ARLINGTON, Va. (DC News Now) — A Virginia woman has remained worried about her family in East Palestine, Ohio for weeks. She told DC News Now about her hometown, and why she hopes it’ll be known for more than what’s happening now.
Jenny Holzer said her parents would not leave the small town after a train derailment left behind toxic chemicals, and she feels “a little bit helpless” hundreds of miles away.
“It’s just a very small town in Ohio,” she said. “Everybody knew everybody.”
Holzer still has a ton of family there — including her parents, cousins and her nephew Taylor Holzer, who helps run Parker Dairy and takes care of animals near the evacuation zone.
“The chemicals that we’re being told are safe in the air, that’s definitely not safe for the animals … or people,” Taylor Holzer told DC News Now’s news partner WKBN.
Holzer said one of his foxes died and others have been sick following the derailment.
“People’s cats are getting sick and dying, and people’s other birds that they have in their house that they weren’t being able to evacuate either,” he said. It’s just it’s not safe for them.”
Jenny Holzer said of Taylor, “He’s witnessed a lot of not only his animals but the effects on the wildlife in the streams and such.”
Jenny Holzer wants answers for her family and hometown neighbors.
“I’m extremely concerned for them and everybody in the town that we just don’t know the immediate effects or the long-term effects yet,” she said.
In the meantime, she wants people to pay attention to what’s happening in East Palestine.
“If that’s just ignored, who knows when that will happen again, and where that will happen again.”
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