No crisis, but Maine getting plenty of ice (FEMA sending it to Maine!)

The federal government is diverting hundreds of truckloads of bagged ice cubes from the Gulf Coast hurricane-relief effort to cold storage in Portland and other cities.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency says it has more ice than it can use in the hurricane zone and wants to keep it in storage for use in a future emergency.

But critics, including some truck drivers who have been paid $800 a day while hauling the same loads for a week or more, say the process seems like a waste of taxpayers' money.

"The $9,000 they're paying me to move this load should have gone to some family down there," said Loren Reeves, who hauled his load of ice from New York state to Alabama before being sent to Maine. "There is definitely millions being wasted that could go to people who need it."

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/050920ice.shtml

I saw this on our tv news. They can only unload 4 trucks at a time and there are loads of trucks waiting to unload.

From the Gulf Coast to Maine??? That really doesn't make any sense to me.

Wouldn't it cost less to have the truckers drive to a random location in the hurricane area and invite people to unload the ice... then buy a new truckload of ice later when FEMA finally finds its ass with a flashlight... than pay to have the ice driven all around thousands of miles only to be put into (refrigerated) storage indefinitely?

I have no words for the stupidity of this administration

YIKES! Or they just think that with global warming and all it is going to get hot in Maine THIE WINTER.

sigh

but at least half of a Native American tribe is still missing from the Gulf region, yet Dubya's FEMA is paying to send trucks to drive in circles.

From Sept 10 yahoo news

A German military plane carrying 15 tons of military rations for survivors of Hurricane Katrina was sent back by U.S. authorities, officials said Saturday. The plane was turned away Thursday because it did not have the required authorization, a German government spokesman said.

The spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, declined to comment on a report in the German news magazine Der Spiegel that U.S. authorities refused the delivery on the grounds that the NATO military rations could carry mad cow disease.

The spokesman said U.S. authorities had since given approval for future aid flights, but it was unclear whether the German military would try again to deliver the rations

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/20/32525/3772

~~~Well there is this AP article (here)
reprinted in something called "Air Force Times". It doesn't say that the food will be destroyed but it does say it's been parked somewhere waiting for Condi to give theokay. I hear she's busy though, what with the new fall lines.


~~~You want to believe, believe, believe ... ...that there is a rational explanation. It's hard to imagine that all 400,000 ration packs have spoiled. Is the British stuff better than American MREs and somebody was afraid of competition when this is discovered?

Or maybe they thought it was British tea, and we can't have any of that coming into the country.

Seriously, I really want to hear who decided what and why, and soon.

(From Dr. Strangelove). Are they afraid the Germans are trying to contaminate our precious bodily fluids?

The Bushies are just pissed off that they were shown up as completely incompetent and incapable of taking care of their own. So incapable that "Old Europe" (as Rummy condescendingly called them) has to come in and help save their sorry butts.

They'd rather let people starve than accept help (which would telegraph to the world that Big Badass America ain't so badass after all).

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/20/32525/3772

It was on the BBC last night Not just Tabloid fodder now. WOW, jerks
http://www.dailykos.com/

Donated British food to be incinerated :wtf:
by kos
Tue Sep 20th, 2005 at 00:25:25 PDT
Your government at work.
US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.

Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption.And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration.

One British aid worker last night called the move "sickening senselessness" and said furious colleagues were "spitting blood".

The food, which cost British taxpayers millions, is sitting idle in a huge warehouse after the Food and Drug Agency recalled it when it had already left to be distributed.Scores of lorries headed back to a warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas, to dump it at an FDA incineration plant.

The Ministry of Defence in London said last night that 400,000 operational ration packs had been shipped to the US.But officials blamed the US Department of Agriculture, which impounded the shipment under regulations relating to the import and export of meat.The aid worker, who would not be named, said: "This is the most appalling act of sickening senselessness while people starve.

We need to know who made this decision, and see if there's any rational explanation for it. Because if not, he or she deserves some serious tar and feather action.
:grr:

a billion dollars gets stolen in iraq

another 9 bil goes missing

they are about to destroy food worth millions

they put cronies into positions of power

they give no bid contracts to their buddies

the chief of procurement was just arrested and indicted

they are about to embark on rebuilding the gulf coast with the use of conservative

experimental policies, that have never been proven succesful anywhere

why get upset?

i say let the cons keep going, till they totally hang themselves

~~Anyone else remember the day after...When all the wingers could do was take the opportunity to badmouth the rest of the world for not offering aid?

Did anyone doubt for a second at that point that they were only doing that so they could refuse the aid when it was given?

~~Rational explplanation? We've yet to see one. On most anything.

What a vicious slap in the face to a generous outpouring of help in a time of humanitarian crisis. Seriously, our only real ally in Iraq is Britian and to declare their sustenance "unfit for human consumption" is so inhuman and so like Bush.

~~ heard it too. They said the meals contained "meat" from Britain and so could not be distributed due to fears of Mad Cow disease. They didn't even say "beef." Surely ALL those meals do not contain beef. If they're really afraid of that, why don't they segregate
the beef meals, send them back to Britain and distribute the rest? Ironic that they'll refuse to test or they'll hide the facts about infected cattle in the U.S. and yet make up this crazy nonsense to prevent England from helping. It's remarkable. They want to alienate every other country in the world. It's more obvious than ever to me that BushCo. "hates America," and is working actively every day to bring this country down.

~~The Countdown (none / 0)

another poster down thread identified the show as being Countdown, so I wasn't the only one who heard it on MSNBC. So far, they have nothing posted on the site, but if there's any truth to it (which is quite possible), it'll be huge news.

~~Even if "unfit for human consumption" Which is a silly thing to say seeing as how the British troops are living off the exact same rations, then why not let some of the thousands of starving dogs get some of the grub. It's a lot better than just incinerating the tons of food that the British went through so much trouble to send over.

~~Maybe Bush's last ally, Blair, will think better of his golden boy now.(On Olbermann tonight they said the food had been called "unfit for human consumption" because of the possibility of Mad Cow.)

~~~~Yes, you're right...cash is best The Swiss are so reluctant to take half a million MREs on deposit. :kick: :dem: :wtf:

and finding new visionary ways of carrying out this work that everyone wants to succeed at"

Clueless. We're ruled by morons.

Storing ICE in MAINE? In another 8 weeks you'll have all the ice for free that you want in Maine. Alright, 12 weeks.

How long can ice be stored?

And, eight weeks is probably right! ;)

I intended to use :)
There is nothing like a good old fashioned Maine winter to seperate the men from the boys. I hear that in Florida your "blood" adjusts to the heat and humidity. It's not unusual to see a born and bred Mainer walk bare foot throught the snow to check the mail, Or walk over to the neighbors house barefoot.
Sending ice to Maine is like sending the unused sand bags to the
Mojave desert. Just plain..........STUPID

after raiding all the liquor stores within 400 miles of an incident ?

Idiots.

The incompetence is truly stunning.

~Shine

With one of the harshest winters in history predicted and sky rocketing fuel costs-send us some ice!

Spose I should at least climb up on the roof for a bit...

At least we have ice for the long hot winter approaching our states!

Our biggest recent disaster was a severe ice storm. We didn't have to worry about a lack of ice; people just set things outside. Heat was another issue.

Welcome to DU! :hi:

A couple of years ago I was privileged to work for someone who sold mostly to the government. During the month of September all the different agencies & military go spend crazy, especially the last two weeks. You see, the way it is set up, if the agency does not spend all monies in their current year budget, there is no roll over for what they did not spend and they will lose what they did not spend in next year's budget along with the cut they will probably be getting as well.

SHEER F'ING INSANITY.

(on a happy note, it made me so crazy, I quit the job the second week of October, selling to the military and to the government nationwide was not healthy for me, it truly was making me sick at heart)

shipping ice to MAINE???????????????? Someone is seriously confused here.

See they know that it is always cold in Maine so they are keeping it there until they need it.

Every day in Bushified America is opposite day.

We cannot believe a word they utter but we need to listen to what they ARENT saying and to look where they are telling us not to.

ice, just what Maine needs. Who the hell is in charge of logistics? Maine where winter is about to begin.

The bushits are getting just what they wanted. A government that doesn't do anything for the citizens but collects lots of money for their friends. They think this is all working great..."what didn't go right?" monkey boy quote.

that the Bushes were getting togather for another family reunion.....BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

say, Texas, or Georgia.

It's goofy to just contract a huge ice companies near the stricken area, and send it right in. More sense to stockpile it im Maine.

How much does it take to truck bags of the stuff halfway across the country, and then store it there indefinitely?

I don't get it, truly.