GLOUCESTER, Mass., July 15, 2007

FEMA To Melt Ice Stored Since Katrina

Feds Paid $12.5 Million To Keep Unused Ice Since 2005 Hurricane Relief Effort

  • J.C. Thomas, left, and Clyde Roberts, of the Rose Ice and Coal Company in Wilmington, N.C., bring pallets of ice out of the ice house to be loaded onto a tractor trailer for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, Aug. 31, 2005. Thousands of pounds of ice trucked to New Orleans from sites around the country ended up being trucked back, and have been stored by FEMA ever since.

    J.C. Thomas, left, and Clyde Roberts, of the Rose Ice and Coal Company in Wilmington, N.C., bring pallets of ice out of the ice house to be loaded onto a tractor trailer for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, Aug. 31, 2005. Thousands of pounds of ice trucked to New Orleans from sites around the country ended up being trucked back, and have been stored by FEMA ever since.  (AP/J. Otto, Wilmington Star-News)

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(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."


© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Add a Comment See all 46 Comments
by grammawhamma July 17, 2007 7:48 AM EDT
finally something the federal govt can actually do ... melt ice ... or can they?
Posted by bobnjersey at 07:38 AM : Jul 16, 2007

LOL
Reply to this comment
by brianbwb-2009 July 17, 2007 3:23 AM EDT
I wonder who owns the refrigeration units, and got 12 big ones from Fema, Anyone else out there think it was someone Brownie and/or Georgie knew personally?...
Reply to this comment
by berniepeders July 16, 2007 2:40 PM EDT
I thnk that it doesn't really matter which party is in power, once politicians get to the Federal level, money is an abstract concept to them, and waste will occur on a large scale no matter what. It's not a Republican vs Democrat thing, it's all those billions of unspent dollars sitting there, and they have the checkbook.
Reply to this comment
by berniepeders July 16, 2007 2:35 PM EDT
Moonshadow22-

Are you crazy? Your suggestions make perfect sense, and I applaud them, but for such an efficient, common sense solution to succeed with our ridiculous , inefficient government is absolutely impossible. Who would make money on such a simple plan? Certainly not those fat cats in DC? But keep those good ideas coming.
Reply to this comment
by coffeehead-2009 July 16, 2007 11:16 AM EDT
hurricane season JUST started??

Forget "human consupmtion", most of the ice we need is to replace refrigeration.... keeping consumable items cold. More waste from this admin.... As far as the cost of them moving it?
Well since those cruise ships we paid millions for returned to florida empty, couldn't we have gotten a free ride for some of those trailers in return for our "cold" cash?
I'm thinking those who run these programs are WAY OVERQUALIFIED - maybe just some of us normal peons could save a few bucks with our experience of having to be "thrifty" with our own $$$ --
whoops it IS our own $$$
Reply to this comment
by bobnjersey July 16, 2007 10:38 AM EDT
finally something the federal govt can actually do ... melt ice ... or can they?
Reply to this comment
by grammawhamma July 16, 2007 6:53 AM EDT
OMG...I can't believe Gore didn't buy it to send to the artic areas to keep the glaciers from melting!!
Reply to this comment
by zootallures2 July 16, 2007 3:37 AM EDT
Make Chertoff and Israel pay for it!
Reply to this comment
by kennergirl July 16, 2007 2:44 AM EDT
Go drop it on those wildfires that seem to be sprouting up all the place. At least it would be used for something.
Reply to this comment
by gabbysmomrs July 16, 2007 2:42 AM EDT
I'm with Remmeler (is that right?) I live in FL and we're most likely going to need that ice during this hurricane season, what a dumb move, but typical. What harm to keep it stored till the end of hurricane season. That, or bottle the water retrieved from the melt so it is available for another emergency. You don't need refrigerated trucks for that.
Reply to this comment
by mopheadad July 16, 2007 2:25 AM EDT
Typical, democrats could'nt spend the ice, so they did'nt need it, they only wanted cash. Does anyone watch cnn?
Reply to this comment
by nyteryder2 July 16, 2007 1:55 AM EDT
Send it to SoCal! We could use it to water our lawns & gardens. LOL!!! We only had a couple inches of rain this winter and it won't rain again until Nov-Dec.

What a wasteful government we have!!
Reply to this comment
by hungry1968 July 16, 2007 1:34 AM EDT
Heckuva job Brownie!!
Reply to this comment
by missingamerica July 16, 2007 1:15 AM EDT
Typical. Didn't need to "eat" the ice, but we still could have used it for the national kegger America is going to have on January 20th, 2008.
Reply to this comment
by michellem99-2009 July 16, 2007 12:35 AM EDT
I know you were. We could use that ice as we have burn bans as the earth is too dry. Send them over to fight the war they stated over seas. I would make them live dirt poor,haha.
Reply to this comment
by randalds July 16, 2007 12:03 AM EDT
Posted by MichelleM99 at 07:45 PM : Jul 15, 2007

Actually I was only half joking. If I honestly thought I could get away with it I would gladly shove as much of the ice as I could up Bush and Cheney's as*ses, without hesitation.
Reply to this comment
by remmeler July 15, 2007 11:07 PM EDT
You would think that they would make that decision at the end of the 2007 Hurricane season now that it has just started. A delay of a few more months could save them time and money in the long run if a couple of bad hurricanes hit this year.
Reply to this comment
by michellem99-2009 July 15, 2007 10:45 PM EDT
RandalDS...Randy...I went in to laughing at your post. I know you did not mean it funny. I have to laugh AT Bush and Company. Why do him a favour. It can be used as ice to drop on the wild fires here in the US of A. Don't waste it on them. Make them clean the dirty hospitals. I am 52.
Reply to this comment
by dontnoitall July 15, 2007 10:35 PM EDT
Why don't they send it to a drought area, throw it in a lake or pond and let it melt. No sense wasting good water when it is needed.
Reply to this comment
by randalds July 15, 2007 9:47 PM EDT
I know the perfect place to shove the ice. All I need is someone to hold Bush and Cheney down while I "place it" where it really belongs!
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