were invisible and psychological.
“I’m losing a lot of sleep. I’ve already been to the doctor twice, and I’m taking anxiety pills,” he said.
“It’s 10 times worse than just losing my livelihood. We built this business.”
Like her husband, Mrs. Hamner said she has had sleepless nights worrying about her business, her 10 employees and the city where she has spent 20 years of her life.
Already, several dozen of their longtime customers have canceled their collection services and said they plan to leave East Palestine.
“I’m afraid of the people who live here,” she says. “I don’t know anyone who can sleep, because it’s on so many fronts. It’s your business, it’s your health, and it’s the health of your friends.”
Standing on a mound of dirt overlooking the charred remains of several derailed trains, Mr. Hamner likened the incident to the “Chernobyl of eastern Palestine,” a reference to the April 1986 nuclear accident in then-Soviet Ukraine. Is.
He is not alone. Over the course of two days in East Palestine, several residents told the BBC what they saw as an important moment in the town’s history. At least for the foreseeable future, their lives will be judged by what happened before and after the February 3 disaster.
Federal and local officials have advised residents to drink bottled water. Officials said it was safe for people to return to the city a few days after the derailment, although environmental experts expressed skepticism.
Sufficient exposure to the chemicals released in the accident — including vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate — can result in symptoms ranging from nausea to cancer.
“For this town, it’s Pearl Harbor, or 9/11. One of the things people always talk about,” said coffee shop owner Ben Ratner.
In Mr Ratner’s case, he said stress and trauma had manifested themselves in an “interesting mix” of emotions and feelings.
Now he visibly resents the once-normal sound of passing trains, adding that they are louder and more abrasive than in the past.
He described friends in East Palestine as easily nervous and feeling constantly on alert, which he compared to post-traumatic stress.
“We need to start looking at the emotional and psychological long-term effects,” he said.
“People worry when they hear trains, or when they think about their kids going out, or letting their dog out and accidentally drinking contaminated water… it’s serious. “
