Train Hauling Chemicals Derails in W.Va

A freight train carrying propane and other chemicals derailed near Handley, West Virgina around 4:45 a.m this morning. No one was injured when the CSX owned and operated train jumped the rails and there is no evidence that any of the overturned cars was leaking, said Carolyn Charnock, director of 911 services in Kanawha County.

Up to 22 cars of a CSX Corp. train went off the track in Handley, a riverside town of 200 to 300 households some 20 miles southeast of Charleston.

The train was also carrying four tanks of sodium hydroxide solution, a corrosive material that can cause serious burns if touched or inhaled, as well as chlorobenzene, a chemical often used in dry cleaning. Officials at the scene were trying to determine if any of the tankers were damaged enough to pose a chemical hazard. One other car was empty, but had contained chlorine.

The train was traveling from Richmond, Va., to Cincinnati at the time of the derailment.

Residents were told to take shelter in a school in nearby Pratt, about 2 miles from the site, then were moved again to a different school six miles away. State Route 61 was also closed as a precaution.

Residents of Handley were being taken to shelters at a college and an elementary school in neighboring towns, Charnock said.

WOWK, a television station in Charleston, where the first to report on this at it's website wowktv.com.

(sources - AP, Reuters, wowktv.com)