Posted on 09/18/2008 4:14:29 PM PDT by Pinkbell
Hurricane survivors are being put at risk in Texas and other hot weather states because the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is no longer providing ice in relief situations, say watchdogs, relief workers and local leaders in Hurricane Alley.
Chad Lavergne searches through his home, destroyed by Hurricane Ike, in search of documents and personal items, in Bridge City, Texas, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008. Hurricane survivors are being put at risk in Texas and other hot weather states because the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is no longer providing ice in relief situations, say watchdogs, relief workers and local leaders in Hurricane Alley.
"It's frustrating that the government can deliver $85 billion to bail out AIG, and they can't deliver ice in Texas," said Ben Smilowitz, executive director of the Disaster Accountability Project (DAP), a nonpartisan organization that monitors the nation's disaster response system.
In fact, while the federal government can deliver ice to disaster areas, it's chosen not to, under newly-revised FEMA rules. Instead, individual states and local governments are now tasked with purchasing, delivering and storing ice, even though they face tough logistical challenges in doing so, according to critics of the new policy.
"FEMA is effectively saying we can't guarantee you ice," said Mike Womack, director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
Besides preserving food when electricity is out, ice is essential in maintaining temperature-sensitive medication and feeding formulas and keeping people cool in the aftermath of disaster, relief and support workers say.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Maybe Rove can configure his weather machine to produce an ice storm for them.
Uh....
Ice is not something that makes sense to truck from a central repository across the country. It’s easy to make, just apply refrigeration and power to water.
Also, this is a thinly veiled hackjob on the Ike relief efforts. Pretty stupid, especially since in Texas it’s not actually hot right now, and apparently most people desiring ice are using it to chill food they should have eaten already anyway.
When there’s no electricity ice is nice.
The same must be true now for Texas. Give each FEMA employee a large ice chest and have them fill it up before leaving their hotel on their disaster rounds, their first stop being an ice distribution point. That way Ice will be distributed to all in need.
I have never cared for Seinfeld, but that episode is funny.
If ice is the only problem they have, I say live with it. Water is something entirely different and anyone in hurricane areas knows it is your responsibility to buy a couple of 5 gallon cans to store an adequate supply in ... Doesn't everyone know?
And everyone knows that NO ONE lived in Texas in the 1800s prior to ice machines existing! I mean, the heat would just kil... Oh, wait, what? Really?
Never mind...
The problem is that some of them need it to keep medications they have to take cold.
Actually, a little ice helps everyone keep their cool.
No, the article says they can not guarantee ice. It is needed for food, medicine, etc. People lived without ice well into the 20th century.
If that is true, and my wife is one of those, you should buy dry ice at the local store before the storm. It will keep in a cooler cool for a long time ...
Around my place they continuously broadcast warnings that you may be a week without any help ... get prepared.
Yeah... considering that there are commercial icemaker trucks and semitrailers that one can rent, and one *does* normally truck in water (which makes sense if the water supply in an area is compromised)... it makes more sense to crank out ice on a local basis.
That is a truly stupid comment. Money transfers are bookkeeping, inconveniencing a small number of electrons, and a large number of taxpayers. To deliver ice requires water, refrigeration, roads, trucks, gas, manpower, and distribution points.
I live in League City. You can buy ice at the grocery store today. You could buy it yesterday in League City. If I can buy ice at the store, I don’t need FEMA to give it to me.
In fact, except in places like Galveston, things are pretty much getting back to normal. Maybe not optimum, because stores have not fully restocked and traffic lights are down, but at least livable. You can get gasoline without waiting in lines. I can make it without eggs for a few days.
We got power back yesterday evening, three days after the rest of the neighborhood. (A transformer was damaged on my block.) Neighbors let us put bags of ice in their freezer to keep our coolers chilled. The ice in our freezer had not yet melted (mainly because the wife unit had frozen a big three gallon container of water in it last Monday), so we got by.
Got any ice left over from Katrina?
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