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EAST PALESTINE — Concerns still exist about air and water impacted by the release of toxic chemicals during February Third’s derailment and controlled burn of a Norfolk Southern train in Columbiana County. Relief efforts in the region this past weekend saw North Central Ohio with boots on the ground. With the migration of contamination in the groundwater table unknown, many in the surrounding areas with private wells need bottled water.
On Saturday, donors from at least nineteen churches in Richland County dropped off bottled water and other relief supplies at Ontario Abundant Life Tabernacle which were delivered to the disaster area the next day. According to Pastor Dave Rentzel, local churches combined their feet with their faith.
“Richland County churches donated at least $3,600, contributed cleaning supplies, and also provided four pallets of bottled water to the disaster-stricken area. The Church is supposed to be the hands and feet of Christ. We should all be Good Samaritans to people in need, especially our neighbors in East Palestine. This is just the right thing to do.”
Checks were made to support the Christ-based non-profit “The Way Station” in Columbiana County which is helping to distribute supplies to those in need. Last week, Ohio clergy called for a season of prayer for East Palestine, giving a prayer proclamation.
“As lead clergymen representing one hundred-fifteen congregations across Ohio, we believe the Heavenly Father can heal the land,” Pastor Rentzel declared. “We also believe Norfolk Southern Railway has a moral obligation to clean up to the best of its abilities the derailment site and surrounding areas adversely impacted by the hazardous chemical release.”
“There is a lot of unresolved fear and anger in this town (East Palestine). But this is a resilient people. I still believe GOD has a redemption plan for this community. GOD is large and in charge and He can heal the land.”
cowboy Dave Graham
The emergency relief supplies were sent to Brittain Motors, a local business half a mile from ground zero along the railroad tracks at 57 East Martin Street. Supplies from the staging area are also being taken to Darlington and Negley, Pennsylvania, two communities downwind from East Palestine. The delivery of supplies one hundred-twenty miles away was eye-opening for some.
“What was striking to me, for a catastrophe of this magnitude, there was only a local relief response during our visit” says Amie Mutti, who was a part of the Richland County team delivering relief supplies on Sunday. “We spoke to people downwind of the site in Pennsylvania who are in the shadow of East Palestine; they are impacted too. I was expecting to see big white tents from the Red Cross, and FEMA emergency centers established onsite but there were none in sight.”
Presently the East Palestine disaster does not qualify for traditional FEMA aid. While the community has not suffered extensive property damage, the local economy has been hamstrung by the drop in property values and the negative impact on the agricultural industry. At least forty-three thousand fish and aquatic species have died in nearby waterways as a result of contaminated water. The effects to human health are still not known at this time.
“I saw fear, anger, and exhaustion in the residents’ eyes that we spoke to. These citizens are faced with making some of the biggest decisions of their lives and their childrens’ lives and none of them that we spoke to felt they had enough information. Sampling protocols are still being discussed. Obtaining the services of independent testing agencies is still a challenge,” says Mutti, a Torah Teacher with Ontario Sar Shalom Center.
Another person Mutti’s team met in East Palestine was a volunteer worker who lives twenty minutes away from Richland County in adjacent Knox County. Dave Graham, known as “Cowboy Dave,” is an experienced disaster relief missionary from Fredericktown who has spent the last five weeks in East Palestine. As a volunteer worker, he has been overseeing the arrival of supply deliveries from private groups around the nation. He sleeps onsite in a tent at night.
This is not Cowboy’s first rodeo. He has done disaster relief for communities damaged by tornadoes and hurricanes. “I have seen the set up and planning that goes into disaster response and I am shocked at how very little there is for the people of East Palestine,” he says. “There is a lot of unresolved fear and anger in this town. But this is a resilient people. I still believe GOD has a redemption plan for this community. GOD is large and in charge and He can heal the land.”
“There are forty-eight packs of water for a pallet. On a weekday, we go through fifteen to twenty pallets of water each day. If it wasn’t for this delivery from Richland County, we would have been out of bottled water today by 4 pm this afternoon (Sunday),” Cowboy says.
The clergy wrote in their prayer proclamation that “the Bible is very practical and specific about the stewardship of land, and instructs individual persons and communities to corporately pray to the Heavenly Father, to publicly repent from sin, to pay full restitution to aggrieved parties, and to make every effort to bring reconciliation.”
“Providing emergency supplies is a practical way to help East Palestine,” Mutti says. “But what this community (East Palestine) really needs is a move of GOD where men and women of faith rise up to the challenge. Truth be told, they could also use a few more cowboys.”
The Bottom Line:
The Bible says in First John Three, “But whoever has worldly goods and sees his brother or sister in need, and closes his heart against him, how does the love of GOD remain in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.”
View slideshow below of Richland County delivery of emergency relief supplies.
View video below about East Palestine-based “The Way Station” produced by News Nation (5 minutes duration).
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