An earthquake rattled Ohio near the West Virginia border, but it wasn’t strong nor close enough to the ongoing environmental disaster in East Palestine to impact things there.
According to USGS, a magnitude 2.6 event struck 4.3 miles southeast of Cheshire, Ohio at 4:52 pm on Friday. The earthquake was shallow with a reported 0.1 km depth. There has been no other seismic activity in the region for the last 30 days.
No one used the USGS “Did you feel it?” reporting tool on their website to report shaking or damage; while it is likely an earthquake of this magnitude was felt and/or heard, it is unlikely for an earthquake with its reported magnitude to create much in the way of any damage.
On February 3, 2023, a freight train carrying vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate and ethylene glycol monobutyl ether derailed along the Norfolk Southern Railway in East Palestine, Ohio. The derailment occurred about 150 miles north and east from this earthquake.
The Biden Administration had turned down Ohio’s request for the environmental disaster to be officially declared a FEMA disaster. However, after more than 2 weeks since the train derailment, FEMA is deploying federal assistance to the area starting today.
The White House has previously said that FEMA was closely coordinating with the emergency operation centers responding to the incident, but the agency had yet to announce a visit to East Palestine.
“Tomorrow, FEMA will supplement federal efforts by deploying a Senior Response Official along with a Regional Incident Management Assistance Team (IMAT) to support ongoing operations, including incident coordination and ongoing assessments of potential long term recovery needs,” a joint statement by the Governor’s office and FEMA read yesterday.
