IceGate Continues…

An article in Michigan’s The Gloucester Daily Times today tells more about FEMA’s confusing ice issues. The article breaks down the costs indicating that in the end, the government will pay more than $4 for each of the thousands of five-pound bags of ice that would have cost us $1.50 each at the gas station or convenience store; plus, it will cost close to $1 billion in trucking for the $2 million worth of ice.

The initial problem was that too much ice was ordered by FEMA for areas that had been evacuated. As a result, some truckers have driven over 3,000 miles in journeys that, if mapped out, might look like one of Billy’s wanderings in Family Circus.

The money being spent to move the ice around the country is much larger than the cost of simply making more, said Scott Memhard, president of Cape Pond Ice on Commercial Street.

“The worst part is that there are people on the Gulf Coast that still need this ice, but FEMA is apparently not set up to distribute it to them,” he said in an e-mail yesterday. [“Ice Bill Getting Higher (The Gloucester Daily Times)”]

Here’s what the truckloads of ice shipped to Gloucester are costing taxpayers. The Army Corps of Engineers ordered 169.4 million pounds of ice for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts:

$900 — Some truckers’ pay per day

$2 — Some truckers’ pay per mile traveled

26 cents — Cost per pound of ice

$12,480 — Highest estimate of a truckload of ice

$44,044,000 — Total cost just for ice for relief efforts [“Ice Bill Getting Higher (The Gloucester Daily Times)”]

And some of the hired truckers are confused and angry with the situation. They feel as though they’ve been given the run-around, not to mention that many of them wanted to help the areas that were affected.

tags: FEMA, incompetence

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