On February 3, 2023 at 8:55 pm, a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, about a quarter-mile west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line. Of the 150 train cars, about 50 cars were affected by the derailment. The rest were uncoupled and removed from the scene. Twenty of the affected cars contained hazardous materials. Some cars caught fire.  Some cars spilled their contents into an adjacent ditch that feeds Sulphur Run, a stream that joins Leslie Run, which eventually empties into the Ohio River. 

Dr. John Patterson, former State Representative for Ohio's 65th state legislative district was then serving as the Ohio State  executive Director of the US Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency. As such, served as USDA's point person, coordinating with the Environmental Protection Agency, The Ohio State Extension Offices and other agencies on the agricultural impact of the disaster.

Learn first-hand from someone who was there what happened, how it happened, why it happened, and what were the immediate impacts, intermediate effects, and ongoing challenges of this modern train disaster, echoing many of the same themes of the 1876 Ashtabula Train Disaster.