EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Ben Ratner has spent a lot of time thinking about what it would be like to survive a freight train chemical disaster. After all, he appeared in a movie about it.
In 2020, Ratner and some family members traveled from his home in East Palestine, Ohio, to a nearby town, to be extras in"White Noise," a film about a train crash that unleashes environmental havoc on a small Ohio community, forcing locals to evacuate their homes."I tried watching [the movie] shortly after all of this," he told"Start Here"."I got about 10 or 15 minutes in and... it's no longer entertaining.
"You could taste it in the air. It was like a mix of gasoline, paint thinner and nail polish remover," he said, describing his rush to escape as officials ordered evacuations. "You know, our kids go to school here," he said, adding it would be nearly impossible to sell his home or the cafe he runs nearby."[I'm] definitely feeling very trapped by the situation, [it's] hard to balance the safety and well-being of everybody with the kids wanting to kind of get back to their normal lives."
"They call them bomb trains," said Ratner, describing trains barreling through town at high rates of speed with flammable materials.
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