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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/loc...home-headlines

Residents, city officials frustrated as truck carrying tarps goes
missing

By Peter Franceschina
And Marc Freeman Staff Writers
Posted September 30 2004

As the thunderstorms rolled overhead Wednesday afternoon, offering up
another miserable deluge, Jackie Barber stood in the foyer of her
boyfriend's West Palm Beach home, with steady drips of water coming
down from the ceiling.

"As you can see," she said, holding out an upturned palm to catch a
drop, "it's coming in."

The home, at the corner of 43rd Street and Greenwood Avenue in the
city's north end, had half its roof covered with a blue tarp, bought
after Hurricane Frances took off some shingles. Then Jeanne came
through, causing more damage.

"That is Jeanne and Frances' work," Barber said.

Even though the tarp they bought covered only part of the roof,
federal workers did not offer another tarp when they surveyed the home
after Frances, she said.

Now, like thousands of other Palm Beach County residents with a
damaged roof, Barber said she had no idea if federal or county workers
would be back around to offer her a second tarp.

Palm Beach County officials had announced Tuesday they expected 4,000
tarps to be trucked in by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but
the truck never showed. Frustrated county officials made phone calls
trying to find it, but it was as if the Bermuda Triangle moved
onshore, swallowing up the truck.

"That's our tarp truck," said Bevin Beaudet, the county official
coordinating relief efforts. "Where the hell is it?"

Even the FEMA representative at the Emergency Operations Center
couldn't say.

"We're looking for the truck right now," FEMA spokesman Mike Beeman
said. "The commitment is still 4,000 [tarps]. We're just not sure
where the truck is."

Beaudet suspects the truck was "hijacked" by another county or city
government. A few supply trucks that county officials were expecting
after Frances also were missing.

"It happens all the time in hurricanes, all the time," Beaudet said.

County officials did locate a supplier in St. Lucie County for tarps
and acquired 1,000 of them Wednesday, a drop in the bucket compared to
the request for 50,000 tarps they put into FEMA before Jeanne even
blustered ashore. They generously shared, giving half the 1,000 tarps
to city governments around the county.

Rather than offer the limited supply at a distribution site, the
county's 500 tarps went to building inspectors who gave them to
homeowners who were on record as having the greatest need, with a
focus on low-income areas.

As part of stepped-up relief efforts, the Florida East Coast Railway
barricaded 50 crossings without power Wednesday from Delray Beach to
Melbourne in order to run freight trains and bring hurricane relief
supplies to coastal communities.

The FEC planned to run two southbound freight trains Wednesday and
seven today. Normally, the FEC runs an average of 22 trains a day
between Jacksonville and Miami.

"We're delivering chlorine for water treatment plants, lumber,
drywall," FEC spokesman Husein Cumber said.

Staff Writer Michael Turnbell contributed to this report.