WSE Steers Around Frances, I-80 Pileup

Hurricane and highway disasters have, in recent weeks, hit two prime service areas for Willis Shaw Express Inc. — Florida and the northwestern United States.

According to news reports:

• Hurricane Charley hit Florida in mid-August, causing 27 deaths and billions of dollars worth of damage. Two tropical storms followed, eventually giving way to Hurricane Frances, which by mid-September had left more than 2 million Floridians without power and at least 10 dead.

• On Aug. 19, a fog-induced, 35-car pileup on Interstate 80 in Wyoming killed four people and injured 37. That resulted in a 25-mile stretch of highway becoming a parking lot for two days. The road is the aorta of highway arteries to the Oregon and Washington state markets, a longtime sweet spot for the refrigerated truck line.

Chris Kozak, Shaw’s president, said the company was able to reroute most of its trucks around the Wyoming traffic jam. But the hurricanes have caused some shipment backups for all carriers.

“We had 15 to 20 loads the other morning stacked up in Atlanta,” Kozak said. “Everything has been shut down in Florida for a week, but we were able to find some drivers over the weekend who got some shipments through for some customers.

“We’ll have a huge influx of demand after the hurricanes clear up, but right now it’s tough.”

Kozak credited Windell Elliott, Shaw’s manager of regional operations in Elm Springs, for keeping the irregular-route carrier’s trucks moving despite the obstacles.