North Texas cargo company sends supplies to Puerto Rico

A North Texas company is sending planes to Puerto Rico loaded with relief supplies to help hurricane victims.

Cargo airline Ameriflight has two bases on the island. As soon as the FAA gave approval to begin humanitarian flights into Puerto Rico, COO Bill Poerstel said he sent two planes loaded with relief supplies.

 “Some places are coming back, our hanger got power but we don't have air conditioning so it's a sweatbox full of mosquitoes. So I think depending where you're at it's a very different situation for the people,” Poerstel said. “Our day to day operation is we're a small feeder carrier for FedEx and UPS, DHL.”

Those two initial flights contained nearly 7,000 pounds of items, including food, water, toiletries and a pallet of generators.

“We took as much as we could with the fuel that we needed,” Poerstel said.

Ameriflight sent another cargo plane Tuesday morning that had the company's CEO on board to the tattered U.S. territory. About $15,000 worth of supplies were purchased at area stores, then loaded on-board the plane. Poerstel says it’s the least Ameriflight can do.

“I've watched the news to see what the coverage has been because you had Harvey, then Irma hit Florida, and I was afraid Puerto Rico was going to get lost in the shuffle,” Poerstel said. “It's on my mind every day it will because while I know it's getting better there's a long way to go.”