by Frank James
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has all this two-year old ice it doesn't know what to do with, ice it bought both pre- and post-Hurricane Katrina as part of its preparations and response effort.
How much ice? Around nearly 225 million pounds. That's a lot of margaritas.
But the problem is you probably wouldn't want to use them that way since there are questions about just how safe two-year old ice would be to drink. A lot of Americans would be willing to take their chances but the Centers for Disease Control is already plenty busy.
So that means FEMA needs to get rid of the ice which it is planning to do. It's told the company which has been storing the ice to ditch it. That's probably a story by itself.
Still, it strikes many as wasteful, especially to those suffering through summer heat, that FEMA would be ditching this ice right now. Maybe the ice could be sent to the North Pole or Antarctica to slow down global warming. It's a thought.
Because FEMA is still in a defensive crouch from its mishandling of Katrina, it issued a press release today explaining it's position, just in time for the late night talk shows.
For the Record
Date: July 16, 2007
No.: HQ-07-141
FEMA ICE DISPOSITION
FEMA initiated a contract clause for its ice storage vendor to dispose of ice that it purchased to support the 2005 hurricane season. The vendor, Americold Logistics, Inc. is executing this contract across 22 locations nationwide.
Between June and December 2005 FEMA purchased approximately 224.3 million pounds ice to support the Hurricane Katrina relief effort and stored the remaining unused 84.9 million pounds of ice for responses to the 2006 hurricane season. However, the predicted hurricane activity for 2006 did not materialize, so the ice was not used and remained in storage.
While there is no official published shelf-life for ice, the industry standard assumes a shelf life of up to one year. After two years, the agency had to consider the health risks that might evolve from use of the stored ice.
The agency was unable to confirm that the ice was safe for human consumption and didn't want to risk distribution that could potentially cause health issues.
FEMA first attempted to locate other federal, non-profit and private sector agencies who may have had uses for the ice. After the donation efforts fell through, the agency determined that Americold Logistics, Inc. offered the most cost effective method of disposition.
It cost $12.5 million dollars to store at all the facilities.
Since 2005, FEMA has not and will not purchase and store ice in preparation for disaster support. FEMA will instead, rely on local purchase or vendor managed arrangements through the United States Army Corps of Engineers who has the mission lead for ice support under the National Response Plan. Their advanced contract initiatives and predictive model forecasts for commodities is a robust and reliable capability that makes them the source of choice for ice support.
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FEMA coordinates the federal government’s role in preparing for, preventing, mitigating the effects of, responding to, and recovering from all domestic disasters, whether natural or man-made, including acts of terror.
Here's Saturdays' Associated Press story:
Ice originally sent to Katrina victims finally being melted, in Mass. and elsewhere<
GLOUCESTER, Mass. (AP) — After nearly two years, thousands of truck miles and $12.5 million in storage costs, a cold relic of the flawed Hurricane Katrina relief effort is going down the drain.
The federal government is getting rid of thousands of pounds of ice it had sent south to help Katrina victims, then north when it determined much of the ice wasn't needed. The Federal Emergency Management Agency had been hanging on to the ice in case it was needed for another disaster, but decided to get rid of it because it couldn't determine whether it was still safe for human consumption.
"We just didn't take any chances," FEMA spokeswoman Alexandra Kirin told the Gloucester Daily Times.
The ice, held at AmeriCold Logistics in Gloucester and at 22 similar facilities nationwide, is being melted. The cost of storing the ice at all the facilities since Katrina is $12.5 million.
The Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged after the August 2005 hurricane that it had ordered too much ice because of faulty estimates by local officials. Truckers received up to $900 a day to move the ice to storage sites around the country.
Gloucester received 118 truckloads of ice that September, but 99 of those were sent to Florida in October 2005 to help with relief efforts after Hurricane Wilma. By November 2005, only four truckloads, weighing between 40,000 and 84,000 pounds each, remained in Gloucester.
FEMA contracts required disposal of the ice three months after purchase, but Kirin said the agency decided to keep the excess ice for the 2006 hurricane season. With fewer storms than expected, the ice was not needed, and the agency decided not to save the ice for the 2007 season.
She added that FEMA tried to donate the ice, but "had no takers."
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Comments
Here's that famous quote from President Goofball upon seeing firsthand, the destruction of Katrina on NOLA for the first time:
"Heckuva job, Brownie"
Believe me, this will go down in the history books right along side of "Mission Accomplished" as President Goofball at his finest.
Posted by: John E | July 16, 2007 3:36 PM
$12.5 million to store ice that went unused. This is mind boggling. What would it cost to buy the same amount of ice stored if needed. Do I even want to know?
Posted by: kb | July 16, 2007 3:53 PM
Our tax dollars hard at work!
Posted by: lochnessmonster | July 16, 2007 3:54 PM
One more time: it isn't the Federal government's job to fix everything before the rain stops. The local response to Katrina sucked. All disasters are local. Any government big enough to restore everything to you immediately after a disaster is big enough to immediately take everything away from you. Anytime.
Posted by: Tom | July 16, 2007 4:02 PM
Well gosh, they're damned if they do and damned if they don't, aren't they?
If FEMA had purchased 100 million pounds of ice for the 2005 season and had needed 140 million pounds, the left would have been all over them. And John E. would have been in the forefront, with his goofy "President Goofball" moniker. Namecalling is the last refuge of those with nothing constructive to say.
And, Frank, the press release says that FEMA has to get rid of 84.9 million pounds that is left from the 2005 season, not "Around nearly 225 million pounds." They bought 224.3 million pounds and have 84.9 million pounds left, unused because the 2006 hurricane season wasn't as bad as the global warming Chicken Littles said it was going to be. Reading comprehension is good.
Posted by: Dave | July 16, 2007 4:07 PM
It's of MASSIVE importance to make sure this ice gets warehoused appropriately. I understand that no one in FEMA has the recipe, so there's an archival necessity as well. After all -- who knows if we can find another vendor for this stuff?
Posted by: Op109 | July 16, 2007 4:09 PM
Any government big enough to restore everything to you immediately after a disaster is big enough to immediately take everything away from you. Anytime.
Posted by: Tom | July 16, 2007 4:02 PM
Wow, that's a big dose of compassionate conservatism!
Hey, Gulf Coast, you're on your own. It's for your own good and to protect your freedom. Love, the Republicans.
Posted by: Tony | July 16, 2007 4:23 PM
It gets better,the "Conservative" Bush admin shipped all this ice to N.O.and when the truckers got there,sat for days(getting paid)only to find out they had to bring the ice back as it was not needed.
Millions and millions of our tax dollars wasted.
Posted by: Raving Loon | July 16, 2007 5:11 PM
Ice? Why isn't there MORE publicity on how FEMA has allowed to rot in warehouses and ondocks the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of medical supplies and food stuffs sent for the Katrina victims by countries like Italy, Israel, and France - yea, the French sent tens of millions in medical supplies as well as emergency combat rations. FEMA's response (it was on the Internet a couple weeks ago) was to agonize over whether just to deny its existence or openly admit they let the stuff spoil in storage. Yessir, what an agency!
Posted by: Wolfgang | July 16, 2007 5:43 PM
Here's another Bush family quote from the aftermath of Katrina.
While standing outside a Hurricane relief center in Houston one week after Katrina hit NOLA, Barbara Bush said:
"I hope these people aren't planning to stay in Texas"
Posted by: John E | July 16, 2007 6:48 PM
I was going to write something really trite about this ice offsetting global warming. But I decided that would be in bad taste. So I'm not going to write that.
Posted by: Doug Zook | July 16, 2007 7:49 PM
couldn't we at least give it to the UK for use in London's new ice/evaporation train coolers in the Underground?
Posted by: CJ | July 16, 2007 8:43 PM
So local government is supposed to provide hurrican relief for something the force of Hurrican Katrina? This is not to make a personal attack but give me a break with that. I work for a living and pay taxes. If used correctly and efficiently, disaster relief of any size should be taken care of. The problem was and continues to be faulty leadership. When you pass out money like chocolate to pre-schoolers this is what happens. If you cannot handle the job, resign or do not even take it. A job that has pressure is what you make of it. Deal with that and move on. The money was there, leadership was not. Billions of dollars of food, emergency supplies and now the ice were just wasted. That ice could have gone to areas of of the US that does not have proper drinking water. What a shame and this clown makes the comment that local government should have fixed it. Get real.
Posted by: leonard hamilton | July 16, 2007 9:14 PM
What shall go down in history IS the videotape
and transcript of 'The
War President' G.W.B.'s
night-time formal address before the American people,
standing at the presidential
podium directly in front
of one General Andrew Jackson, in New Orleans
Jackson Square.
As is his m.o., numerous
promises were made and
assured; YET NO PROMISES FULFILLED!!!
But, for inside-the-Beltway
lapdog media corp herd,
that 'first draft of history
can be shown-printed only
once--for G.W.B.?!?
Posted by: ABE | July 17, 2007 12:18 AM
Well gosh, they're damned if they do and damned if they don't, aren't they?
Posted by: Dave | July 16, 2007 4:07 PM
It's nice to see you are satisfied with the Katrina response.
ps. Where do you live?
Posted by: bill r. | July 17, 2007 8:05 AM
bill r., go back and read my post again. Try not to move your lips this time.
I didn't say that I was satisfied with the Katrina response, just that FEMA would have been damned if they were short of ice just as they are if they have ice left over. It's ridiculous to expect them to have exactly the right amount of ice, but the left doesn't seem to realize that. Reading comprehension is good.
I live where I don't have to worry about when, not if, the ocean is going to come and get me. Most of the country is that way.
Posted by: Dave | July 17, 2007 11:08 AM
On a very sad note - I don't have all the specifics about this - but over the weekend in Arkansas, a tractor-trailer "hauling ice" was northbound, maybe from Louisiana, I don't know - the driver crossed the centerline and flattened a car with a mom and her 4 kids inside.
If this was some of the FEMA ice being moved, this whole deal is a lot more tragic than the government's waste of 12 million dollars.
Again, I don't know all the details, that's just what was in the local paper.
Posted by: Mark | July 17, 2007 12:59 PM
Could they not use the ice to put out and forest fires that are going on right not?
Posted by: Mark | July 17, 2007 3:43 PM
Who is in charge of the water storage.. that they would let it go bad than to find a way to utilize it before it went bad...
There are still today, animals wondering around homeless..and waterless in these places...this water could have been used to save animal lives.
What a waste.
Posted by: janis | July 17, 2007 8:50 PM
So Mark, are you intimating that this crash was the government's fault? And you KNOW (since you don't know the details) that THIS particular ice truck wasn't delivering your party ice to the neighborhood grocery store? Let's remember that the ice FEMA has been storing is being melted at the storage sites. There's no need to truck it anywhere. And Janis, no one said the water (ice) WAS bad, but there was just no point in taking any chances in giving it out to the population after it has been stored for two years.
Dave's right. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. No one's ever satisfied. I guess FEMA should have just continued to pay to store the ice indefinately (which everyone would have freaked over) and given it out and made 0.0001% of the population sick which they would have then been dragged to the hill and publicly flogged which is always the only thing "Congress" knows how to do.
Posted by: David | July 22, 2007 4:30 PM