Outrage After FEMA Melts Ice Meant for Hurricane Victims
Relief workers say thousands still in dire need of ice, though FEMA disagrees.
September 25, 2008— -- As victims of Hurricane Ike still await the arrival of disaster relief supplies, FEMA yesterday began melting ice meant for distribution to victims in what is being described as a cost-saving measure.
While nearly half a million Houston-area residents remain without power in the ravaged aftermath, causing food to rot and temperature-sensitive medication to spoil, and relief workers on the ground report that ice is desperately needed for those still without electricity, FEMA asserts all needs have been met.
"To ensure that we had enough to provide for everyone in need, we had too much," a FEMA spokesperson said of the ice. "The most cost efficient option was to dispose of it rather than try to preserve it." FEMA could not confirm how much ice it had melted but local reports said it was thousands of pallets.
The move has sparked outrage in the disaster relief community, where ice is considered a necessity when electricity is out for preserving food, medication, feeding formulas and keeping people cool in potentially-dangerous heat. Critics argued the move is irresponsible and indicative of a broken disaster relief system.
"It infuriates me to say the least," said Bishop James Dixon of the Community of Faith Church and the Dominion Community Development Corporation in Houston. "There are people who are desperate for what seems like it should be a simple commodity, and with them melting the commodity that these people are desperate for is unacceptable."
Ben Smilowitz, executive director of the Disaster Accountability Project, a nonpartisan organization that monitors the nation's disaster response, stressed that, "So long as hundreds of thousands are without power, there is a need for ice."
"Instead of disposing ice on a restricted-access airstrip 160 miles from Houston, why not dispose of the ice in Houston or hard-hit locations still out of power, send each ice truck to a different neighborhood," Smilowitz said. "The ice would be gone – fast."
Last week, ABC News reported that FEMA had changed its ice policy so that it would no longer provide ice in relief situations, instead passing the responsibility of purchasing, delivering and storing ice on to individual states and local governments.
