FEMA trucked ice 1500 miles then spent $274,000 to store it.

[formercia]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2005/12/29/fema_spent_nearly_274000_to_store_relief_ice_in_portland/

FEMA spent nearly $274,000 to store relief ice in Portland

December 29, 2005

PORTLAND, Maine --The Federal Emergency Management Agency spent nearly $274,000 to store thousands of bags of ice in Portland that were initially bought for hurricane relief efforts more than 1,500 miles away.

In a letter to U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a FEMA official said the agency stored 250 truckloads of ice at Americold storage facility in Portland after it was determined that the agency's supply of ice exceeded the demand following Hurricane Katrina.

[meganmonkey]

1. I think it would have been cheaper

to just let it melt....

:puke:

[formercia]

2. The people could have used a cool drink.

and there was a shortage of potable water.

[meganmonkey]

10. Right, yet the ice never made it to the people who needed it

So it was stored in Maine at a ridiculous cost to taxpayers. It's despicable.

[BrotherBuzz]

3. When all is said and done....

It might be easier and cheaper to build and deliver a portable ice plant next time. I'm just saying....

[formercia]

4. but you need to feed it clean water

of which there was a shortage.

[BrotherBuzz]

6. the ability to scrub water is avaliable

If the military can do it, FEMA can...

[formercia]

11. and i'd bet the reverse osmosis plants were in storage

but nobody thought to get them out and shipped.

[BrotherBuzz]

16. The reverse osmosis plant was stored right behind the armor for the...

humvees, and right next to the personal body armor that didn't get shipped to Iraq. :shrug:

[KansDem]

5. I'd check for cronyism on this one...

See if Bush has pals in the cold-storage business...

[formercia]

8. It's just a short ride to Kennebunkport

I was just there yesterday, so it's fresh in my memory.

[foo_bar]

14. it's a possibility

Corporate 1999 $5,660 NRSC

http://www.taxpayer.net/budget/katrinaspending/contracts/americold.htm

The CEO sent a grand to Saxby Chambliss:
http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?NumOfThou=0&txtName=&txtState=%28all+states%29&txtZip=&txtEmploy=americold&txtCand=&txt2006=Y&txt2004=Y&txt2002=Y&Order=N

[rzemanfl]

7. They used 250 trucks, not one, so the headline should really be

"FEMA trucked ice 375,000 miles." I bet the total cost of this fiasco is like several dollars a cube.

[MaineDem]

9. This is only the storage fees - the transport is much higher

The drivers said they were getting paid $2.50 a mile while driving, and $800 to $1,000 a day while waiting at a location to be loaded.

[rzemanfl]

12. So the hauling and storage is up over a million. Anyone know

what a truckload of ice costs wholesale?

[meganmonkey]

13. The ice itself does not cost much

but freezer trucks and cold storage are VERY expensive...This whole thing is absurd... :(

[frylock]

15. nice work, if you can find it

[KamaAina]

17. Usually if you see the word "ice" and the figure $274,000 together...

the "ice" in question is diamonds. Leave it to FEMA to piss away all that dough that should have been used to help our citizens in their hour of need.

THOUSANDS of said citizens are STILL living in TENTS, FOUR MONTHS later. :grr: :banghead: :nuke:

[justgamma]

18. Brownie testified before Congress

that he didn't think the government should be in the business of supplying ice for the people of New Orleans to cool "their beer and their pop."
I thought that was the most outragious statement I had heard anyone make. He acted like it was a big freaking party down there. I just wish someone in Congress would have picked up on that. I wanted to hear that repeated loud and often in the news. It shows just how freaking incompentent he was.

I think I've posted this a few times already because anytime I hear about the ice trucks, I get livid.

[applegrove]

19. As soon as i heard they were trucking it to Maine I thought - how can

that be cost effective to keep ice? Doesn't ice take a few days to make and truck. Same time as trucking it from Portland or Maine or whereever it was.

i understand that cold weather makes for cheaper freezing costs - but really.

[Tsiyu]

20. Every move that ** and FEMA made in the days following Katrina

was designed to do two things:

A) Make money for Bush's wonderful pro-death Christian friends

B) Slap poor people and Democrats in the face ( New Orleans overwhelmingly supported Kerry)

This was not about incompetence. This was about greed, arrogance and the most supreme cruelty ever seen in an American administration.

I do not know how these people sleep at night.