Welcome back, truth Seekers. I finally checked into my hotel here in beaver
Falls, Pennsylvania, which is I guess five or six miles due east of
East Palestine. We took off this morning from the Enterprise Rennakar and Dover,
Delaware about eight fifteen am, one stop in central Pennsylvania, and we got
to East Palestine right around two pm Eastern time. And I'll tell you there
is still a lot of work to be done. Literally, as you're crossing
the line from Pennsylvania into Ohio, it is the first town on the border,
and there is still a lot of construction. Well, you know,
I'm sure contracted EPA folks that are still out there cleaning up a lot of
people, you know, are simply out there to keep people away. I
actually pulled over and talked to a guy who was just kind of standing there
with his orange vest and flag, and I asked him. I was like,
so, how long have you been here? He said, oh,
you know, not quite a year, but you know, ten months or
so. And I said, so, you guys just here guarding the accident
and he said, and this is verbatim, he said, they don't tell
us, We're just told to keep people away from here. I said,
well, okay, I mean it was obvious, but it also became obvious
that they weren't allowed to say much. I kind of picked his brain.
He was very very he was kind, you know, he was cordial.
That's probably the proper word to use. But he wasn't saying anything. So
I said, thank you, you know, take care. But as soon
as you entered the town on the right hand side, which would be on
the north side where the accident happened, again, there's still lots and lots
of people working on the other side across the street. It looks like they
and they kind of set up something over there. I don't know if it's
contaminated. Vehicles were there. It's a process they run it through before they
take it to its final destination. But still very busy. And you think
about it, thirteen months after the incident happened, and there are still dozens
and dozens and dozens of people down there cleaning up or kind of. I
don't know if i'd call it security, but certainly people who were keeping people
like me away from that area. And the further you get away from that,
as you get into town, it becomes almost normalized to a certain extent.
I stopped in at the one lodge I think it's called the Eagle Lodge.
They were very busy. I guess they do dinners and things like that.
I went to the Masonic Lodge, which, by the way, if
you go to Instagram at the fact Hunter I already posted picture of the Welcome
to East Palestine sign and pictures of the Masonic Lodge and the best pictures I
could get because they're not tolerating people around that area whatsoever. I mean,
you have to go through it to get to town. I imagine there's ways
you can get to it, but that is the main entrance into town,
and the businesses still in that area are still closed down and I assume will
be for the considerable future. I did park my car and kind of walk
around what would be considered the town square, small playground, you know,
patch of grass, and there was a gentleman sitting there and same he was
very tight lipt. I asked if they were being taken care of, and
he said, yes, they were being taken care of. And actually more
than one person said that they were being taken care of, and that's a
good thing. At the same time, So when I checked into the hotel
here, the young lady at the front desk, she said, she lives
just a couple of miles away from there, and she watched, you know,
that the night had happened. She saw the gigantic plume and she said,
literally it was something out of which you know, we're conspiracy minded people,
So when she said it was something out of a movie, I was
like, hmm, right. And a lot of interesting things around here.
There's an air museum right behind the hotel where I'm staying at. I think
there may be a National Guard armory in the area as well. I actually
meant to have that map pulled up. Actually I'm not live, so I
can pause. So if you look on your map, East Taggart is the
main strip as you come in from Pennsylvania into Ohio, and much of those
obvious businesses when you first cross the line are still closed. Now when you
get to North Market Street, which is pretty much the downtown area, that
entire strip is still closed off to traffic. However, I think it from
first look, it looks like it's closed more due to construction than to anything
that happened in that incident. It's a beautiful day today. The one thing
that really stuck out in my mind. You know, it's seventy degrees here
today and there was hardly anybody outside. There was vehicles cruising around, but
there wasn't a lot of people outside. Now maybe they were picking their children
up from school. Once I get settled here, I'm going to go back
into town see if I can find some people to chat to chat with now
that I kind of know where I'm at and I have established my place and
got my bags unpacked. But it's very interesting that. I mean, I've
only talked to two or three people, three to be precise, and all
three did say that they were being taken care of. But you can still
tell when they're especially the young lady at the front desk here when she was
describing the incident thirteen months ago, that that's going to be one of those
things that sticks with them for the rest of their life. And the one
concern she did did have, and rightly so, was long term effects.
Right that it's only been a year since the incident. We know that these
carcinogens sometimes don't rear their ugly heads, you know, for years down the
road, right, And we don't know how much of the water system it's
infiltrated, and how far down range it's exposed people. She said, this
very hotel where I'm sitting at right now, like they were lined that the
people from town were lined up here after the incident to stay here, and
she said they were full. They were capacity for quite some time from the
people from town who lived near now the houses. I would say the closest
house to the incident is probably a quarter mile now, probably an eighth of
a mile. That's not fair because if you go on the backside about an
eighth of a mile from actually where the train derailed and had the burnoff.
And we know, I don't have my mixer here, so I can't really
play the audio. I could set it up, but if you guys missed
the news just within the last few days, they said that that did not
need to happen, that burnoff that they call it. So we still have
a lot of questions to ask. It's still very surreal driving over the state
line and seeing all the construction equipment and all the people that are still there
thirteen months later. That really goes to show what kind of impact it had
on the environment and what they are going through right to whatever the process is
and the EPA. It's a big deal. If you can talk to anybody
who's been in the military before, tell them what happens when there's an oil
spill, and we're just talking about like when you're working on a hum V
and there's oil that gets on the ground. Everything you have to go through
for that. It's a big deal. But because the government's involved, it's
also a very very slow ordeal. But I think I'm glad that I came
this much later, because if they're this protective about that area still thirteen months
later, I can't imagine how protective they were of it when this initially happened.
Now, one of our listeners did send me an MP three of the
mayor's speech from May of twenty twenty three, so it would have been about
three months after the incident, and at that point there was still a lot
of frustration in the community. It was about a forty five minute tape or
MP three, you know, audio file, and there was still a lot
of frustration, still a lot of concern the mayor right, he was stelling
on that he was doing the best he could and was working late hours,
hardly got to see his family things of those natures. But when you're a
position of responsibility, that is expected of you. You know, people want
to be elected just to have a title, but there are undeniable responsibilities as
an elected leader, especially at the town level. Right, you have the
mayor, and then you have the county, You have the state, the
wine I think, right, and then you have you have the federal of
course, which is a cluster. Right. They're more worried about Ukraine and
Israel, about their own people and all the illegals making sure they get their
debit cards and everything else. We live in a backward society, but it
is good to see. And this is just on the very surface. I
literally drove in, you know, talked to a few people, took a
few pictures, and I'm here to tell you guys, the Massana Call was
the nicest building in town. Huge right on the corner, just a huge
building, and it's a little it's a very it's a blue collar area,
but it's nice. These people don't live in Squalor. It's it's just your
average blue collar families, right, And they're like everybody else. With the
cost of everything going up, they're just trying to survive, and when you
have something like this happen, it turns you on your head because nine times
out of ten you have to front the costs and then wait and beg to
be refunded, you know, like with the hotels, and even if you
get a hotel room, you still pay, you know, order a pizza
and all these other things to feed your family. It's just one thing after
another, and it's a long process. And money is one thing, but
the other thing that you can't just deal with is your health. Right,
Money's one thing. Your health is everything. And sorry if I'm it's been
a long day, six hours on the road, got a very early start.
So but this is very important to me because this could be any of
us, right, whether it's flints, all of these incidents that have been
happening around our country. It could be our town next, and it's important
that we get accountability and the people are taken care of because they are This
government is quicker to take care of, you know, other countries and people
who are not citizens quicker than they are their own people. But it seems
I don't know how long it took. Maybe they got taken care of,
what, you know, care of the summer, or maybe it's just been
recently, but it seems like whether it was the train company or the federal
government or the state of Ohio, somebody has come through and helped these people.
Because I haven't heard a bad word yet. But I can't base an
entire you know, opinion off of having a conversation with three people. So
that's why we're going to go back. I have a couple of locations pegged
on my phone. We're going to stop in and try to talk to some
people. Hopefully we can get one or two people to you know, go
on the record kind of and do a little interview on my phone. And
you can again in closing, you can tell it had quite an impact on
that young lady when she was telling the story of that night watching you know,
the cloud and how surreal it was, and you know how the town
basically most of the town had to pack up and leave. It was a
big deal, a very big deal. And again you can tell it's blue
collars got all the Trump flags, and there's one there was one Ron de
Santa's flag, which I didn't quite understand. Maybe it was like a dissantis
for president flag, and I didn't see it, but it's like I'm not
in Florida. But again, honest, hardworking people who were crapped on by
a big corporation, and they should have been taken care of immediately, and
they should go over and above. Anytime you replace something, whether you take
somebody's time, money, or things like that, you have to go over
and above. It's your responsibility. And I will tell you that those train
tracks are I mean they go right down the middle of the town, right
within a couple one hundred yards of the school. Now, obviously it derailed
way before the school, but you know, one year hauling has met through
people's living spaces. I mean, come on, we have to do better
than that, especially when it's carcinogenics or carcinogens I guess I should say.
But again, a good day. Thanks to Enterprise for upgrading me on my
car. My car. I paid for a little compact. They gave me
a nice little SUV. The guy was military. He took care of me.
So thank you to Enterprise. I'm here the smallest hotel room I've ever
been in. I might as well be in Tokyo. But it's clean and
that's all that matters. I'm not going to be spending much time in here,
But most importantly, I want to thank you the listeners and our donors.
We have some anonymous donors. We have m Bunch says they're planning on
coming to the event in Waco on April twentieth, Brian Frank, Nathan Stacy.
We have more anonymous donors, Paul G. Katie McCoy, Rob Roslin,
mc tim and Colleen. Thank you all for your kind notes that are
with their and also other people who prayed for me. Because I'll tell you
what, the Pennsylvania Turnpike it might as well be a NASCAR race. It's
been a minute since I've driven on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. But you're basically driving
through the mountains and curves and going through the Allegheny Tunnel, and I felt
like I was playing PlayStation more than I was driving. But we got here
safely, and that's the most important thing. And I'm looking forward to meeting
more local people and hearing their stories, ensuring that they were being taken care
of and they will be. Here's the important thing. It's important that they
are continued to be taken care of right because this could have long term ramifications.
The other thing I did notice as I was getting close to here a
lot of houses for sale. I don't know if it's just a coincidence.
I don't have my coincidence jar here on my mixer right, but there are
quite a few houses for sale in this area. There we go. The
AC just came on, and you know, these hotel conditioners are loud.
So anyway, thanks again. We're gonna get a quick freshen up and we're
going to head back into town, maybe find a place to sit down and
have a meal and chat with some folks. Again, thank you everybody for
your support, your prayers. Again. Go to Instagram at the fact Hunter
to check out the pictures that I have posted and will be posting. And
again, God bless you all, and I'll talk to you again soon