BNSF, CSX, FECR help ship tons of hurricane relief supplies to Haiti

[Editor's note: This story was updated at 3 p.m. Central time.]

BNSF Railway Co., CSX and Florida East Coast Railway (FECR) this week assisted two humanitarian organizations move a trainload of relief supplies for hurricane survivors in Haiti, according to a report on BNSF's website.

A 1,500-foot relief train carrying 40-foot containers left Oct. 15 from the BNSF intermodal facility at Logistics Park Kansas City in Edgerton, Kan., and arrived at Port Everglades on Tuesday.

The train was carrying 45 containers filled with 1,000 tons of supplies, including meals, tarpaulins, baby food, cleaning supplies, and hand sanitizer and paper products.

Disaster relief organization Mission of Hope contacted BNSF for help in shipping donations to Haiti, which faces a long recovery from Hurricane Matthew's ravaging impact earlier this month. The storm left hundreds of people dead and displaced thousands of Haitians.

BNSF and CSX agreed to help and pay the cost of the shipment. Cargo containers, trucks and drivers were organized to drive the containers to the Convoy of Hope distribution center in Springfield, Mo., to be loaded with supplies.

BNSF built the train while the containers were being trucked from Springfield to the Kansas intermodal facility. From the intermodal site, the train traveled to Birmingham, Ala., where it was handed off to CSX, which moved the train to Jacksonville, Fla.

From Jacksonville, the train was handed off to FECR for the trip's final leg of the journey to Port Everglades. The supplies will be loaded on a ship for Haiti, where Mission of Hope will distribute them to hurricane survivors.