EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — "Resilience."
It's the word that comes to mind one year after the toxic train derailment that spilled thousands of hazardous chemicals into the little town of East Palestine. Fire Chief Ketih Drabick wasn't even on the job one year at the time, but says he knows what this community wants now.
"They don't want this stigma of the contaminated town that everybody's going to die in," he explained. "They want to grow and be back to where they were and be better than they were."
Drabick tells 3News the Norfolk Southern Railway has followed federal and state safety recommendations since the crash. The company lived up to their promises — committing more than $103 million to the area, including $21 million paid out to residents who were upended by the derailment. Additionally, a Value Assurance Program set to end on Feb. 9 compensates any reduction in value of eligible residential properties located in East Palestine and nearby communities.
Norfolk Southern workers are still in East Palestine, continuing to sample air, soil and water. They claim their studies are not showing hazardous amounts of chemicals, something Drabick agrees with.
"You can only go based on the information you have, the data you have, and the data we have, we're going to be OK," he said. "Nobody can predict what's going to happen five years down the road, 10 years down the road, 15 years down the road. We don't know. Nothing like this has every happened anywhere."
But what about the village's water? According to Drabick, "There's nothing wrong with it."
"I use it everyday. I used it from Feb 3 on until now," he added. "I shower in it, I wash my pots and pans in it, my clothes in it, I cook with it. I drink it. ... I use the water to make my coffee. I drink coffee — lots of coffee — every day."
The EPA concurs its samples show the water is safe, and Drabick says he's never felt any negative health impacts.
"Are some people going to have effects from this? Absolutely," he admitted. "Everybody's different, everybody reacts differently to different things. A lot of these were sensitizers."
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine knows there are concerns, too, especially for kids.
"It's the unknown that is there," DeWine told WKYC back in December. "So the state is subsidizing a clinic that is in East Palestine. People can go there, right in the village, get the health care they need.
"We're going to continue to stay there and monitor the water, we'll continue to stay there and monitor the air. Fran and I were there about two weeks ago. We saw the new plant, the water treatment plant. They now have the ability — they got some money from the railroad — they have the ability now to take out [per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances]."
Meantime, the state just two months ago announced 18 East Palestine businesses will receive more than $3.3 million in forgivable loans to assist with recovery since the derailment.
"In the long run they have to have prosperity, they have to have business, and people have to have a place to work," DeWine said.
The chief believes the governor has done his job.
"Gov. DeWine — and I don't have any political affiliation — Gov. DeWine is an amazing man. Period," Drabick declared. "He's done exactly what he said he was going to do for us. He has been here throughout the whole thing with us.
As for the federal government, the White House recently announced President Joe Biden will be visiting East Palestine this month, finally making good on a promise made in the weeks after the disaster. However, Drabick revealed he thought the president was visiting back in September, only for the event to be scrapped at the last minute.
"I got called to go to a meeting to the airport because he was coming," the chief recalled. "I drove the whole way there, left my responsibilities here to drive there for a meeting, for preparation for him, to get there and be told he's not coming.
"It is what is. If he ever comes, he comes. It doesn't matter to me."
What does matter to him is moving forward as a stronger, healthier community. We also asked if he has any regrets.
"Nope. Nothing," he answered. "We did what we did with what we had the best that we did. I wouldn't change, I don't regret, anything. I own up to all of it."
In June, Drabick went before the NTSB with safety recommendations. He wants to see more money from the federal government to his volunteer firefighters for training, along with staff increases.