The federal Dept. of Transportation continues to coordinate a massive operation involving airplanes, buses, trucks, and ships designed to get supplies and personnel into the regions affected by Hurricane Katrina and evacuate citizens out of New Orleans. The agency has secured more than 1,639 trucks to support the delivery of over 3,731 truckloads of goods, including 25-million MREs (meals ready to eat), 31-million liters of water, 56,400 tarps, 19-million pounds of ice and 215,000 blankets.
DOT is also overseeing the largest airlift on U.S. soil to move supplies into affected regions and evacuate residents out of the city, arranging 70 passenger flights into and out of the New Orleans airport on Sept. 5 alone. On top of that, DOT is providing more than 1,200 buses to evacuate citizens, with approximately 66,000 people evacuated by either air or bus so far.
The agency has also requested that the Dept. of Defense release vessels in the Ready Reserve Fleet for use in moving supplies and personnel into the Gulf Coast region, providing temporary housing and moving people out. The Empire State, Sirius, State of Maine, Wright, Flattery, and Diamond State are to set to arrive in coming days to join the Cape Kennedy and Cape Knox in New Orleans; three additional ships are on standby.
To discuss the Katrina disaster and its effect on the trucking industry or share your experiences, please visit FleetOwner's Katrina Blog at blog.fleetowner.com/katrina.
To view the archive of FleetOwner’s ongoing Katrina news coverage, go to www.fleetowner.com/katrina.
