WELLSVILLE — The Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine Feb. 3 shook Columbiana County with the realization that the unexpected can happen anytime –disasters can happen in our own backyards.

Wellsville’s Mayor Bob Boley and Fire Chief Barry Podwel were awakened with the realization that if it happened there, it can happen here.

There is no known safety/evacuation plan for the village that Podwel is aware of, with the exception of a flood evacuation plan.

“Trains run through here every day. There are trains that haul the same stuff that was in the train there (East Palestine),” Podwel said. “When the tracks were closed in East Palestine, they brought the trains down through here.

“It could happen to us,” Boley said. “Who would have thought it would happen in East Palestine?” He wonders how many people in East Palestine ever thought that was going to happen to them.

The majority of Wellsville is located about 20 to 30 yards away from the railroad tracks that run right along the Ohio River. The village is seeing more rail traffic now than ever, according to Boley.

“My questions to myself and to everybody in Wellsville is what if and where would our people go if that happened in Wellsville,” Boley said. “Everybody in Wellsville would have to be evacuated. This is information we truly need and we need the public’s involvement. It’s a serious thought. We really need to start thinking ‘What if.'”

According to Podwel, a train derailment happened in Wellsville on Riverside Avenue in 1949, which resulted in train cars in the river.

For Boley and Podwel, one of the concerns is that there are no buildings in the village large enough to shelter the residents or act as a command center; in the need to evacuate the village where would they send the residents and how would they get them there. There are no hotels around the village where residents could stay.

In addition to their concerns over evacuation, there are other factors the village will need to contend with if such an accident should happen.

The heart of the village is sandwiched between a restaurant, a grocery store, an AEP substation, the Buckeye Water Raw Treatment facility and a foundry on one end of town; Cimbar, Marathon Petroleum, Pier 48, the sewage treatment plant and other industrial businesses at the other end of town. In between are the two pump houses for flood control and the Wellsville Terminal where coal and lime come in to be unloaded off river barges.

If the coal were to catch fire as a result of an explosion like the rail cars did in East Palestine, it would take months to put that fire out, especially if unable to get to their biggest water supply, which is the river, Podwel said.

The Eighteenth Street crossing is a major concern and a priority for Podwel when it comes to planning. There is only one way in and out of a small neighborhood with about 11 houses. Podwel worries if something happened there to close that road off, if a train would derail there how they would gain access to get those residents out. They would be trapped between the river and the tracks.

“That’s one of the biggest things I worry about,” Podwel said. “It’s easy access for those by highway, and in the summer possibly boats, but winter time ice could interfere.

Marathon Petroleum and the sewage plant sit on the outskirts of the neighborhood behind the Eighteenth Street crossing.

“Our really bad place is Marathon. This is the only part where the tracks are not running by the river. They run by multiple storage tanks of petroleum,” Podwel said. “What if say one of the trains derails right there and takes out one of those tanks. We know our biggest water supply for down there is the river, but what if we can’t get to it. ”

Other areas of concern are if a train incident should occur by the pumphouses and take either one of those out. The pump houses or the village’s flood control if taken out could result in a potential flooding risk.

A derailment like the one in East Palestine would affect the villages water supply. Podwel realizes that a plan to make sure the village has an adequate clean water supply is a must.

Most of the town is basically along the river which is parallel to the tracks including a lot of historic buildings, residences, businesses and the Railroad Museum. The police department, fire department and village hall are within two short blocks of the river.

“It’s a bad situation if anything like that (train derailment) happens. There are dangers all along the river if a train derails or explodes,” Podwel said. “Either way it rolls, it’s going to be bad, whether on the right side of the tracks or the left side of the tracks. So that’s why I want to sit down and come up with a plan on what to do. The only plan I know of that we actually have and they might use the same one is for flooding evacuation.”

Podwel plans to talk to the former fire chief to see if there is a plan he can work from. If not then he will start fresh and try to get other people who are knowledgeable in planning to help. Podwel and Boley have met with East Liverpool Fire Chief Bill Jones for assistance on putting a plan in place.

Podwel knows it won’t be an easy task, and each scenario and location will need its own plan because an incident at the power substation can’t be handled in the same way an incident at a petroleum plant or terminal can be handled. He plans to ask for help from Marathon and the other businesses located across that area for help with creating emergency plans and also to make sure a plan he creates doesn’t conflict with one they may have in place.

Podwel is not looking at having a plan done any time soon due to the amount of work that will need to be put into it. The first step is looking for places to evacuate, finding a way to evacuate the residents behind the Eighteenth Street Crossing and finding a place that would serve as a command center.

“We can’t put this off,” Podwel said. “It can very easily happen here.”