Galveston County Office of Emergency Management

SITUATION REPORT #3

SUBJECT: Santa Fe Train Derailment

DATE AND TIME: Thursday, 2-18-10, 5 PM

●  CURRENT SITUATION: Santa Fe Police Department, Galveston County Sheriff’s Office, Galveston County Emergency Management, Hitchcock PD, Dickinson PD and area fire departments are continuing to respond to a train derailment along Highway 6 in the vicinity of Avenue M and 18th Street. The derailment involved 17 cars containing a variety of products, including liquefied petroleum gas, asphalt, molten sulfur and flue dust.

Efforts are continuing to clean up the asphalt that leaked from one of the cars. Response crews also are continuing to remove the damaged cars from the tracks and offload the products inside. Multiple state and local responders and agencies have been involved in the response since early Thursday morning, including local police and fire departments, TxDOT, TCEQ and representatives of the railroad, Burlington Northern Santa Fe.

●  AREAS AFFECTED BY THIS EVENT:  Santa Fe residences and businesses in a quarter-mile radius around the derailment at 18th St. and Avenue M. Estimated 100 residents, several businesses.

● RESPONDING AGENCIES, RESOURCES COMMITTED: Santa Fe PD, Hitchcock PD, Santa Fe ISD Police, Dickinson PD, Galveston County Sheriff’s Office, Santa Fe Fire & Rescue, Alvin Fire and Rescue, TxDPS (4 units), TxDOT, TCEQ, BNSF Railroad, Galveston County Office of Emergency Management.

●  CASUALTIES: None reported.

●  DAMAGES: None reported.

●  EVACUATION: Initially a one-mile radius; reduced to 18th street neighborhood in vicinity of incident @ 7:30 AM. Evacuation order for this neighborhood near the derailment remains in place.

●  SHELTER:  Santa Fe Junior High School, 4132 Warpath Ave., opened briefly Thursday morning then closed.

●  ROADS CURRENTLY CLOSED/IMPACTED:  Highway 6 between Avenue I and Avenue L.

●  CURRENT UTILITY OUTAGES:  None reported.

●  COMMENTS: GCOEM, currently at Level 3, is monitoring the situation and assisting with public information and phone calls. County officials notified of situation. At this time no other resources have been requested through GCOEM.

  The four (4) levels of EOC activation are:

   Level 1 (Emergency Conditions)
   Level 2 (Escalated Response Conditions)
   Level 3 (Increased Readiness Conditions)
   Level 4 (Normal Conditions)

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