‘We’re trying to protect our kids’: Ohio town seeks answers after spill – By Xander Peters (CS Monitor) / Feb 17, 2023
The loud clang from the railroad tracks a few blocks from her home’s back door in East Palestine, Ohio, didn’t startle Julia Slouber. Neither did the rush of emergency vehicles just moments after. It was the knock on her door from a neighbor around 10 o’clock that Friday evening that told Ms. Slouber her hometown of the past seven years was about to change forever.
You need to leave, now, the neighbor told her.
Disoriented at the thought, Ms. Slouber stepped onto her back porch in her pajamas, where she saw the blaze burning wildly less than a mile away. She couldn’t tell how close the flames were as they lapped at the night sky, stretching above the mature maple trees in her backyard. The bright beauty of that moment stunned her; Ms. Slouber could feel the heat on her face. She then rushed to grab her three cats, her insulin, and the few belongings she could carry.
“I didn’t even look back,” Ms. Slouber says, as she leans over her kitchen table.
