Penn Terminals loads ship with supplies to help Puerto Rico
EDDYSTONE » Jose Martinez is using his work to keep his mind off family and friends back in Puerto Rico.
Martinez works at Penn Terminals in Eddystone. He’s been on the mainland since he was 13, and the best he can do right to take his mind off family back in Puerto Rica with whom he’s had no contact since before Hurricane Maria devastated the island was to focus on filling the containers at Penn Terminals with skids of food and water. The materials are destined for the devastated island Sunday.
“No communication,” the 40-year-old said. “I feel like I’m desperate to know what is going on, how they are. I can do nothing, I can do nothing, only to wait.”
So, he submerged himself into his work at Penn Terminals, where 180 containers of 25 tons of water and food are being loaded, so that they will be lifted onto a barge and then sent to Puerto Rico.
“It’s a good feeling because you’re doing something right,” said John Brennan, president and CEO of Penn Terminals. “This is actually something good that our tax dollars are doing.”
Last week, Hurricane Maria hit the American territory with a Category 5 force, killing at least 16 people, demolishing homes and wiping out the island’s power grid to the 3.4 million residents. With electricity not expected to return for months, many scramble for food and basic necessities, as lines at gas stations stretch for miles, adequate medical care can be difficult to find and communication is spotty.
In the meantime, President Donald Trump has faced criticism for his timing in visiting the island – he plans to visit Tuesday, the post-disaster response and his mention of Puerto Rico’s debt in his comments.
Since Thursday at noon, trucks from as far as Alabama have been driving food and water from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the Eddystone stevedoring facility.
Brennan explained the project came about through the coordination of one of the terminal’s customers, Crowley Maritime Corp., which works with FEMA.
“This whole Hurricane Maria came up and I gave (Crowley) a call and I said, ‘Hey, if we can be of any help, let us know,’” the CEO said. “They called me back the next day, ‘We’re going to have this, can you swap 180 containers worth of goods from over-the-road trucks – and I said, ‘Yes, we can.’”
Then, he said it became a mad rush to gather the empty containers so they could be filled with water bottles and boxes of Meals Ready to Eat containing cereal, milk, fruit cups, bread, trail mixes and more.
The terminal employees were busy Friday moving cases and pallets of water and food in preparation into the tractor trailer-size containers.
Martinez was one of them as he carefully worked his forklift to fill the containers.
“I feel good doing this work,” he said. “Yesterday, I stayed until 1 o’clock. I’m the one, I make sure that this product goes in (for) those people. I feel hurt, my people. ..
“So, that’s why I take care of this,” he said. “Make sure everything is safe, nothing is broke.” Brennan said the work will continue until the barge leaves Sunday.
“We’ll be working all night tonight and all day tomorrow,” he said Friday, adding that a tug boat will pull the loaded barge for seven days before it docks in Puerto Rico.
In the meantime, the Penn Terminals employees do all they can to get the job done.
Taking a moment’s break, Martinez patted the two cell phones he stored in his shirt pockets, anxiously awaiting any word from the 10 members of his family in Puerto Rico.
“My hope is I want to hear my father,” he said as he paused to compose himself with a deep breath, “see how they are, my sister and everything else, see how they are – I want to hear it.”