Four people were injured just before midnight on Sunday after two freight trains collided and derailed in Kentucky, according to the Associated Press.
The incident in Georgetown also caused a fire and forced residents living nearby to evacuate their homes “out of an abundance of caution after the crash was reported at 11:14 p.m” Lexington Fire Lt. Jessica Bowman told the AP, adding that people were able to return to their homes after they assessed the scene.
Schools were opened as emergency shelters and police told Scott County School superintendent, Kevin Hub, that they expected hundreds of people to arrive. Bowman — who didn’t have an update on the identities of those injured — said the incident is under investigation.
Around 11:30 p.m. on Sunday, local resident, Christina Griffin, received phone calls from neighbors saying they had to evacuate. An officer then informed her that she and her son had to leave the area.
Another local, Betty Boyer, was about to go to sleep when she heard a loud noise.
“We thought, what the hell was that? Was it a train? Was it a trailer? We didn’t see any smoke,” she told the Associated Press. “Then she then got a call from her son in Missouri asking if they were being evacuated. He’d apparently received a text from a friend who saw the accident on Facebook.”
Boyer, who spoke to the news outlet from the Lemons Hill Elementary, added, “I’m supposed to be up at 6 a.m. in the morning to go to work,” she said. “That ain’t happening.”
