EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — News 5 Investigators returned to East Palestine nearly six months after the toxic train derailment to check in with people we met early on in the disaster.
We don’t just report the initial story—we follow through to its conclusion. Read and watch our previous reporting on this story below and see more stories that we've followed through on here.
Linda Murphy is contemplating selling her home, which means she’d have to leave behind everything she’s worked hard for. Kristina Ferguson doesn’t want to keep relocating with her elderly parents. Both just want solid answers so they can make plans again.
“I thank you so much for covering this and being there since day one,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson is in a rental home about 10 miles away from her childhood home in East Palestine.
News 5 asked Ferguson if she still felt the village was a danger.
“Yes, very much,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson first spoke with News 5 Investigators on a cold and damp February afternoon. The EPA Administrator was about to step through her front door on East Rebecca Street.
We asked Ferguson what she thinks about when she looks back at those moments.
“It still doesn’t seem real to me,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson says she feels blessed with having her family together, not in a hotel but in a home. Her step-father has dementia and now knows the house they're in now.
“It’s a beautiful home, it is — it’s just not my home,” Ferguson said.
She believes her elderly mother’s home in East Palestine can’t be saved.
“It’s not fit for anyone to live in. I know that in my heart I couldn’t sell that to someone. I couldn’t live with myself if someone got sick,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson isn’t the only one living in limbo six months later.
“Thanks so much for everything,” Linda Murphy said. News 5 Investigators met Murphy days after the train disaster. Murphy was the first to bring up to us concerns about well water.
“I was told I needed to find a hydrogeologist,” Murphy said.
Her home is a quarter mile from Leslie Run Creek, and her well is 40 feet below the creek level.
“What I’m trying to get the answer to is how far does the water table sit, how does it flow, and is that a risk to us here?” Murphy said. Every two weeks, Murphy and her husband truck water in for their horses.
“It’s a process that takes us sometimes hours to do that, where before, I just turned on the tap,” Murphy said.
Murphy says her well has been tested three times with different results.
“You just can’t help but feel the people that we’re leaning on don’t have the knowledge base to pull information and to pull answers from,” Murphy said.
It’s not just about the water with her horses.
“Also just eating the grass, eating the pasture, there’s dioxins on that; we’ve got independent testing that shows it — at high levels,” Murphy said. Ferguson says people in East Palestine deserve closure.
For her family, that means being grounded in a home of their own.
“I want to know so I can start to heal and make plans again and know if I’m going to be putting up a Christmas tree and look forward to things,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson is waiting for final findings on her home and expects to hear from Norfolk Southern by September.
