FEMA
Fuel AWOL For Sandy Survivors
4
November, 2012
After
superstorm Sandy receded, the Federal Emergency Management Agency
contracted for 24 million gallons of fuel, and has sent 230 fuel
trucks into New York and New Jersey to be distributed at National
Guard armories.
But
why fuel shortages still exist is a mystery -- and not just to
furious motorists. Never mind filling up -- just getting a couple of
gallons is proving to be an ordeal even six days after the storm.
At
FEMA headquarters in Washington, spokeswoman Elaine Kelley said the
agency could not say where the fuel has gone, and directed inquiries
to the Defense Logistics Agency, headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Va.
A
spokesman for the DLA, Douglas Ide, told The Huffington Post Sunday
that the agency is delivering FEMA fuel to National Guard armories in
Freehold, West Orange, Teaneck, Jersey City and Plainfield, N.J., and
to armories in Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, the Bronx and
Freeport in New York. The DLA contractor is Foster Fuels of
Brookneal, Va., where an operator who answered the phone Sunday said
she had no information about emergency fuel shipments and that no one
else was working at headquarters on a Sunday.
In
New York, premature announcements that free fuel would be available
apparently caused an explosion of demand that on Saturday morning
quickly drained those fuel trucks that did arrive. No fuel ever did
get to the Freeport armory. At each of the three others, a pair of
fuel trucks arrived with more than 10,000 gallons. But those fuel
points were jammed with thousands of people spurred by public reports
that free gas would be available, and the fuel ran out.
Eric
Durr, a spokesman for the New York National Guard, said Sunday that
the Guard is out of gas and waiting for more FEMA fuel deliveries.
In
New Jersey, the National Guard is not providing gas to the public,
but is using 17 HEMTT trucks to deliver gas to firemen, police and
other first responders.
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