NYT: FEMA put tons of ice on trips to nowhere, for $100 million

[highplainsdem]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/02/national/nationalspecial/02ice.html?ex=1285905600&en=215a593d71226349&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss


Stumbling Storm-Aid Effort Put Tons of Ice on Trips to Nowhere
By SCOTT SHANE and ERIC LIPTON
Published: October 2, 2005

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 - When the definitive story of the confrontation between Hurricane Katrina and the United States government is finally told, one long and tragicomic chapter will have to be reserved for the odyssey of the ice.

Ninety-one thousand tons of ice cubes, that is, intended to cool food, medicine and sweltering victims of the storm. It would cost taxpayers more than $100 million, and most of it would never be delivered.

<snip>

Mike Hohnstein, a dispatcher in Omaha, sent a truckload out of Dubuque, Iowa, to Meridian. From there, the driver was sent to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, to Columbia, S.C., and finally to Cumberland, Md., where he bought a lawn chair and waited for six days.

Finally, 10 days after he started, the driver was told to take the ice to storage in Bettendorf, Iowa, Mr. Hohnstein said. The truck had traveled 3,282 miles, but not a cube of ice had reached a hurricane victim.

<snip>


I've been hearing stories about these ice shipments for a while, and I knew it was an expensive fiasco, but I'd never dreamed it was THIS expensive...

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. What does snoops say about this?

[donco6]

4. It's coming out of the NY Times.

Then again, with their rep lately, maybe we should Snopes it.

[rfranklin]

5. Doesn't matter..it's in the New York Times...

Let's use it to nail the Bush junta.

[asjr]

2. If it didn't cost so much I would

laugh instead of cry. Ineptitude doesn't describe the situation. Where, oh where, did common sense take a hike?

[donco6]

3. This is the type of story people "get".

Seems simple enough - get cold stuff to hot places, right? People will not be able to be convinced that this was anything other than a complete fiasco.

[plusfiftyfive]

6. From Portland Maine a week ago or so

This was big news in Maine, (mostly a centrists Repub state), about a week ago... WMTW is a station in NH on Mount Washington that aims at a Maine viewership ... here's some of THEIR article last week.

"FEMA Ice Trucks Still Stuck In Portland
Drivers: 750 More Trucks On Their Way
By News 8 WMTW

POSTED: 8:34 am EDT September 20, 2005
UPDATED: 12:17 pm EDT September 21, 2005

PORTLAND, Maine -- Hundreds of truck drivers are still in Portland, waiting to off-load the tons of ice they first hauled to the Gulf Coast at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

FEMA said it has more ice than it can use, so it wanted to put the ice into storage for use in a future emergency. Critics, however, said that paying truck drivers $800 a day to haul the ice across the country makes no sense."

http://www.wmtw.com/news/4995340/detail.html

[formercia]

7. It's cheaper to store ice in Portland

With Winter coming on. Like they really need ice in Portland Maine.

Now, shipping it all the way back to the Gulf, that's another story.

[Karenina]

8. While denying it to folks

who DESPERATELY need it. FEMA may have more ice than THEY need, however the hapless victims of these disasters have NONE.

[elehhhhna]

11. Store ice for the future?!! What? The Reeps lost the fukkin recipe?

[ClintonTyree]

9. Do you know how important it was.............

to keep the inside of those trucks COLD during this emergency? Money well spent, you're doing a heck of a job, Brownie! :eyes:

[Sydnie]

10. He testified that he was trying to get OUT of the ice business

What better way to get out of the business than to deliberately fail to deliver? That puts the pressure back on the "faith based" and charieties to arrange for ice, thus getting the government out of the business in future disasters.

Hey Brownie, they had a future disaster and the ice was still in Maine. Gonna save it for a Nor'Easter or what? :sarcasm:

[justgamma]

13. Can't have them using the ice for their beer and pop

This man is clueless! These people had no water! Guess what you get when ice melts. Water, you idiot! Brownie, you are a dope!!

[Throckmorton]

15. Pop, what the hell is pop?

We drink tonic, not from around here are ya?

[justgamma]

18. I thought maybe you drink soda? n/t

[Throckmorton]

19. No, thats what them damn Connecticutites drink N/T

[high density]

12. I think the City of Portland (Maine) is going to bill FEMA

for the cost of overtime while having the police "guard" the ice trucks as they unloaded. I'm baffled as to who was going to rob hundreds of trucks carrying ice, but I guess they had to blow the money somewhere.

The ice is being stored by Americold, which appears to have many facilities that are closer to the disaster area. It reeks of corporate welfare to fill up a cold facility that apparently had a lot of empty room.

[dretceterini]

14. I heard it all finally got delivered

to a Bush cocktail party

[shanine]

16. we had 18+ trucks in gloucester, ma

very noticable parked on a main road with an "ice" sign in the window. from here they went to Portland.

[PsN2Wind]

17. The media here in Tucson

awhile back showed the polar bears and other animals at Reid Park Zoo enjoying the 24,000 lbs. of ice that came all the way here from
..........you guessed it. A 4000 mile trip for the ice from where it originated in Bangor, Maine to the deep south to here. "You're doin' a heck of a job Brownie".

[Shallah Kali]

20. Remember Halliburton sending empty trucks around Iraq for no reason

other than $$$$$? I don't suppose somewhere up the line this company is a connected or is there any connection to any GOP bigwigs?

[Janice325]

21. Damn!

I wonder how much the gasoline cost to fuel the trucks.