EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Abbie Parsons remembers watching her children run and splash around the waters of Sulphur Run and Leslie Run in East Palestine with their cousins and the neighbor kids. One of her sons could spend hours nearly every day fishing for minnows, she said. Once, the children took their little tent to Leslie Run, just about 10 feet away from their house, to camp out.
It was exactly the kind of life she wanted for her five children.
"We have a ton of memories," Parsons said. "They were obsessed with that creek. I mean, I probably have pictures upon pictures of them having fun out there."
Four years ago, Parsons, her husband Johnnie and their children moved to East Palestine, Ohio, from Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. They left Pennsylvania seeking a more peaceful and more affordable environment to raise their kids in, while staying close to family in the Pittsburgh area.
And that's what East Palestine, a tight knit village of under 5,000 people, offered.
"We were looking for a small town environment for our children to get away from the bustle of city life," she said.
The charm of their once quiet, small town life now feels like a distant memory after a Norfolk Southern train with about 50 cars derailed Feb. 3 in East Palestine, displacing residents and compelling some, including the Parsons, to look to move.
Parsons said the risk of staying is too high.
"When I see my home, I see a lot of hard work, a lot of memories," she said. "But I know in my heart of hearts that, at this point, that it's no longer our home. I'm just super fearful for the medical future of the kids. That's the reality."
The Parsons have three daughters and two sons from ages 8 to 21. The parents are especially worried about them since several have health conditions that make them more vulnerable.
Their 8-year-old daughter suffers from juvenile idiopathic arthritis, systemic autoinflammatory disease and pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome, making her severely immunocompromised. Their 18-year-old daughter has postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome and has been bedridden since the incident.
Their oldest, a 21-year-old, has autism and Asperger's. She's been struggling with all the changes in the family's normal routine since the derailment uprooted their lives, Parsons said.
"We just can't risk it," she said. "I get emotional because they have the cards stacked against them already, and I can't add to that. I already feel bad for the experiences they've had and what this could cause in the future."
Knowing her children's sensitivities more than anyone, Parsons said she noticed flare ups "instantaneously," especially in her immunocompromised 8-year-old.
According to Parsons, the family has been dealing with coughs and headaches, as well as "open" and "bleeding" sores on their skin and around their lips. Her youngest has also developed a large rash across her chest and stomach.
While officials have assured residents the air isn't posing harm to East Palestine residents and it is unlikely symptoms are related to the derailment, Parsons said the testing and guidance hasn't provided sufficient explanations for the symptoms her family and others have been experiencing.
"Explain why everyone's having side effects and why neighbors and friends are seeing their children having rashes and headaches," Parsons said. "There's not a lot of answers."
Parsons took the children to their pediatrician at UPMC. She said the doctor confirmed that their symptoms align with chemical exposure but said there was no way of knowing what chemicals to check for, since unknown byproducts were created when the vinyl chloride burned during a controlled release.
"He said, 'What did that turn into once it burned? What is the chemistry when it mixed? Are we missing something?'" she said. "He's like, we can do toxicity of blood. But that just tells us there's some type of toxicity there. It doesn't tell you specifically what chemical. They have no direction on where to go."
The kids did get bloodwork done as a baseline and are awaiting the results.
She said it was a complete blood count panel test, which measures the basics such as red blood cells, white blood cells and hemoglobin. They're also looking for inflammatory markers. But she's skeptical if the test will provide the kind of insights she's looking for about her kids' health status.
"I don't know if this early it would show something's changed," she said. "I wish there was more in depth blood work. It just isn't fair for our kids to suffer like this."
She had a similar experience with a veterinarian after bringing in her normally "hyper" six-pound Yorkie that was so sluggish the family could barely get him to move from the floor. He was also vomiting.
"They were just not sure what tests they could run other than doing the basics, you know," she said. "They checked the dog's lungs and ears and tongue to try to figure out why he was so lethargic."
She also got their cat checked out with similar symptoms. The family had left the cat at home the night of the derailment because they were certain they would be back the next day, but couldn't return to retrieve him until the following Wednesday.
As far as getting herself and husband Johnnie evaluated, she said they would want to go to a clinic opened by the Ohio Department of Health on Tuesday. The clinic is dedicated to East Palestine residents seeking assistance for symptoms. But they are trying to stay out of East Palestine.
"We would love to go, but honestly, at this time, we do not want to return to town," she said.
The family left their home the night of the accident at about 1 a.m. She watched what she described as blue smoke roll down a hill ahead. A few hours later, the smoke seeped into the house, she said.
Then they heard loud shouting from someone on a bullhorn megaphone, demanding people evacuate their homes.
But the Parsons couldn't leave just yet because their 19-year-old son had trouble returning home from work because officers blocked the highway.
"He was just like, 'Please don't leave until I get home, Mom,'" she said. "We were waiting for him, and then I got the call that they're not letting him come home. We just said, 'You go back to Columbiana and we'll meet you at the Sunoco.'"
While the accident was nothing the Parsons or any other resident could prepare for, she still thinks back to that first night and all the "what if's."
"I just never thought my kids would be exposed to chemicals like that," she said. "I have been wishing I could have done something different."
Already feeling the hours of exposure from that night was enough damage, the Parsons have been taking money from their savings account, as well as some contributions from family, to stay at an Airbnb in Youngstown.
Doctors advised the children not to take medication they had due to possible contamination, so she has been battling with her insurance company to get what they need. She's afraid it's just one of the many medical costs to come after the derailment.
"I was able to get some things refilled through our insurance, but other things are a fight because they're very expensive," she said. "Especially some of the injectables that my kids are on, there's out-of-pocket costs and they're expensive."
Parsons had also tried to secure air testing for her home, both from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Norfolk Southern, numerous times to no avail. She said she has received conflicting answers on whether the home is in the one-mile radius and qualifies for residential testing, which the Ohio EPA has conducted daily on over 500 homes.
The railroad company told her they would put her on the list since the house sits between Leslie Run and Sulphur Run, two of several waterways contaminated in the derailment's aftermath.
"Four different Norfolk Southern employees told me they would be there, and nobody has come out to do any monitoring," Parsons said.
The family returned home after the evacuation to gather more clothes and necessities, but they couldn't stay very long, she said. Within 10 minutes, Parsons said she and her husband vomited and began experiencing intense headaches and dizziness. She also said her skin and eyes were getting irritated, and her tongue felt like she was tasting batteries. The smell was overwhelming, she said.
"It was burning our throats, noses and chests," Parsons said. "Our home seemed like a complete war zone."
Parsons has been trying to rid the odor from clothes and blankets. Even after five to six washes, the smell lingers so she's had to throw clothes, even favorite blankets, away.
"If I can't get the smell out, they're not wearing it," she said.
With her children's health, she has prided herself on a clean home, and it's taken years to get it right. Air purifiers, free and clear laundry detergent, supplements, special soaps and shampoos, a plant-based diet including fresh food grown from their garden — all of it has been curated to create the healthiest environment.
In the past two to three years, Parsons finally felt she had found a rhythm, creating a home in harmony with her children's unique health needs.
"I fought so hard to create clean living for these kids and stick to our regimens and remove as many toxins from the home as possible," she said. "Then it just got totally blasted. All that effort."
Feeling forced out of their dream home, Parsons and her husband have had difficult conversations with their children about moving.
"East Palestine has been home for a while for us now, so they've made friends and they see their friends moving too," she said. "It's been a toll on their emotions and their anxiety. It's going to take a lot of time to move forward."
The creeks where the Parsons kids used to freely play now reek of chemicals. Parsons said it's gotten worse in recent weeks. Just outside their door, Hepaco workers have set up shop for weeks, fumigating the contaminated water and appearing to add more chemicals to do so.
The Parsons have been looking everywhere for rentals, from Youngstown to North Lima to Salem to Columbiana, to live in temporarily until they can move. They haven't been able to secure anything yet, Parsons said.
The family is still figuring out their next steps, but as a mother, the one thing she knows is that her children won't return to a place that doesn't feel safe anymore.
"Mom's number one job is to protect their children," she said. "You just pray for the kids that have been there, and kids that have to come back."
