A Night Derailed: Lessons Learned from the High-Profile Train Derailment in East Palestine, OH

On a quiet, chilly night in early February, a freight train carrying hazardous material derailed, caught fire and began leaking highly toxic vinyl chloride in the small Ohio town of East Palestine, about 40 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. Forecasters at National Weather Service (NWS) Pittsburgh first became aware of the derailment by monitoring social media across the region. Recognizing the potential impacts the weather pattern could have on the response, forecasters proactively sprang into action to provide Decision Support Services (DSS) for the incident.

Over the next two weeks, numerous coordination and service challenges were uncovered during the incident, which occurred approximately 1000 feet from the Ohio/Pennsylvania state line — the dividing line between two US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regions and two Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regions. A total of eleven state and federal agencies were involved in service coordination during the East Palestine incident.

This presentation will highlight the services provided by NWS Pittsburgh throughout the East Palestine train derailment, as well as the service challenges revealed and how they have been addressed. We also will discuss the new partnerships that were developed in the aftermath among the NWS and the various responding agencies, as well as ongoing collaborative training to better prepare for future incidents.