SOUTH HUTCHINSON - As many as 100 residents of
South Hutchinson will learn today whether they can return to homes
that they evacuated after a train derailment dumped 30,000 gallons
of ethanol at the southeastern edge of the city.
South Hutchinson Police Chief Scott Jones said one of two tankers
carrying the highly flammable liquid ruptured during the derailment.
He said safety officials were concerned that the second tanker,
which landed on its side, might explode.
"That tanker car is still completely full," he said. "We don't
know if the hull has been compromised."
He said K&O Railroad officials were planning to pump two
tanker truck loads of the liquid out of the overturned tanker before
trying to upright it sometime today. The second tanker, which
remained upright after it derailed, leaked its entire load.
Jones said the evacuations began Tuesday night shortly after the
derailment was reported.
"The call was made at 10:36 p.m., and we started evacuating very
soon after that," Jones said.
A temporary shelter was set up at the South Hutchinson Christian
Church, and the American Red Cross helped about a dozen families
that spent Tuesday night there.
Jones said railroad officials on Wednesday reserved a block of
rooms at a nearby Comfort Inn, and were providing rooms and
restaurant vouchers to evacuated residents who chose to use
them.
No injuries were reported in the derailment, Jones said, and only
homes in the southeastern part of town were evacuated.
Parents across the southern part of the city of 2,500 were asked
not to leave children at home unattended because there was a chance
that the evacuation area would have to be expanded.
Jones said the initial concern was that vapors from the ruptured
car would ignite, and that the fire would spread back to the
tankers. He said brisk south winds helped dissipate the vapors and
eliminate that danger.
"Right now the wind is definitely in our favor," he said.
Several businesses were closed by the evacuation, as was the Reno
County Public Works building.
Among those displaced by the derailment were Eric and Stacey
Ferrell, who said firefighters woke them up at about 12:30 a.m. They
went to the church with their three children, ages 12, 8 and 4.
"We woke them up, told them we had to get out," Eric Ferrell
said. "They all seemed to be pretty calm."
Sylvia Call said she slept through the derailment and the
evacuation.
She said she saw officers blocking her street as she drove to
work at about 7 a.m. Wednesday but didn't ask why. Co-workers at the
Hutchinson Community College library told her about the derailment,
and she learned about the evacuation with a phone call to a
neighbor.
Jones said firefighters doing the evacuation went through the
neighborhoods twice knocking on doors. He said rescue workers didn't
think the situation was so dangerous that they had to break into
homes.
A few minutes after Call learned about the evacuation, a law
enforcement officer was escorting her back into her neighborhood to
pick up her cats, Willow and Tiddle, who spent the day at the
library.
"They're here with me at work," she later said. "My boss said it
would be OK."
Call said the experience left her feeling nervous.
"I am a bit scared that my house is going to blow up," she
said.
Terry Wiegand, who lives at the edge of the evacuation area, said
he arrived home shortly after 10:30 p.m. Tuesday and noticed a
patrol car with its lights flashing.
"I got up in the middle of the night and there were lights
everywhere," he said. "We thought it was a wreck. We didn't know
what was going on."
He said his wife heard about the situation Wednesday morning on
the radio.
"I don't really feel any threat or anything, but I realize this
could be a bad situation," he said.
Michael Gardner, a Hutchinson News carrier, said when he began
his route at about 4 a.m. he knew all about the derailment, thanks
to a police scanner at his home, which was just outside the
evacuation area.
He stopped around noon to ask an officer manning the barricades
when he could get back in to deliver his last 25 newspapers. He
wasn't given a time, but he was told that his home would not have to
be evacuated.
"He says I'm OK," he said. "He said at the time I'm in a safe
zone."
