Florida Trying To Find Someone To Take $1.8 MILLION In ICE CUBES

[matcom]

Ice Cubes. $1.8 MILLION DOLLARS worth of Ice Cubes :wtf:

<snip>

MIAMI -- Truckloads of ice cubes intended for hurricane relief use are giving Florida emergency managers a big chill.

The Florida State Emergency Response Team has $1.8 million worth of ice cubes, enough to fill 225 trucks, sitting in cold storage in Bartow and Jacksonville. The bill for monthly storage at minus ten degrees -- approximately $90,000, according to state emergency management spokesman Mike Stone.

The ice was supposed to be for emergency use, but a mild hurricane season made that unnecessary, Stone said. Now, the agency is looking for organizations who want to take a load of the ice. But, the window of opportunity to use the ice is evaporating, and dispensing the ice is a slippery challenge.

Like most consumables, the ice has an expiration date. It will go bad if not used by around June 2007, the start of the next hurricane season, Stone said. Moreover, it is packaged in pallets containing about 360 bags each. To take the ice off the emergency managers' hands, organizations have to commit to at least that amount and be approved nonprofits or local governments, Stone said.

<snip>

"Eventually if no one takes it we will have to recycle it back out," Stone said. "Essentially, it is water."

http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/10695339/detail.html

[Auggie]

1. "Go bad?" Can't it still be used in non-potable ways?

[LaraMN]

2. Um...duh:

[Strawman]

3. I figured Katherine Harris would be shattered about the election

but wow.

[jmowreader]

4. I don't imagine it ever occurred to these people to SELL IT!!!

Even if they just got ten cents on the dollar, it'll get the stuff out of the warehouses.

During Hurricane Andrew relief we went through a LOT of ice, although we fucked up at Relief Center Number One and didn't use some of the nine truckloads of plywood we had sitting there to make a shelter for it...so almost all of it melted before it could be used. So I kinda understand why they wanted this much ice on hand.