Parts of the mid-Atlantic United States are reportedly seeing mysterious white dust falling in the region, with officials testing samples of the dust to identify its origin.
There appears to be dust or powder falling from the sky and accumulating on cars and in yards in Maryland, northern Virginia, and West Virginia.
“Several reports of an unknown white powder or dust sediment falling out of the sky throughout West Virginia and Maryland … Local fire departments suggesting people shut windows and doors and stay inside until it can be investigated,” political strategist Chuck Callesto said in a Feb. 24 Twitter post. An accompanying video showed cars being covered by white dust.
The Facebook page of Eastern Panhandle Working Fires (EPWF), which tracks emergencies in Panhandle, West Virginia, warned about “strange film/dust” descending on Jefferson and Berkeley counties as well as other areas in a Facebook post on Friday.
According to CBS Baltimore, while an official explanation has not yet been released, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) cited satellite imagery which indicated that dust from storms in Texas and New Mexico was observed moving towards Ohio, Michigan, and Kentucky before it became visible on the East Coast.
Because of the close geographical proximity of Berkeley County, WV, which was mentioned in the state environmental department’s press release, to the recent train derailment carrying toxic chemicals in Eastern Ohio (about 215 miles from East Palestine, Ohio), and the apparent lack of communication in the area, the absence of information about the peculiar dust raises the possibility of misinformation spreading.
EPWF contacted the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP), which warned citizens experiencing related issues to call 911 “immediately” and have their local fire department respond.
In an interview with the Associated Press, a spokesperson from the WVDEP said that there are currently no indications that the dust is associated with the East Palestine disaster, but as we all know, those sorts of official statements are often disregarded or treated with outright hostility by an increasingly large cohort of conspiracy theorists online — many of whom have seized upon conflicting official reports regarding the derailment to serve their ends.
Though the specifics of the dust are yet to be determined, there is speculation that it could be related to dust storms in New Mexico and Texas that traveled east through Ohio, Michigan, and Kentucky on Feb. 23, according to The Associated Press.