‘Very scary situation’: She watched the tanker cars fall

Rae Stevenson was standing at the counter of her Paulsboro kitchen Friday morning, opening a new box of cereal and watching through the sliding glass doors as an 82-car freight train crossed over Mantua Creek, just as she has done for years.

Then, before her eyes, the railroad bridge collapsed and four tanker cars fell into the water.

"I watched it go down," she said a few hours later, looking out the same doors. "It was a very scary situation. I didn't know what was in the tankers and whether it would blow up."

The train tracks run next to the Stevensons' property and their home is the closest residence to the crash site.

Rae's husband, Gary, grew up on the creek. As a teenager, his 76-year-old father, Walt, would crank the manual levers that opened and closed the swing bridge, which is too low for boats to pass under.

"I know every inch of that bridge," said Walt Stevenson, who used to do cannonballs into the creek.

Gary Stevenson works several jobs to pay for his home and the beautiful view that goes with it. One is with the nearby Exxon research facility and another is with the Paulsboro fire department, where he is assistant chief. He knows a thing or two about hazardous materials and explosions.

He heard the crash, too. But when he looked out an upstairs window around 7 a.m., he saw two other rail cars, which had been ripped from their wheels and were laying in his yard.

Those cars - among seven that derailed - held plastic pellets and lumber. The tanker cars contained more dangerous vinyl chloride. Breathing very high levels of the chemical can cause a person to pass out, and inhaling extremely high levels can cause death.

About 12,500 gallons of the chemical in one car leaked out, but dissipated in the air, posing no serious health risk, according to officials.

"Remember on 9/11, after the World Trade Center towers collapsed and you saw the dust coming up the street?" Rae said. "It was like that. It was really weird. I couldn't smell [the chemical vapors], but I couldn't see the bridge because of the haze."

Emergency officials evacuated those within a half-mile of the site. First responders were followed by investigators from the FBI and National Transportation Safety Board.

Gary Stevenson said the crash should not have been a complete surprise to Conrail, which owns the bridge.

"Conrail people were here every day for the last three weeks," he said, standing on his porch with a clear view of the tangled tanker cars.

"When the trains [used to] go over the bridge," Stevenson continued, "there would be 'bah-bum, bah-bum, bah-bum' sound. When they rebuilt it three years ago, you couldn't hear it. But then it started again."

He wonders if the sound's return indicated trouble. In 2009, a problem with the bridge led to a less serious derailment of 16 cars carrying coal.

On Friday, at least 71 people who were within proximity of the crash were taken or took themselves to Underwood-Memorial Hospital in Woodbury, but authorities reported none were in serious condition. At midday, the Stevensons said they did not feel sick from fumes. A stiff eastward breeze extended the flags near their creekside dock and helped clear the haze.

The derailed tankers remain filled with vinyl chloride. The breached car contains about 12,500 gallons in what officials say now is in an inert, "slushy" state. The ruptured tanker will be emptied and a crane on a barge must untangle the rest of the mess without releasing any toxins.

"That's the next big danger," Gary Stevenson said.

The Stevensons designed their house to optimize their creek view. They don't regret having the trains run past because the trains, the bridge and the creek are part of their family history, part of Paulsboro. Rae and Gary live nearly next-door to Walt and Gary's mother, Irma.

Years ago, people who lived west of the tracks were called River Rats, Irma Stevenson said, referring to the Delaware River that meets the Mantua Creek. Those east of the tracks were Crick Rats, she said, noting that everybody pronounced creek as crick.

"I was forbidden to swim in the creek," Irma said. "My friend Rosemary drowned in the creek and my father took me down to watch them drag out her body. He said the creek is dangerous."

Irma paused.

"But do you know where I learned to swim?" she said.

"And do you know who taught her?" Walt said.

"We were childhood sweethearts," Irma said.

Irma stills works as a nurse and was relieved by the report of no serious injuries.

"They need a new bridge," she said. "I'm glad nobody got hurt."