Hello. My name is Austin Miller and I am 21 years old. I lived in East Palestine, Ohio with my mom and dad until this past year. On the night of February 3rd, 2023, a Norfolk Southern train, carrying toxic hazardous materials that had caught fire, derailed 1200 feet from our home in East Palestine. Millions of gallons of toxic chemicals contaminated the ground, waterways, and air of our communities. We were told to shelter in place or evacuate - my mom and I stayed at my Aunt and Uncle’s house while my dad took our two English Shepherd dogs and slept in his truck a mile from our home. We all returned home the following night because the flames from the tanker cars had died down and we just wanted to be together. It seemed like everything was returning to normal-but reports on social media of dead fish in the creeks by our home and the fumes were extremely worrying for us. The EPA stated our air was fine, showing no health risks. Then Sunday morning, everything began to change quickly. We had a knock on our door, the sheriff dept was taking a head count of how many people were in the impact zone. We were being told Norfolk Southern was going to have a controlled burn of 1 tanker because it was failing. We searched for guidance and had little to none from local, state and federal agencies. On Sunday evening during a press conference that lasted roughly 1 minute, our families lives changed forever. We were told the 1 tanker of vinyl chloride was having a catastrophic failure, and to leave our homes immediately. During this time, my entire family was scrambling to leave our home, not knowing if we would ever see it again. In the next 24 hours, we watched as Norfolk Southern detonated more than 5 tankers containing hazardous chemicals onto the homes and village we loved. My Mom and Dad fought desperately, trying to locate a place for our entire family to stay together with our dogs. At that time we had 7 family members, 5 cars and 7 dogs with us. We wanted to stay together as a family. We escaped to East Liverpool, Ohio where my Mom began her fight to contact state representatives and try to help our family. The toxic chemical cloud went directly over my Grandmother and Uncle’s home. Every person We Love has been impacted by this man-made disaster that could have been prevented.