Severe weather causes food shipment delays

Lawton_Soda, oil, and food, could be at a premium this winter because of the icy weather.  Some Lawton businesses have not restocked because of this week's ice storm, and some deliveries that were supposed to arrive yesterday and today have not.  Local businesses say if the trucks don't arrive soon, they'll have to reevaluate how to sell the goods they do have in stock.

Although some shipments arrived, others continue to wait, and while the roads were a lot better on Wednesday, they still had icy spots.  On Tuesday, roads seemed impossible to navigate - particularly for semis and trucks.  "We had a delay on our oil shipment, it was supposed to be here today," said Monty Griffith with KC Distributors.  "My beer and soda deliveries are a day behind."

Shipments arriving a day late has caused some problems, but luckily their vendors are keeping them up to date on the situation.  The Lawton Food Bank says its shipments won't arrive until later this week.  "I'm hoping and praying that it gets here, because if not we don't get another shipment for two weeks and we will be in a little bit of trouble," said Director Jeri Mosiman.

Shelves at the food bank usually are stocked with a lot of food, but unless the shipment gets here they may need to reduce their distribution to those in need.  "We will probably have to cut in half the amount of food we give to people," said Mosiman.  "Right now, we give enough food to last everyone for about seven to ten days, but we will probably cut that in half if we have to."

The food bank says it was expecting 7,000 pounds of food to be delivered on Wednesday, but because of road conditions, the delivery date was pushed to Friday.  Other businesses in the area say they are experiencing the same sort of delay, but have extra supplies and goods to keep their customers happy.