Ice trucks head south from Maine

[MaineDem]

The tons of ice brought to Portland last month that wasn't needed for victims of Hurricane Katrina is on the move again.

Trucks are taking it south in anticipation of Hurricane Wilma.

More than a dozen rigs lined up along Read Street on Friday evening, waiting to get ice and other supplies from the AmeriCold Logistics facility.

Mike Merrill, a trucker from Pennsylvania, said he expects to head to Jacksonville, Fla., once he gets his load from AmeriCold. He's heard that no trucks are being sent farther than that for safety reasons.

Merrill has made previous hurricane runs for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He drove loads to Shreveport, La., and Hattiesburg, Miss., where he got caught in the type of logistical snafu that led to criticism of FEMA.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/051022icetruckside.shtml

[LiberalEsto]

1. Brian Williams did a funny report on this traveling ice

a week or two ago on Nightly News. He even had a map showing all the places this FEMA-ordered ice had been moved to

According to Williams, it would be cheaper to let the damn ice melt than to continue holding it in refrigerated trucks. Those trucks are burning gas 24/7 to keep the ice frozen.

If Sen. Proxmire were still alive, this boondoggle would definitely get one of his "Golden Fleece" awards.

[SpiralHawk]

5. The Dems should restart the Golden Fleece awards

Make it monthly. BushCo's Republican Culture of Corruption has so many deserving candidates.

[clydefrand]

18. Monthly? I think there are enough

to almost make it a daily award.

[dkofos]

2. The most expensive ice on the planet

[bahrbearian]

3. Ice ,"that wasn't needed for victims of Hurricane Katrina " ?

who determined that?

[Marie26]

20. Remember how the Jefferson Parish Pres.

said that trucks of ice that they needed were being turned away by FEMA? I wonder if any of that ice ended up in Maine :eyes:

[bahrbearian]

24. Well , they were only going to use it to chill their Diet Pepsi's N/T

[No Exit]

4. SURRE... Now that it's Jethro Bush's state that needs them, instead

of Kathleen Blanco's state... SURRRE the iceman cometh.

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. How very transparent of them.

Who doesn't see this for what it is? :banghead:

[ebal]

7. Uses

I'm in Florida and was out of power for about 10 days last year during the 2nd hurricane and for 3 days on the 3rd.

I had no use for ice at all. After the first few days of using up the fridge stuff, then the items from the freezer, we were using dried/canned foods and cooking on the grill. I used a camping stove to boil water so I could sterilize baby bottles.

I'm on a well that requires electricity to pump water into the house so we were using our hurricane supplies for water.

I guess I could have had cold sweet tea instead of warm.

[bandy]

23. Same here but

did you EVER see a truck carrying anything other the power maintenance guys that never turned the power on. I never saw anybody but my neighbors for 16 days after those storms other then Our bro-in-law came to W. Palm Beach from Miami with food and drink. Other then that we would have been up the creek w/o a paddle. Jeb can condom or crow about WE-MA but from experience I know there is no such thing.

[Dr.Phool]

8. I'm headed to the liquor store

I know I'll need ice for my Stoli if we get hit in Clearwater!

[kestrel91316]

9. What the heck is with the ICE anyway???

Why do they think people need ice??? I would think drinking water and nonperishable food would be the most important things. And why can't they bring ice from, say, Georgia, rather than all the way from Maine? Are they having to cut blocks out of the ice on some northwoods pond???

:crazy: :silly: :wtf:

[MaineDem]

10. This ice was brought here from god knows where after Katrina

The trucks picked it up all over the country, drove it down to the Gulf, waited for FEMA to tell them where to deliver it, then brought it up to Maine (close to the Gulf???) to store it after FEMA didn't want it.

Cost effective...yeah right!

[kestrel91316]

12. So it's been stored at god knows what expense for the past

6 weeks, rather than being used, and now they are paying for the gas to ship it down to FL??

It would have been cheaper to sell or give it away to all comers, then make more fresh ice in GA or north FL to ship to south FL.

[MaineDem]

13. You've got it! (nt)

[Ilsa]

25. Some medications, like insulin, should be kept cool if possible. eom

[zann725]

11. "Countdown" covered this initial story.Those N.O. people DID need the ice!

Why the ice was repeatedly turned away, and re-routed, and re-routed infinitely is beyond absurd. The timely delay (and lives it cost), waste of tax payer dollars, and down-right cruelty that is more than accidental, is obscene. If this is a prime example of "private outsourcing" of Federal funds...Lord help us!

To even speak of its farcical nature...is, in a way, to speak
"farc-ey," is it not?

[meganmonkey]

14. That ice is better-traveled

than most Americans

:wtf:

[LiberalEsto]

15. Who is getting the money from this ripoff?

It wouldn't, by any chance, be Halliburton, would it?

[ashling]

16. Glad they finally found it (crass reference to my earlier thread)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=4182791&mesg_id=4182791

[wordpix]

17. if this doesn't convince Bush lovers

that BushCo is inept and loves to waste our tax dollars, I don't know what will. (Bush apologists still think the war in Iraq is worth it and BushCo employees did nothing wrong in outing Valerie Plame).

[Javaman]

19. It's just leaving now? So by that estimate..

It should arrive sometime when winter starts, concidering the travel time it took to get to maine then to be rerouted to NOLA, then turned back.

Nothing like a gov't that gives away ice in the winter huh?

[leesa]

21. Well, missed Katrina and Rita, maybe they'll make it there for Wilma.

[Catrina]

22. Keith Olbermann will have a ball

with this. He calls it 'Ice Capades'.

Unbelievable!! The Dems should make a video of this as just one example of the Bush administration's total failure to deal with an emergency, and waste of tax dollars. It's hillarious, if it weren't so tragic that those who needed it never got it. They missed two hurricanes as the ice travelled around the country.

Since Brownie is in charge of finding out what went wrong, maybe he can look into the travelling ice.