EDITORIAL: Do not forget Graniteville

Wednesday marks the fifth anniversary of a deadly day in the history of Aiken County.

On Jan. 6, 2005, a Norfolk Southern Railroad train traveling through Graniteville was inadvertently diverted onto a spur and violently crashed into a parked train on the siding.

The resulting crash derailed many cars and punctured a tank car carrying chlorine. That ruptured car sent tons of chlorine gas into the air, resulting in the deaths of nine unfortunate people nearby. In addition to those deaths, more than 200 people were treated for exposure to the gas and 5,400 residents of the nearby village were evacuated from their homes for several days.

The former mill town has not yet recovered from that devastating day. Avondale Mills, which had been the economic engine for the community, later closed its doors, displacing some 1,000 workers. The company cited the train wreck and resulting damage to equipment from chlorine as a contributing factor.

New industry has not come into the community to make up positions for the lost jobs. Residents are even contending with issues of escalating water rates because Avondale, owner of the water system, has to charge customers more just to break even on the aged system.

In the out-of-sight-out-of-mind world we live in today, the events of five years ago seem distant. To those who lost friends and loved ones, to those who lost jobs, to those who have seen their community crumble, there are daily reminders of the Graniteville train wreck.

While the world goes on busily around us, let us not forget the small town called Graniteville and the people whose lives were forever changed.