[ctrlaltdylan]

Grew up 30 miles west of East Palestine. My family is still there.

So sad to see another struggling Midwest town dealt a death blow.

It’s beautiful country even though it’s considered fly over and “blue collar” which is politically correct terminology for post-industrial poor.

The EPA has roots from the Cuyahoga River fires. There was great progress made cleaning up the river and even turning portions of Northeast Ohio into a national park.

Proud to be a Northeast Ohioan. There has been great steps forward since the industrial hay day.

This whole event makes me so sad. This community will most likely never recover and I’m hoping against hope there aren’t serious health consequences or birth defects from this. Though I highly doubt it.

[rightbyte]

Aha, that East Palestine.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Palestine,_Ohio

Took a while for me to figure out the connection with Midwest towns.

[doodlebugging]

It's probably a good idea to have your family members visit a doctor to have blood drawn and tested for likely by-products of this accident and fire. To have a baseline proof of exposure could be handy later.

[ikiris]

how the hell is Ohio midwest?

[jplona]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_United_States - The Background section has the explanation.

I've always understood it as a sort of historical anchoring bias. Compared to the areas that were settled during colonial times, Ohio was indeed "West" in people's minds, just less so than the Pacific coast.

[ikiris]

Wild. Learned something.

[fuzzfactor]

For a while there, the Mississippi river was the western extent of the USA.

In places like Ohio, you were midway there.

[AnimalMuppet]

If you look at a map, it's clearly not. Not "mid", which would be from Chicago to Denver, and even more not "west", which would be west of Denver.

But "midwest" is a term for a region, and terms last longer than the reason for the term. When the term was coined, the US essentially ended at Chicago, and Ohio was midwest.

Hmm. I must be in a mellow mood today. I've made the exact same complaint you did when others said Pittsburgh was "midwest".

[SapporoChris]

Standard cultural conventions of the locals I suppose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_United_States

[selectodude]

West of the applachians, east of the rockies. Midwest.

[goatlover]

I always thought west of the Mississippi was Midwest.

[trillic]

(Rockies, Mississippi River) == Great Plains States?