The Unity Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment is getting ready to go to the Statehouse in Columbus to demand lawmakers officially declare the derailment a disaster.

“Without that emergency declaration East Palestine cannot get federal support, neither can Pennsylvania,” Jami Wallace, President of the Executive Board for the Unity Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment said. 

A major disaster declaration is made by the president. For East Palestine to get to that point, Governor Mike DeWine has to submit a request to President Biden on behalf of Ohio. 

FEMA’s website states that “any natural event … that the President determines has caused damage of such severity that it is beyond the combined capabilities of state and local governments to respond” can be declared a disaster.  

But Governor DeWine has held out on submitting that request. FEMA requires the request for assistance be submitted within 30 days of the incident, DeWine requested and was granted a 120 day extension that was set to expire on July 3. Before that date hit, DeWine submitted another 120 day extension to “preserve Ohio’s position for FEMA disaster assistance should conditions change” a representative from DeWines office told 21 News. 

The representative also said “FEMA continues to advise Ohio that the East Palestine Disaster remains ineligible for FEMA disaster assistance.”

21 News asked FEMA if the East Palestine train derailment could qualify and a FEMA spokesperson said “in situations when a community is overwhelmed by a disaster or emergency, the local government first requests support through the state emergency management agency. If state resources are also exhausted and support is still necessary, the state could then request FEMA assistance.”

Some people living in East Palestine feel the derailment does qualify as a disaster. 

“There's a lot of homes that are contaminated that people can't live in,” Wallace said. “Just because they weren't knocked over doesn't mean that they weren't destroyed.”