Supplies from Jacksonville sit untouched in Puerto Rico's port

Thousands of loads of relief supplies sent to Puerto Rico from Jacksonville are sitting untouched in Puerto Rico’s port.

Jacksonville-based Crowley Maritime has already launched 3,000 loads of relief supplies, with 1,000 more expected to arrive by Friday.

But a Crowley spokesman tells Action News Jax only a few hundred loads have actually been distributed.

“It’s not anybody’s fault, you know? It’s – they’ve been devastated. There are truck drivers who’ve lost everything. They have to be concerned about their families. There’s a shortage of diesel fuel. There are impediments in the road,” Crowley spokesman Mark Miller said.

Miller said the supplies that have made it off their ships are FEMA loads, which have been sent to FEMA distribution centers on the island.

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello said he’s working to line up a way to distribute those desperately needed supplies.

“We don’t have as many drivers and trucks as we need. We’ve lost communication, as with everything in Puerto Rico, with many of the drivers and trucks. Communications are being established right now,” said Rossello.

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson is calling for military action.

“The situation calls for an immediate response by the U.S. military to provide distribution and security to these remote areas. As was said after Hurricane Andrew: Where is the cavalry?” said Nelson.

It’s a frustrating situation for Haydee Gonzalez in Middleburg, whose parents live in Puerto Rico.

“It makes me angry that there’s food and there’s water, but that they can’t get to it,” said Gonzalez. “I’m trying to hold it together. I’ve just been a mess, you know? A complete mess.”

Gonzalez has not been able to get a hold of her parents since the day before Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico.

“The last thing that I told my dad was to promise me that he was going to call me. And I haven’t heard from him,” said Gonzalez.

Her parents live in Reparto Montellano, Cayey, Puerto Rico.

Her father, Hector Gutierrez, is ill and her mother, Elena Soto Gutierrez, is bedridden in a nursing home.

“I don’t know if the structure was able to handle that impact,” said Gonzalez. “I just want to say, ‘Daddy, I love you. I love you and I know you’re a fighter, man. And I want to see you.’ That’s what I want to tell my father. I want to hold my father. But right now what I want to do is hear my father.”

Gonzalez said that every morning she wakes up with a roof over her head, every time she sits down to eat a meal, she can’t help but wonder if her parents can do the same.

Cox Media Group