FEMA stalls truckers carrying flood relief

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By David Heitz | Tuesday, June 24, 2008 11:48 PM CDT | () comments

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is giving Jodi Hendrickson the same kind of heartache that it became known for in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but an agency official says her distress actually is the result of FEMA’s new way of doingbusiness.

Hendrickson owns Hamburg, Iowa-based Hendrickson Enterprises, a trucking firm with 20 rigs. Two of those rigs — stocked with bottled water intended for flood-stricken communities — are sitting at Rock Island Arsenal with full loads and no apparent destination. They’ve been there since June 17, when they were rerouted from their original destination in Des Moines.

Hendrickson has had a tough time understanding what the holdup is.

“It’s not that I’m out to be a FEMA basher right now, but I am frustrated,” she said Tuesday. “I’m in the business of logistics and if it took me a week to move a load, I’d be fired. I wouldn’t have a customer left.”

It does not help matters that she is located in Hamburg, where an alarming level of fecal coliform bacteria has been found in flooded areas. She suspects her community may need drinking water at some point, and figures there must be other places nearby that need it, too.

“I’m not sure that we need it; they haven’t come and knocked on our doors or anything, but still,” she said.

The Arsenal has been chosen as a staging area for getting commodities to flood-stricken communities, FEMA spokeswoman Sandy Jasmund said. The installation was chosen because it is safe and near highway access to potential disaster areas. “Just in case something happens, we’re ready to go,” she said.

Jasmund said such “pre-positioning” has been a key part of post-Hurricane Katrina reforms for FEMA. “The flooding threat is still present in the region.”

She said the water could end up in Illinois, Iowa or Missouri, and that the Arsenal was a centrally located, secure spot for the cargo.

Even though rivers already crested in the Quad-City area, points south still may see some destruction, she said, adding it’s better to have supplies in a safe area than someplace closer to a potential disaster. “We don’t want to have our supplies stranded somewhere. During a disaster, anything can change. A road might be open one day and not open the next,” she said.

Hendrickson said she understands what FEMA is trying to do, but added it does not change the fact that her drivers are irritated with being in a holding pattern. What’s more, the waiting game is costing her money, she said. “These guys have not moved in a week, and I have to pay them something.”

Hendrickson is a subcontractor for the haul. The main contract-holder is Jacksonville, Fla.-based Landstar Systems Inc. Landstar did not return a telephone call Tuesday seeking comment.

Jasmund said she does not have access to Landstar contracts and recommended Hendrickson review her own contract with Landstar. Hendrickson said Landstar told her company that it will receive $900 per day per rig while the rigs are held at the Arsenal, but “we have yet to receive any compensation.”

In the meantime, Hendrickson said Arsenal officials have shown a tremendous amount of hospitality to her drivers. “They’re trying to make them comfortable, but they’re living in their trucks. They can’t leave, they can’t go catch a movie.”

Arsenal spokesman Eric Cramer said the installation has provided the drivers with shower and restroom facilities as well as a grill next to a picnic shelter and pavilion. “We even sent a couple of people from public works to make sure they’re getting all the support we can provide.”

On Sunday, FEMA staging manager Steve Minnick said he heard the rigs may be headed to St. Louis next. That got under the skin of Dawn Lair, a dispatcher for Hendrickson, who said her trucks passed through St. Louis on their way from Tennessee to the Quad-Cities.

Hendrickson said she understands disasters happen, but added, “As a taxpayer, I just can’t help but think…why can’t they move these loads?”

David Heitz can be contacted at (563) 383-2202 or dheitz@qctimes.com.