12:44 PM CDT on Friday, September 16, 2005

Associated Press

Frustration is growing among more than 100 sidetracked truck drivers who set out with water and ice for Hurricane Katrina victims but were diverted to a Federal Emergency Management Agency staging area in western Maryland.

FEMA spokeswoman Deborah Wing told the Cumberland Times-News on Thursday that the trucks were moved to Cumberland for possible response to Hurricane Ophelia after water deliveries to the Gulf Coast outpaced demand.

"We are accommodating them as much as we can," Wing said in response to complaints from some drivers and their federally contracted employer that they didn't know why they were in Cumberland or how long they would be there.

Driver Bill Lutz said he and the other drivers felt lost.

"I asked this morning, 'Are we going to follow the hurricanes until the end of the season?'" Lutz said. "I sound angry, and I am, but I hate inefficiency."

Speaking to a reporter Thursday at the Rocky Gap Lodge & Golf Resort, where drivers were taken aboard local school buses for showers, Lutz said his odyssey began Sept. 6 when he left Wisconsin with a load of water and ice for Meridian, Miss.

He said he arrived on time but was told not to unload; instead, the drivers were sent to Columbia, S.C. Barred from unloading their freight there, they were directed to Cumberland, arriving Wednesday evening, Lutz said.

Angie Breckenridge, logistics coordinator for North Carolina-based Vondrak Farms Logistical Services, has been managing the deliveries for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers through FEMA. She told the Times-News that other drivers were dispatched to Allentown, Pa., and another 30 were sent to Missouri.

"I can't get anyone to answer my phone calls," she said.

The drivers acknowledged they were being paid well — some as much as $800 a day — but they said they could make as much hauling their regular loads.

"There's no telling when I'll be able to get home," said John Thomas, a driver from Texas. "I can't leave the load. I could sit here and get upset or complain, but it doesn't help."

The staging area south of Cumberland is also used to store some of the trailers that are being used as emergency shelter for Katrina victims. Wing said FEMA has shipped out 350 trailers and mobile homes so far of the 800 that were in Cumberland before Katrina hit.