EAST PALESTINE — It has been four months since the Norfolk Southern train derailment and one month until Gov. Mike DeWine’s extension to declare East Palestine and surrounding communities a disaster area expires.

The United Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment — a community oversight committee established by residents of communities impacted by the rail disaster — are stepping up its efforts to pressure DeWine into doing just that.

The council has created an online petition demanding DeWine declare an emergency in East Palestine. The petition states that the “residents still lack the basic assistance they need to survive” and that DeWine could “unlock resources from the federal government to give residents in all neighboring communities the financial relief and independent environmental testing that they desperately require” by declaring an emergency.

DeWine submitted a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in March requesting a 120-day extension to request for a major disaster declaration in the East Palestine train derailment.

The deadline to declare an emergency expires on July 3.

To date, the petition online at only.one has garnered more than 3,300 signatures.