Ike vignettes: FEMA now has too many trucks Despite its criticized response, FEMA now has too many trucks

John Salvino and Sugarfoot head back to his truck at Reliant Stadium to await further instructions on where to deliver hurricane recovery supplies. John Salvino and Sugarfoot head back to his truck at Reliant Stadium to await further instructions on where to deliver hurricane recovery supplies. Photo: ERIC KAYNE, CHRONICLE Photo: ERIC KAYNE, CHRONICLE Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Ike vignettes: FEMA now has too many trucks 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Herman Hall arrived at the Hurricane Ike staging area at Reliant Park on Thursday, his tractor trailer filled with half-liter containers of water.

He expected to drop off the load he had driven from Fort Worth and repeat the trip. Instead, he remained parked in a lot on Saturday, still waiting.

Hall is among the hundreds of truckers parked at Reliant, waiting to be told where to take their loads. Hurricane supplies are being held there after the number of PODs, or points of distribution, in Houston and Harris County has been greatly reduced.

At $200 per day — $50 per day higher than his usual pay — Hall is happy to sit and wait. He has been watching television in the cab of his truck and enjoying three free meals daily provided by a catering company contracted by FEMA.

"The money makes it all OK," he laughed.

John Herring, who works for a trucking company, said some independent contractors are commanding more than $1,000 per day from FEMA as they wait in the Reliant lot.

"It's taxpayer money that's being wasted, and I'm upset with FEMA," said one trucker, Bud Jackson, of Tennessee.

FEMA spokesman Marty Bahamonde said all contracts with trucking companies are negotiated prior to the start of hurricane season.

Through Thursday, the agency had shipped out more than 1,000 trucks filled with water, ice, and packaged meals, Bahamonde said. He added that the trucks will likely be sent to a staging area in Beaumont and that the transfer will take "a day or two."

"We should not look at this as problematic but as great — we have the need met here, " Bahamonde said.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, who previously was critical of FEMA, said the area's need for hurricane supplies has dwindled here as grocery stores and restaurants have reopened.

"If FEMA doesn't have enough supplies, people are really critical. Now that FEMA has more trucks than they may need right now, I don't see how they can be criticized," he said.

JENNIFER LEAHY AND ERICKA MELLON

Dead animals collected

Federal crews took to the streets of Galveston and the Beaumont area Saturday to pick up dozens of dead cows and other large animals as concerns of a potential public health hazard increased.

Hurricane Ike scattered cattle, horses and pigs from pastures to the strangest of places, and the foul-smelling decomposing carcasses could contaminate waterways and pose other health risks, said Kathy Dean, spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

"This is so massive," said Dean, whose agency falls under the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "They didn't die in the fields where they were. They got carried to people's yards, parking lots, everywhere."

Saturday morning, she said, a crew retrieved several dead cows on the campus of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. In Jefferson County, a team has picked up some 40 carcasses, mostly cows and calves, along Texas 73 from Winnie to Port Arthur.

"Our priority today is to finish Highway 73," crew member Mike Stellbauer said. "We also have crews working in Chambers County. They're pretty much doing the same thing we are. They're working on roads, people's yards."

Some estimates put the number of displaced livestock at 40,000, and at least 4,000 dead cattle were found in parts of Chambers and Jefferson counties, the Associated Press reported.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service is asking people to report any large dead animals they find in Jefferson, Orange, Chambers and Galveston counties. Crews will pick up the carcasses free of charge, Dean said.

ERICKA MELLON

Few get free generators

Thousands waited in a line that snaked around the Sunnyside Multi-Services Center on Saturday for what some believed was a power generator giveaway.

Instead, a select few families received free generators and other donated supplies, said LaToya Turner, promotions director for Majic 102 KMJQ. Her radio station, along with KBXX 97.9 and KROI 92.1, did provide free supplies to residents including ice, diapers, water and other drinks. Some of those who showed had spent the night in line although the radio stations had asked people to observe the nightly curfew.

Sunnyside resident Lela Sutton, 67, said she remains without power although she has food.

"It's frustrating, really frustrating," she said.

ROSANNA RUIZ