Parker Oil aids hurricane victims
Published 12:11 pm Wednesday, September 19, 2018
- Cody Creech, left, and Brandon Cook from Parker Oil Company are about to head down with at six other trucks from Parker Oil Company to help with the relief efforts around the affected area in North Carolina. The crews left on Saturday. -- Submitted
FRANKLIN
Parker Oil Company is among the multitude of individuals and organizations helping the people of North Carolina who are recovering from Hurricane Florence, which struck late last week.
Jessie Pope of Parker Oil Company in Franklin fills up a generator when he and Kevin Lackey went to Trader Joe grocery stores in Williamsburg, Newport News and Virginia Beach last week. This was done in advance of Hurricane Florence. — Submitted | Kevin Lackey
Kevin Lackey, plant manager of Franklin location, said that two trucks from the local post have been sent to Wilmington, North Carolina.
Tobias Smith and his assistant, and Brandon Cooke and his helper, Cody Creech, left early on Saturday and first met five other vehicles and their drivers in Emporia before traveling in a convoy.
At their destination, they’ll be putting fuel in utility trucks and generators in groceries, pharmacies, etc.
Even before the storm made land, Lackey and disaster relief driver Jessie Pope filled up generators at Trader Joes in Williamsburg, Newport News and Virginia Beach.
Parker Oil is a member of a disaster relief program, to which four members in Franklin belong, said Lackey, who added that each plant has members as well. They work with Specialty Fuels during such occasions, and that company dispatches the drivers where needed.
Last year, one truck from Franklin went to Texas and Florida when those states were hit by Harvey and Katrina. Lackey added that a driver was gone for six weeks.
