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CENTRAL TRANSPORTATION AIDS IKE EVACUEES
United Van Lines Agent Helps During Natural Disaster |
| DALLAS, Texas - Hundreds of thousands of people began fleeing the Texas coast Thursday, Sept. 11, as Hurricane Ike, boiling into a fury in the Gulf of Mexico, roared toward a weekend landfall. In the afternoon of Sept. 11, Central Transportation, Dallas, Texas, received a call from FEMA and the Dallas Emergency Operations Center. The agency was asked to assist in the emergency storage and distribution of 15,000 cots to evacuees of Hurricane Ike. |
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| The agency was told they would receive two to three truckloads in the next few hours. Due to traffic on the highways, the drivers were delayed and the first truck didn’t arrive until after midnight on Thursday, Sept. 11. Central Transportation’s warehousemen worked diligently off-loading the trucks and repositioning their products in the warehouse to accommodate the huge volume of cots. The moving trucks just kept coming in, and Central Transportation ended up receiving 23 truckloads. |
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| “We just wanted to help wherever we could. We wanted to make a difference,” said Bill Koegler, General Manager for Central. “We weren’t expecting the volume of merchandise that we received, but we were glad to be able to serve our community.” |
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| The morning of Friday, Sept. 12, an officer with the Texas Department of Public Safety and an officer with Dallas County Sheriff’s Department were at the agency’s location heading up the operation and coordinating efforts with FEMA and other disaster relief centers in the area. They were monitoring the need for cots and providing Central Transportation with information about the number of cots needed and where they needed to go. |
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| Central Transportation manned their distribution center all weekend to help get needed cots to their designated shelters. |
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| “It makes you feel good to know that we are helping people that we don’t even know,” said Benny Braxton, a warehouse worker. |
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With the extensive damage and power outages, the evacuee numbers are changing daily. This project will continue for several months, and Central Transportation will be ready to meet the needs of their community and the evacuees of Hurricane Ike.
“We are proud to have had the opportunity to serve the needs of the evacuees,” said Lexy Harris, manager of OA/DA services. “It is a great feeling to be able to help out in a time of such uncertainty. It was our pleasure to be a part of this operation, and we feel that it was well run. The Dallas/Fort Worth community was prepared to do whatever it took to take care of people in need.”
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United Van Lines, with headquarters in suburban St. Louis, is one of the nation’s largest household goods mover and maintains a network of 1,000 affiliated agencies in 135 countries. More information about United and its moving services can be obtained through the company’s Web site at http://www.unitedvanlines.com |
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