Paulsboro Residents Returning Home

More than 200 evacuated residents are allowed to return home, pending final air quality checks

Evacuated residents of Paulsboro are allowed to return to their homes Friday, NBC10 has confirmed.

The decision was made a day after the air quality had been deemed safe by the United States Coast Guard on Thursday.

Paulsboro's Chief of Police Chris Wachter says home by home air quality checks within the evacuation zone will be happening all day.

The evacuation area is divided into 4 zones and each zone has a designated time to have their air tested.

Residents should report to the community assistance center at the Paulsboro fire house at 1502 Swedesboro Ave. Residents from each zone should report to the center in the following order:
Zone 1: 12:00p.m., Zone 2: 2:00p.m., Zone 3: 3:00p.m. and Zone 4: 5:00p.m.

Anyone with questions can call the hotline at 1-800-230-7049.
Residents can also go to the website at paulsbororesponse.com

A separate hotline has been established for health related questions at 856-599-5154.

"For the past 46 hours we have not detected vinyl chloride at the site and we have no detections of vinyl chloride in the community," said Coast Guard Captain Kathy Moore said.

Residents near the site of last Friday's train derailment and chemical spill were evacuted from their homes shortly after the incident which released vinyl chloride into the air.

PHOTOS: Paulsboro Train Derailment, Chemical Spill

The next day, evacuees were told they were not allowed to return to their homes until at least December 8.

On Tuesday night, police went door-to-door to inform occupants of 100 more homes that poor air quality forcing them to evacuate.

Residents concerned for their health voiced their concerns in a town meeting Wednesday night and the next day, U.S. Reps, Pat Meehan, Rob Andrews and Frank LoBionda calmed some residents by speaking about the progress being made as far as the clean-up of the derailment and chemical and about the investigation into the incident by the Coast Guard and NTSB.


 

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