‘Do My Part’: Business Owners Offer Aid To East Palestine After Train Derailment
Alexa Schwerha on February 23, 2023
- Business owners traveled to Ohio on Wednesday to help deliver aid after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed earlier this month.
- Blue Line Moving Company delivered pallets carrying cases of water partially donated by former President Donald Trump while “Make Honey Great Again” sold bottles of Trump-shaped honey to fundraise for the town.
- “There are people other than government officials that actually care about American citizens in this country and want to do the right thing by the American citizens, and I just feel horrible for the people who live here because the government doesn’t have a good track record of doing what they say they’re going to do, taking care of people, so everybody hears all the things they are saying but I wanted to make sure that I could do my part,” John Rourke, owner of Blue Line Moving Company based out of South Florida, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Business owners from out of state traveled to Ohio on Wednesday ahead of former President Donald Trump’s visit to deliver aid to residents who are dealing with the aftermath of a train derailment which caused toxic chemicals to be spilled earlier this month.
Trump visited East Palestine, Ohio, to donate pallets of water and cleaning supplies for residents after a Norfolk Southern train derailed in early February carrying toxic chemicals and a controlled burn, performed to prevent an explosion, released toxins into the air and water. A Florida moving company helped deliver water to the community while a honey company sold its product to raise money, the owners told the DCNF.
John Rourke, owner of Blue Line Moving Company based out of South Florida, told the DCNF that he partnered with Oklahoma movers to deliver water because of how expensive bottled water can be. Rourke transported thirteen total pallets carrying cases of water, nine of which were donated by Trump and four from Oklahoma.
“The people in America care about [East Palestine,]” Rourke told the DCNF. “They’re not forgotten. There are people other than government officials that actually care about American citizens in this country and want to do the right thing by the American citizens, and I just feel horrible for the people who live here because the government doesn’t have a good track record of doing what they say they’re going to do, taking care of people, so everybody hears all the things they are saying but I wanted to make sure that I could do my part.”
Blue Line Moving trucks carried pallets with water cases to East Palestine, Ohio.
Todd Gerhart, owner of “Make Honey Great Again,” sold 16-ounce bottles of his honey in Trump-shaped bottles on the corner of the town’s Main and Market streets and said he would donate the proceeds to East Palestine. Gerhart drove 11 hours to Ohio from Charleston, South Carolina.
“It’s Donald Trump in a honey bottle,” he told the DCNF. “We’re donating the profits today to the people here in East Palestine to help them in their struggles.”
Make Honey Great Again sold its product to raise money.
Gerhart explained that relief efforts in the town are an “American thing, not a Democrat or Republican thing” and that Trump’s visit was to get residents “the help that they need.”
“The government, they’re coming in here. Everyone looks like they just got out of Nordstrom. All the EPA guys have the new boots on and their sweet Patagonia jackets and they’re walking around and pointing at things, but these people don’t need that,” Rourke told the DCNF. “This is the working man’s town. A lot of blue collar people, people who don’t have a lot of money, a lot of people living paycheck to paycheck and now, basically, you come in here and close down their town for weeks on end.”
Norfolk Southern offered residents in and near East Palestine $1,000 relief checks, Salem News reported.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is expected to visit East Palestine Thursday.
“He should have been here a long time ago,” Trump said Wednesday. “Now he was supposed to come today but he heard I was coming today and postponed it, but whenever he comes he’s got to do his job and if we didn’t come, they never would have come.”
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