Katrina Coverage

FEMA's caravan of trucks carrying ice have finally reached Portland, Maine. This prompted Sen. Susan Collins to send a letter to FEMA Acting Undersecretary Paulison and Lt. Gen. Strock

I am writing to request that you inquire into an apparent decision to send ice initially designated for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts to cold storage in Portland, Maine.

My office has been contacted with information that the federal government paid truck drivers $800 per day to haul bags of ice to the Gulf region for Hurricane Katrina victims, only to order them to turn around, leave the Gulf region, and drive to Portland for storage of the ice at a refrigerated storage facility. More than 200 trucks reportedly might arrive in Portland this week to store their loads of ice. As a result, the resources spent to procure this ice and retain these truck drivers will have been diverted from Hurricane Katrina relief efforts…

We're informed that it's 169 Million Pounds of Ice.

For the other side, see "Army Corps defends call to ship ice to Portland". Basically, they need to have ice available, and they ordered more than was needed.

Previously: FEMA ice trucks reach Massachusetts

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 21st, 2005 at 7:02 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.