50,000 Flee Derailed Train’s Toxic Vapor in Minnesota and Wisconsin

A cloud of toxic vapor from a derailed tank car forced at least 50,000 people to flee homes and businesses Tuesday in Minnesota and Wisconsin, creating traffic jams and leaving downtown Duluth deserted.

“It’s an absolute ghost town. It’s eerie what’s going on down there,” Mayor Gary Doty said at an emergency command post outside the city.

Residents were allowed to return after rain helped dissipate the toxic cloud.

At least 25 people were taken to hospitals in the two states, and about 260 National Guard and Army Reserve troops mobilized.

Authorities lifted the evacuation order in Duluth at about 3:30 p.m. It was later lifted in adjacent Superior, Wis., except for a 30-square-mile, sparsely populated area south of the city near the spill site. The order was expected to remain in effect through this morning.

Estimates of the number of people evacuated varied widely. Duluth police put the figure at 30,000 in the city of 85,000, and Douglas County, Wis., authorities estimated 20,000 people in northwestern Wisconsin had fled. Other estimates ran as high as 80,000 in the two states.

The leak occurred when 14 cars of a Burlington Northern freight train derailed about 2:30 a.m. on a bridge over the Nemadji River in Superior.

A tank car containing a benzene-based chemical tumbled into the river and leaked. The tank car continued to leak Tuesday night, Superior police said. Emergency crews planned to pump the remaining chemical out of the tanker.

Benzene is a flammable liquid used as a solvent.