"I want you to tell me why everybody in my community keeps getting sick!" yelled a frustrated resident at a town hall meeting in East Palestine Thursday night.

An exasperated mayor Trent Conaway replied "...and I want those same answers."

Answers some in this community of 4,700 people fear may never come.

"We are sorry," said Darrell Wilson, associate vice president of government relations with Norfolk Southern. "We're very sorry. We feel horrible about it," he repeated, before being overwhelmed by jeers.

On one side of East Palestine High School's campus - an auditorium filled with fed-up and frightened residents.
On the other side - the gym filled with tables and stations for folks to get information about everything from testing to health evaluations.

"What do you trust?" asked Greg McCormick. He took his concerns that crews aren't digging deep enough to remove contaminants from under the railroad tracks to NS and the EPA.

When we asked him if he feels any closer to getting those answers than he did before he came to the event, he said "some of it helped,, but there's still skepticism."

"Nobody has an answer," said Sandra Chirico, echoing that lack of trust. She said the EPA told her crews didn't test her son's home right the first time and will have to come back. She's worried about her pool and her garden too.

"All we want is the truth, tell us the truth," she said.

A truth that, for now, the people of East Palestine can only hope will one day set their community free.