EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Many East Palestine residents are not happy President Joe Biden is visiting for the first time since the Feb 3, 2023 train derailment. Owner of CeramFab, Edwin Wang, said the derailment ruined his livelihood. His facility, which borders the train tracks made equipment for steel mills.
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.
“This is a nightmare I am living right now,” said Wang. “When this will be over. I do not know.”
CeramFab is ground zero for the Norfolk Southern train derailment. New 5’s Bryn Caswell has been following Wang's journey since the beginning from his tough decision to close after his employees became ill, to Wang filing his $500 million lawsuit against Norfolk Southern for damages, and now one year later, Wang awaits Biden's first visit to East Palestine as his business remains in shambles and the EPA continues to use his property to reconstruct the derailment site.
“One-year interruption for us is fatal,” Wang said. “It’s an elimination of our business, period.”
Wang said he wishes the president visited sooner and he's unsure why more federal aid wasn't made available for struggling businesses.
“I wish I could maybe talk with him,” said Wang. “What is the law of our federal government to help the business like us who are still suffering? Aftermath, after one year we are still suffering, we are still living the nightmare.”
News 5 also followed through with Garry Allison, an East Palestine business owner and landlord. He owns seven apartment units and said Biden is showing up way too late.
“I also own a trucking company and I have several people call me and ask me if I can block the entrance of the town, so he can't come because it's been over a year and now, he wants to come when it's election time,” Allison said. "The people in this town needed him when it first happened. This was a tragedy, probably one of the bigger tragedies in the United States.”
Allison said he's lost tens of thousands of dollars since February 3 after his tenants up and left for good during the vinyl chloride-controlled burn. Allison had to decontaminate and renovate his abandoned units.
“I worked with the railroad and they did compensate me for my rental losses, but they didn't give anything for the pain or suffering or all the work I had to do,” said Allison.
Moving past the toxic train derailment has been nothing short of a challenge for those who do business and call East Palestine home.
“When someone calls and I tell them that the apartments are in East Palestine, they hang up on me,” Allison said.
Reputations are burned.
“I lost everything, I lost my customers, the orders, and I lost my employees,” Wang said.
However, the persistent fear of the unknown is what's become most daunting.
“Unfortunately, this is still ongoing, and we still do not have a specific timetable when this will be over,” said Wang.
Biden is expected to land at Pittsburgh International Airport on Friday afternoon. Then he will make his way to East Palestine around 2:30 pm. Wang told News 5 he has not been contacted by the White House to have the president tour his property.
