[ml/nj]

The incident brought national attention to Centralia and in 1984 U.S. Congress allocated more than $42 million for relocation efforts. Most of the residents accepted buyout offers and moved to the nearby communities but a handful of occupied homes remain in Centralia today.

Reagan signed off on this?

ML/NJ

[peyton randolph]

Alot of these people were vastly overpaid for their half a double 80-year-old+ shacks by the feds and took the money to build buy or build houses much nicer and larger. What remains isn’t fit for living.

The big question is what will happen if the coal vein burns down under the nearby Borough of Ashland. Will the feds do another evacuation/buyout? At some point this should be an issue of self-responsibility and private insurance instead of tax dollars being thrown at it.