Shep has been standing on that highway giving location information - speaking to a police officer- doing all he CAN do to get the word out...
And that public official, the police officer, has no more power to get supplies than does the state police woman later interviewed.
The big lesson, IMO, is to learn self-reliance, and admit that public coordniated efforts can not be reliably well-executed. The organized effort is very well intentioned, but can't reasonably be expected to get everything right.