Hundreds of families were evacuated after losing their drinking water and electricity when 19 tanker cars slammed into each other and caught fire, leaking oil into a Kanawha River tributary and burning a nearby house down to its foundation. Reports of leaks and other oil releases from tank cars are up as well, from 12 in 2008 to 186 last year, according to Department of Transportation records reviewed by The Associated Press. Just Saturday — two days before the West Virginia wreck — 29 cars of a 100-car Canadian National Railway train carrying Bakken crude derailed in a remote area 50 miles south of Timmins, Ontario, spilling oil and catching fire. [...] the Obama Administration is considering requiring even more upgrades, such as thicker tanks, shields to prevent tankers from crumpling, rollover protections and electronic brakes that could make cars stop simultaneously, rather than slam into each other. By Tuesday evening, power crews were restoring electricity, water treatment plants were going back online, and most of the local residents were back home. If approved, the increased safety requirements now under White House review would phase out tens of thousands of the older tank cars being used to carry highly flammable liquids, and require more recently retrofitted cars to have new upgrades. CSX and other railroads called this information proprietary, but more than 20 states rejected the industry's argument, informing the public as well as first-responders about the crude moving through their communities.