Amid tragedy, region shows as a community that cares

It's been an emotionally complicated week for many in the region in the wake of the tragic Amtrak derailment near Joplin last Saturday, with the community feeling a mix of shock at what happened, sadness for those three who lost their lives and pride in their community's response.

Indeed, people from across the region pitched in, helping those caught in the crash, the first responders who tended to them, and the workers who repaired the tracks in the aftermath, in a communitywide effort that has drawn the praise of the state and the nation.

People said, talking to the victims of the crash, the united effort by the community to provide for those in need meant a lot of people went home feeling safe, secure and cared about by a community that dropped everything to help them.

Local residents and businesses came together, coordinating the delivery of food and blankets, providing space for people to stay, and comforting to those involved in the accident.

"Honestly it's hard to remember, it all happened so fast," said Jesse Anderson, manager of the MX Motel in Chester, which provided rooms to people involved in the crash.

While the prevailing feeling expressed by people in Chester and Joplin, Anderson included, has been pride in their community for their collective response, that Saturday evening was a frantic dash to get people help and some still don't feel like they processed what happened.

"It's hard to even know what your feelings are, because we're all so busy all the time. Like, there is so much to do and so few people," he said, "... I don't even know if it's sunk in, at least it hasn't for me."

He said the first thing he remembers hearing that evening was the town's emergency siren.

"The siren went off four times, and I never heard that before," he said. "Two, that's an ambulance call, three that's a fire call, four is supposed to be some major disaster."

He said he initially assumed that someone new at the sheriff's office had made a mistake, but not long after that he spoke to some customers who told him people were talking about a derailment.

He said learning exactly what happened and how bad it was was a surreal experience.

Anderson was born at Liberty County Hospital, delivered by the same doctor who delivered his father, he's lived here all his life, he said, but nothing quite like this had ever happened as far as he can remember.

He said he started getting calls that evening from the family members of people involved in the crash, trying to set them up in his motel, and he and his employees stayed late that night getting people into rooms and driving people to and from the school gymnasium where many of those people were being cared for by first responders and the area's health care specialists.

Anderson said he spoke to an older couple from Michigan who were travelling to visit their son in Seattle and finally meet their new grandchild, something they couldn't do last year due to the pandemic.

He said they told him they'd made this trip by train many times before, but this time the ride seemed a lot rougher, so much so, that they'd decided to get off in Shelby to find another way, just before the train derailed.

Anderson said those he spoke to had mostly gotten over the shock of the derailment, and they all appreciated the town's efforts to help them.

He said he spoke to a man traveling alone, who expressed a sentiment he think the community should hear.

"Something like this happens, you want it to happen in the middle of nowhere because the best people live in the middle of nowhere,' that's what he came away thinking," Anderson said. "I think people should be proud of that."

He said the area has few resources, but between a flawless and efficient response from the area's first responders and the community coordinating to help everyone, they did what they could to address this tragic accident.

"I was really proud of what people did, we all are," he said.

A helping hand to those in need

In the wake of the accident the Hi-Line's first responders have been universally praised by everyone including Montana's governor and congressional delegation who all said their service was a testament to the area and the state's resilience and care for others.

Anderson said the first responders of Liberty County, as well as most others in the region, are volunteers and did a great job that night.

But in addition to those first responders, local health care professionals of all disciplines responded - including Kelcey Diemert and his wife Nancy, pharmacists who split their time between pharmacies throughout the area - helped a lot of people.

Diemert said he and his wife got to town after first responders had saved everyone from immediate danger, but many passengers were left without the everyday medicine they needed, since many couldn't retrieve their personal effects, which is where the Diemerts came in.

"We got a call that several passengers didn't have access to their luggage and medication, and they were going to be in need," he said.

Diemert said he and his wife didn't really know what they were getting into when they first departed for Chester fearing the worst, but first responders had done their jobs well and the ongoing effort to keep everyone healthy and feeling safe was highly organized and well executed despite the circumstances.

"We thought, 'Well this is gonna be chaos,'" Diemert said. "But it wasn't."

Diemert said passengers were calm and thankful for the help, and for the most part all he and his wife ended up needing to do was interview people and make sure they had everything they needed, things like inhalers, heart medications and blood pressure medicine, which they provided free of charge.

He said it was inspiring to see everyone working together and coordinating as well as they did, professional and otherwise.

"It was a great community effort for sure," he said.

Humility in aid

Despite their pride in the community, few in Chester, Diemert and Anderson included, claimed to have done all that much in the end, and that humility was shared by their fellows in Joplin.

Betty Wolery of the Bethel Lutheran Church Quilters said much the same, though many who received her group's blankets that night may disagree.

Wolery said her group has been making quilts since 1957 sending most to Lutheran World Relief to help people around the world, but when her daughter called her about the derailment saying passengers were in need, she and her fellow quilters wasted no time in getting their surplus supplies out to them.

She said the group couldn't go out to the scene themselves, but were happy to do what ever they could.

"Our ages are between 72 and 92, so we wouldn't have been much help," she said.

Wolery said said people like her daughter came from all over the area to help, and she's happy so many did.

Supplies were a big part of the community response to the derailment and a not insignificant amount of those supplies were provided by the family-owned Chester Supermarket.

Brothers Manjit and C.J. Maan said their family's supermarket provided all the supplies they could which Manjit Maan said mostly consisted of water, ice, a whole lot of pizza and some bandages.

He said in 26 years of living in the U.S. he'd never seen anything quite like this derailment and he and his brother are glad they were able to help the community in their efforts to help people.

"Everyone from Chester was helping, they didn't care who the person was, they just want to feed people, get them blankets, water all that stuff," C.J. Maan said.

They also provided food to the people working on the track in the aftermath of the derailment, Maan said.

"We wanted to feed them too because they have to work all night," he said.

Some thanks have gone out in more than words - Diemert offered free coffee at the coffee bar at the library Thursday to anyone who helped - and some help has come back, as well.

Liberty County Public Health announced in Facebook posts that a free counseling session was available Wednesday evening for people to discuss their experiences and for people who might be "struggling to process the recent events in our community."

The counselor also was available for people to talk to Thursday.

"We are working to obtain additional resources and 24/7 crisis hotlines," one post added. "Please reach out to your neigbors, friends and family members to support them during this time."