I just ordered ice from my supplier and she can't send it to me until Sunday, 'cause two of her trucks are sitting in Mississippi waiting for FEMA. There are over 300 trucks sitting there waiting for FEMA to unload. They've been waiting, some of them, over two weeks.
Here's the story:
She got a call from an ordering clerk at FEMA to bring a tractor-trailer of ice, 40,000+ pounds, to Mississippi to help with relief efforts. They would pay well, very well in fact, just drive two days from California and drop off the load.
Except now the trucks are sitting there, waiting to be unloaded. And waiting.
There are over 300 trucks waiting, all ice and water. FEMA is paying $60/hour to wait--$1440/day--so the drivers that have sleeper cabs are liking it...umm, that'd be 1440x300 trucks=$432,000 A DAY! To wait. There are no resources to unload the trucks, no place to put the ice or water. This is (I was told) in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
Also, one of the drivers was sent from the staging area to the Red Cross area, told to drop his trailer. As he was bobtailing to get fuel, he got a call on his cell: come back, they don't want your load anymore. So, hook up the trailer and go back to the staging area...to wait some more.
This is just how screwed up it is down there. The owner on the phone with me, with two trucks out of a fleet of three gone (hard to run a business), pulling extra cash every day, is just angry beyond words. She's a Bush supporter for both elections who's now yelling in the phone to me: "Fire 'em. Fire 'em all! All the way to the top, including Bush!"